Character Analysis of Jack Twist

[Dal]

~he isn't happy when Jack finally admits it.

Actually, DADT is the operative principle from the motel, until the trailhead argument, isn't it!

[royandronnie]

We don't ever see whether Jack can be faithful in the technical sense: as Desecra says, he has encounters while doing rodeo, which are during the hiatus in his relationship with Ennis, so the fidelity issue is irrelevant. Later, I think whatever sex he has is driven by despair, and, again as she points out, because their relationship is really not recognized as such, there is never any swearing of fidelity, or any real concept of it being an aspect of it. Ennis for his part asserts he never even looked at another man, so faithfulness is irrelevant again, apparently, in his case. Jack is given no incentive to remain faithful; quite the contrary: he is always being told what they can't do.

Emotionally, however, his lodestar remains true to north: Ennis. In that sense, he remains faithful his entire life.

[fofol]

No man, woman, dictionary, psych book (or treatise), poem or story has ever defined faith in one's partner or one's future as having sex with multiple random partners.  Jack is a faithless friend, and is destined to be because he has no faith in himself - this is the chief result of the trauma that was his father's biggest 'gift' to him.  Fidelity to the one you love is always an issue, whether it's a character issue or behavioral, being faithful to what you love, verbal commitment or no, is essential to your own mental health/well-being.

In real life terms, being faithful can't ever mean multiple random partners.  There is no blame here, it's just that what is, is.

[Dal]

~ being faithful to what you love, verbal commitment or no, is essential to your own mental health/well-being.~

Does 'what' (bold above) mean 'whom'?  If not, I don't get the meaning here! 

[fofol]

Does 'what' (bold above) mean 'whom'?  If not, I don't get the meaning here!  

    It can.  Prinicipled behavior is the issue here, and is specifically (i.e., in terms of Jack and Ennis) referenced in this instance in terms to their 'relationship' as well as the individuals involved.  Some people are as attached to being in love as they are to a loved one, so in order to cover most of the options, so to speak, I included what Jack could not know or understand.

[Desecra]

Jack is faithful in another sense, though.  He is always (for twenty years!) available for Ennis as far as Ennis is able to go, right from Brokeback onwards.  Even when Ennis talks about getting married and isn't likely to come back next summer, Jack is back there for that crappy job in the hopes of seeing him.   It's Jack who makes contact after the four years.   He turns up with a plan for living together, but isn't put off when it's downgraded to meeting once in a while in the back of nowhere.  When he's turned away after the divorce, he still keeps coming back, driving thousands of miles for those meeting which become even less frequent. 

I think Ennis's commitment seems the bigger deal because he's more conflicted.   But Jack's is probably just as big deal.  After all, Jack is able to have other partners, but still keeps coming back for Ennis.

I don't think it's about sexual fidelity.  If Jack had happened to be more straight and had had multiple female partners, I don't think Ennis would have cared less.  Jack feels safe enough to mention the ranch neighbour's "wife", but he's "braced for" the subject of other men.  The problem for Ennis was that Jack had been with other men at all, i.e. that he was gay.   And Jack couldn't change that, even if he never saw another man after the reunion.  He'd already been "riding more than bulls". 

[fofol]

  What's the difference between this version of 'faithful,' and 'needy?'

[Desecra]

I suppose "needy" would be continually phoning somebody, following them around, asking for attention, etc.   Jack doesn't do that, and he pretty much keeps quiet about his own needs/wants for most of the time.

[royandronnie]

No man, woman, dictionary, psych book (or treatise), poem or story has ever defined faith in one's partner or one's future as having sex with multiple random partners.  Jack is a faithless friend, and is destined to be because he has no faith in himself - this is the chief result of the trauma that was his father's biggest 'gift' to him.  Fidelity to the one you love is always an issue, whether it's a character issue or behavioral, being faithful to what you love, verbal commitment or no, is essential to your own mental health/well-being.

In real life terms, being faithful can't ever mean multiple random partners.  There is no blame here, it's just that what is, is.

It's an interesting issue. I agree with you in essence. I just have a problem with applying the concept of fidelity to Jack. I don't know if your thought that I picked out in bold is really the problem here. His father certainly did for his self-worth, yes. But I still have to argue that this is a special case. Jack does have a hunger that it seems Ennis does not, and I don't mean for sex. He IS needy--certainly, to the extent that he can articulate his needs, which Ennis also cannot. Ennis can only think about them afterward, when it's too late to act on them. Or he can RE-act, and thus satisfy them. In fact, the DE may be the only case in which Ennis ever acts, without stimulus, on his own needs. It's significant that it's an emotional need he acts upon.

I think Jack, who does have the ability to go searching for what he wants in life, if not to find it, goes on looking after Ennis says goodbye in 63. He's also a horny kid, and probably just has some fun in a way Ennis can't even dream of. Then they get back together, and after this point, the issue of fidelity becomes legitimate. Except that Jack wants to set up house, and Ennis won't hear of it. Meanwhile Jack's need, to live with his man, doesn't change. It doesn't ever change, even if his belief in it erodes. He just keeps substituting sex for what he really wants.

I think there is a case for the concept of emotional fidelity. Sex is just sex, for men especially--I think women as a group tend to form emotional attachments from sexual encounters much more easily than men do. The men Jack has mean nothing to him. I don't think the ranch neighbor does either. But there's nothing Jack can do to get Ennis to live with him. So he lives in Texas with his beard, screws other men, and dreams of Ennis. He's not doing it because he can't be faithful. He does it because Ennis doesn't give him enough to go on. To some extent, he may be punishing himself for failing. But where there is no mutual agreement, I don't think the partners can be held to the ideal of fidelity. You can have a long-distance relationship in which fidelity has its normal place; their problem is not one of distance. It's one of failing to establish any basis for fidelity or lack of it. I do think, myself, that Ennis is jealous, even in the story, of hearing that Jack has been with other men: it's no news, right? So why does he collapse, "heartshot?" He does love Jack. He can't be happy to know about other men. Jack has violated DADT, yes. But he's also violated a contract Ennis had no right to hold him to, since Ennis would never allow them to even have the contract.

I agree with you on the matter of what fidelity should be and how it can be measured and defined. I have to agree with Desecra that this normal standard of physical fidelity is void in this case, but that emotionally, Jack remains bound to Ennis his whole life. Which is also a real kind of fidelity, if not the one we generally offer praise for. Indeed, it can be very problematic when one can't let go of that kind of fidelity…

[janjo]

Absolutely first class post, Charlotte.
I think Jack would have been faithful to Ennis, if he had ever really had Ennis. But he didn't, so he just had to make do and mend.
He was faithful emotionally, absolutely.
He loved Ennis, and never looked for love anywhere else, and like you, but unlike Des, I include the ranch neighbour in that.
But he did try to find some sort of comfort elsewhere, not love perhaps, just a warm human body that seemed to care at least for a few moments.
I find it hard to blame him for that.

[Desecra]

I'm not so sure that he never looked for love.  He probably didn't consciously, but I think it's fairly clear that he was looking for love.   The thing was that early on, he'd fixed on Ennis as the focus of that need.    But that didn't mean he only wanted a few moments from other guys.  "I wish I knew how to quit you": I sense a feeling of frustration that he couldn't feel the same about anyone else as he did about Ennis.  He wanted to, but couldn't.  It definitely looks as if he was in a more serious relationship towards the end.

[andy]

I would say that Jack would always be on the lookout for love, considering the reins Ennis kept him on. And in my book, that doesn't make Jack unfaithful or loose. He was just a lonely soul who, having tasted paradise with Ennis on the mountain and fleetingly around the time of the reunion, must have yearned for that which was deemed elusive for him. I would be very surprised if Jack didn't have at least an open mind on the matter. He did, after all, pretty quickly discover that he was never gonna realise his dream with Ennis.

[janjo]

But, as Des says, there was an air of frustration about, "I wish I knew how to quit you." Jack would like to move on, he would like to love someone else, but he just can't. He is fixated on his overpowering love for Ennis, and is unable to move forward from that.
He has found his soul mate, and isn't able to have a vision of how he could have that with anyone else.

[Dal]

~
(Jack) isn't able to have a vision of how he could have that with anyone else.

Either that, or he's tried a few times with various guys, but each time something was missing.

[fofol]

I would say that Jack would always be on the lookout for love, considering the reins Ennis kept him on. And in my book, that doesn't make Jack unfaithful or loose. He was just a lonely soul who, having tasted paradise with Ennis on the mountain and fleetingly around the time of the reunion, must have yearned for that which was deemed elusive for him. I would be very surprised if Jack didn't have at least an open mind on the matter. He did, after all, pretty quickly discover that he was never gonna realise his dream with Ennis.

  Your thoughts raise an interesting question: it seems like you're saying that if you aren't getting laid enough by the one you're jonesin, getting some from any random person whom you succeed in getting lucky with leaves you faithful to the one you love.  It doesn't seem possible that enjoying random sex when you feel like it and lying about it makes one a faithful lover, but I have misunderstood and/or been wrong before.  Still, it seems that the Jack-is-a-faithful-lover camp is saying that, because Jack doesn't have the knowledge or the guts to speak truth to power (he allows Ennis to be the power, by virtue of not telling him how he feels) that motive [getting his rocks off] is not only a good enough excuse for him to sleep around, lying about it is none of Ennis's business either.  If Jack didn't think he was ever going to realize his dreams with Ennis, then it can only be that he was only stringing him along so he could use him for sex, so I guess if that's the idea it does make sense that way.  I'm sure that someone will be willing to help me out of my confusion.