Character Analysis of Jack Twist

[fofol]

What you say is true, Des, but Jack's capacity for untruth extends not just to Ennis, but to Lureen and others - don't forget that after Brokeback he becomes a salesman.  I'm not saying that all salesmen lie (but they do), but all successful salespeople tailor their truth to the customer standing in front of them, and they do leave out the unimpressive or negative stuff about their product.  To my mind, Jack is essentially a liar because he fails this test: to whom does he tell the truth?  He lies about his sexual orientation (he does know what turns his turbines); he lies to Ennis about his actions with other men; he lies to Lureen just by marrying her, not counting all the necessary cover-up lies to lessen the chance she'll find out his Big Lie; and he's a salesman.  And I do disagree about him saying that he's not queer while he is engaging in sexual activities with other men being the same lie: he's just told one lie that demands repeated lying to support that original lie - it's still a habit of lying: while there is one blanket lie, it's not the same lie being repeated in different forms, it's that he spends twenty years of misrepresenting himself at every turn.  Each of his lies is a still him being untrue, and that constitutes a definite personality trait, a lying nature, that I would not tolerate, and I doubt you would either.

[Desecra]

It's another way in which the short story and film diverge.  If I remember correctly, Jack wasn't a salesman in the short story: he had a vague managerial title.  (Although good point about the significance of changing him to a salesman for the film.   That must have meant something).

In the short story, I still think his one lie is about his sexuality: he pretends to be straight.   To the world at large, so what?  It's not their business, and he had good reason to keep up that pretence in that day and age.   With his lovers, it was more of their business, but there's no indication that he made a habit of lying to male lovers.  He hides his sexuality from Lureen for much the same reason people did in those days, I suppose, so isn't any more of a liar than any other of the men who attempted marriage without letting their wives in on the pretence.  (It's a big deceit, I agree, but it's still the same common lie - pretending to be straight).   

With Ennis, he lies for the sake for the relationship, because he wants Ennis to accept him.  What was said at the last meeting was "no news": they'd both known all along, but hadn't talked about it, because Ennis didn't want to talk about it.    All those years, Jack kept to the rules and didn't bring the subject up, waiting until Ennis was ready.   At the last meeting, the next time Ennis asks since the reunion, Jack tells the truth.    Jack's lie to Ennis was one that Ennis almost imposed on him (by making it clear that it was a condition of the relationship, initially), and his secret was one he kept for Ennis's benefit.   I get the sense that when Jack is talking about the rancher's wife, he wants to be able to tell the truth. 

And what else could he do?  At what point was Ennis ready to accept Jack as gay?  The first little lie about it is "me neither".  At that point, while they were in a sexual situation, could Jack really have said "Well, I think I might be"?  Could they have worked it out from there?  It would certainly have burst the Brokeback bubble.   At the motel, Ennis prompts Jack, and rightly or wrongly, Jack guesses that Ennis needs him to lie.  What if he had said then that yes, he had done it with other men and wasn't interested in women?   When Jack does tell the truth when Ennis next asks, Ennis makes it clear that he doesn't want to hear it, and they torque things back.    It doesn't look like they ever got to a stage where it could be talked about and accepted. 

[janjo]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I would have tolerated Jack Twist. He does lie, but he is basically a lovely man.

[Desecra]

I don't know if I could have tolerated his attitude to women, but it probably wasn't worse than anyone else's in the time and place.    To a man, it wouldn't have mattered!   To Ennis, he lies because of love. 

[janjo]

You're right, Des. I would have to metamorphose into a gay man to get the benefit!

[fofol]

I guess I may never get this one because this is the way I see it: if someone in a relationship with me says they are not seeing other people but they actually are doing it wherever and with whomever they can afford, that's lying to me repeatedly about his (or her) sexual activity.  Repeatedly, to me, means that it's not just one lie, it's a parade of lies, and lies to your lover do poison the well.  Tell the truth = no lies.  Daily lying = lies.

[Desecra]

I agree in general, but I think it was a slightly different situation because Ennis didn't want Jack to admit that he was gay.   Jack didn't have any option but to lie.   The big lie that he tells, at he motel, was about his past, before he was in a relationship with Ennis - nothing to do with infidelity, but everything to do with his sexuality.   And he has to maintain that lie (and actually admits to infidelity while still maintaining the lie). 

[janjo]

I agree with you about the lying, Mike, but I also see Des's point that Jack was put in a position in many ways where he had not much choice but to lie. Not perhaps in every case, but he was living a lie in much the same way as Ennis was.
Despite this behaviour, which is reprehensible on many levels, he was faithful to Ennis in his heart, never gave up on him, and was prepared to travel miles every year to see him, no matter what hardships or difficulties this caused him.
He couldn't have tried any harder really, and I find that admirable.

[fofol]

I agree with you about the lying, Mike, but I also see Des's point that Jack was put in a position in many ways where he had not much choice but to lie. Not perhaps in every case, but he was living a lie in much the same way as Ennis was.
Despite this behaviour, which is reprehensible on many levels, he was faithful to Ennis in his heart, never gave up on him, and was prepared to travel miles every year to see him, no matter what hardships or difficulties this caused him.
He couldn't have tried any harder really, and I find that admirable.

This is were I probably earn my screenname: I've lived with two guys I was in love with, but what they were both 'in love with' was my equipment and the unrestrained joy I found in finally being actively free in my sexuality.  I've been lied to in much the same way Ennis is: pretensions of a faithful nature while getting as much sex as time and cover up lies would allow outside of our relationship, all the while telling me how loved I was.   People who love you don't tell you lies about who else they're bedding down with.  Would anyone who posts here stay with a partner who consistently lied about their behind-your-back sexual relationships?

[janjo]

I certainly wouldn't, Mike. But, and it is probably because I wouldn't put up with it, I like to think that Jack wouldn't have seen other men if he had been able to live with Ennis.

[Desecra]

I think homophobia plays such a huge part in their relationship, that it's impossible to compare what we'd do in a relationship which wasn't so overshadowed by homophobia.   Every "problem" in their relationship is down to homophobia.  Without that, they'd have been fine.  I'm in the privileged position of being able to have relationships without that consideration, so I don't feel I can apply my experience to theirs.

Jack's "crime" was being gay.   If he had been "faithful" to Ennis, he'd still have been gay, and still have had to hide it.  He'd still have had to tell the lie at the motel.  Had he cared less about Ennis's approval, then maybe he could have just come out with the truth at the beginning and they could have worked it out from there.   But could they?   Or would Ennis have been unable to deal with it?  Anyway, Jack couldn't admit to infidelity without admitting to being gay. 

The agreement at the motel was that they were both straight.  There was no agreement about fidelity and it was assumed that they'd continue their relationships with women.  Both of them, still supposedly straight, "admit" to relationships at the last meeting, and it's clear that it's considered OK, as long as they're straight. 

If infidelity had been a problem, that could have been addressed at the motel.  Except it couldn't have been, because it would have meant acknowledging that they weren't straight (or at least, that Jack wasn't).    Instead of denying his sexuality, Jack could have said "Sure I have, but now I only want you".    If they could have got past that hurdle, they could have talked about it and maybe sorted something out.   But even at the last meeting, they're still not able to talk about it. 

[fofol]

Des, I really have to argue against either of them saying they were straight at the motel: what they actually did say was that their 'cover-up' lives had to be continued, for whatever reasons they were telling themselves.  Ennis had a strong need for the hetero cover, did like Alma, and loved his kids, and Jack had to beg for more time (!) with Ennis that early in their relationship.

[Desecra]

I don't really disagree, but I think they were coming at the coverup from different angles.  I think that Ennis did actually manage to believe that he was straight.  Once Jack had heard Ennis speak his piece, he couldn't admit to being gay, even though he knew he was.     So yes, both did what they needed to do to continue the relationship - Ennis felt he had to believe he was straight, and Jack felt he had to pretend he was straight.  

About them saying they were straight: neither of them used the word, but they did say it by denying being gay.   Ennis says that he knows he ain't (queer) and Jack denies that he's done it with other men.  

The conversation was something like "I know I'm not gay because of x, y and z.  Are you gay?" "No", and later at the last meeting, "You are gay, aren't you?" "Yes, so what?". 

(And there's a change from "my father would kill us", "we could get killed", to "you could killed" - Ennis distances himself from Jack when he admits it).

[fofol]

The only time Ennis said he was "not no queer" was the morning after FNIT.  I believe that the character of Ennis was written to say that because of his habit of fear of being found out, but, be that as it may, he never again lays claim to being straight in the rest of the story or film.  He makes excuses to keep his cover, but does not say he's not gay ever again, all while he's keeping up his twenty year emotional/sexual relationship with another man.  He tells Jack that he has masturbated over a hundred times just thinking about him.  A heterosexual man does not think of having sex with another man, much less jerking off over the man he loves, so let's stop this Ennis was essentially heterosexual proposition - and I mean that in the kindest way: it is not sensible to define a man who is having a continuous (over two decades) affair with another man as 'heterosexual' - does not compute.  Ennis wasn't a genius, and he certainly didn't know at all about the Kinsey continuum of sexuality much less any of its subtle distinctions.  Plus he stops having sex with his wife at the first suggestion he wears a condom: IOW, he equates his sex with a woman as having value only when children are a possible result - conveniently forgetting that he apparently fucks Alma most of the time the same way he fucks Jack.
Ennis might not be gay - an anthropological distinction - but he sure is homosexual in his heart, the only place it has the power to direct a life, and that is a scientific distinction...

[Desecra]

But unless you think he's lying, he doesn't believe that - he thinks of himself as straight (in the short story.  I'm not talking about the film, which missed out that motel conversation, I think).    You can give all the reasons that he's gay (and I'd agree with you), but I don't see the evidence that Ennis uses the same reasoning.    For instance, when he finally avoids sex with Alma, I think he truly believes that it's her fault that he doesn't want sex with her (she wants to use contraception), rather than that he doesn't want to because he's gay (or homosexual if you prefer.  I don't mind! ). 

In the short story, Ennis does claim to be straight. 

You know, I was sittin up here all that time tryin to figure out if I was--?  I know I ain't.

What else can he be talking about, but sexual orientation?

Then he goes on to give the reasons why he ain't - wife and kids, likes doing it with women, only thinks about Jack, not other men.    Then he asks Jack if he's done it with men (i.e. is he gay?), and Jack denies that he has.

There's two main explanations,
1. Ennis believes he's gay but lies to Jack and pretends he's straight
2. Ennis manages to believe he's straight and tells Jack why he thinks he is. 
I think it's number 2.