Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression (1824) Book

For months now I have been trying to make sense of this writing. I've read passages to my wife to see if I was just making it more difficult than it is. But, I'm afraid, that to me, Hegel is indecipherable. I don't have the mental capacity to wrap my mind around what he is trying to say. He writes like an inmate of a mental institution run by the late psychiatrist, R.D. Laing, as portrayed in the 1972 documentary, Asylum. Here's an example;

"The essential and actual truth which reason is, lies in the simple identity of the subjectivity of the notion, with its objectivity and universality. The universality of reason, therefore, whilst it signifies that the object, which was only given in consciousness quâ consciousness, is now itself universal, permeating and encompassing the ego, also signifies that the pure ego is the pure form which overlaps the object, and encompasses it without it."

I will restrict myself now to reading about Hegel and hope that more intelligent people can instruct me on what he is talking about.