Ennis's Personality: Inner Conflict, Mixture of Many (often Contradictory) Traits, Values, Attitudes
...Ennis lived his life as it was taught to him, as he saw it. His sister married, his brother married, so when he found himself on his own, at nineteen, he also will marry. Ennis lived his life not questioning anything, doing what he was suppose to...
Who is Ennis really?...
Ennis tried to live the "unqueer" life, desperately holding on the facade, as it slips away from him, he couldn't control his heart, his mind, his body...there was nothing he could do about it.
It is really hard to put a clean answer to Ennis's identity, especially when we talk about the dynamic of dominance with regard to his love for Jack. But yes, one thing I seem to know is that he struggled primarily with himself and his identity because of what he found out about himself through Jack. This is perhaps why his struggle at mastery over himself became somewhat disguised into what seemed like a desire to dominate Jack -- Jack was, after all, the catalyst for the struggle within.
Ennis's personality is a composite of many conflicting character traits, values, aspirations, fears, and moods. Thus, it is impossible to find a "clean" answer to Ennis's identity.
I agree, tpe, that Ennis's struggle is primarily with himself. He has inner conflicts about what sort of social identity he has, in the relationships built between himself and the other people who are significant in his life: ranch hand, family man, husband, father, "normal" guy, homosexual, Jack's lover, etc. In addition, he has to figure out how to balance these conflicting identities. He must not only balance them with each other but also with his values and with his fears, emotions, conformities, and sense of independence.
As Ennis struggled for "mastery" over himself , he also seemed to subvert and sabotage this "mastery" of himself, too. After all, it is Ennis who replies, "You bet" (presumably with excitement), when Jack sends his first post card addressed "general delivery" to Ennis in Riverton, WY in 1967. Ennis comes under the control of the "thing" (his uncontrolled emotions of joy upon seeing Jack, again, for the first time in four years) and initiates his kiss with Jack at the bottom of the steps up to the apartment over the laundromat. Ennis sees Jack frequently after that on "fishing" trips. (In their May 1983 argument, Jack complains that Ennis used to "come away easy" - from Alma and his daughters for their "fishing" trips.) Alma, in their Thanksgiving argument, while doing the dishes at her second husband Monroe's house, points out that Ennis was all "perky" when he came back from his "fishing" trips with Jack. (Alma tells Ennis that he never took her and their daughters on any vacations, only Jack.)
Ennis never stops seeing Jack. Even after their May 1983 argument, Ennis is ready to go on as before. He sends Jack a postcard saying that they can meet in November (just as Ennis originally decided upon before their May 1983 argument, much to Jack's resulting disappointment and bitterness). Only when the postcard is returned marked "deceased" does Ennis discover that Jack is dead.
My take on Ennis is that he would never agree to live with Jack, although he still loves him and would go on seeing him regularly (on "fishing" trips, a couple of times per year, in a cold place, far away, for a "high altitude f***" as Jack complained in their May 1983 argument). I believe there are differences in their attitudes that could not be overcome (or that Ennis was unwilling to overcome).
However, everything else that has been said about why Ennis refuses to live with Jack is also probably correct. Ennis is afraid of what will happen to him and Jack if their homosexuality is exposed. As manhattangirl says, Ennis may have sought conformity to the world around him in order to avoid being in conflict with it. Thus, by blending in, camouflaged (so to speak, as a "heterosexual"), he remains safe from it (and its homophobia). Ennis might have gone along with what everybody else did because he, too, wanted to be "normal" (heterosexual) just like everybody else, even if he wasn't. As an introvert, Ennis probably didn't wish to "stand out," either.
Again, it's not an "either/or" question in regard to Ennis's personality. That is, it's not a question of whether Ennis is either "afraid" of living with Jack (because of society's hatred of their homosexuality) or whether Ennis doesn't "want" to live with Jack (for reasons of his own because of differences between their personalities, values, attitudes, outlooks on life, etc.).
Rather than it being an "either/or" question, Ennis can be both: he's both afraid of public exposure of his & Jack's homosexuality and he's also troubled by many things he sees in Jack's attitude. (For example, Ennis appears to be troubled by Jack's homosexual promiscuity. Perhaps Ennis may have been less troubled by this than it first appears, though. He could have already suspected Jack was having sex with other men for a long time. When Ennis says, "...Mexico? I know what boys like you, Jack, do in Mexico..." and "If I ever find about what I don't know...," in their May 1983 argument, he is saying, more or less, that he already knows what Jack does and is willing to pretend that it's not happening. I suspect there's something else that's troubling him about Jack that would prevent him from ever agreeing to live with him.)
Whatever character traits, attitudes, and behaviors Jack has that might make it impossible for Ennis to agree to Jack's wish to live together, it can be agreed that substantial differences between them exist. It's just a matter of how much weight which with these differences press down upon the question of their living together. I might say that these differences between Ennis & Jack weigh enough on Ennis's mind that they prevent him from agreeing to live with Jack. You might say although these differences exist, they would not be enough to prevent Ennis from living with Jack (if Ennis could overcome his own fears about his own homosexuality).
Nor do I think my interpretations of Ennis are necessarily the only ones. Other viewpoints provide a very valuable perspective on Ennis. For example, when Ennis & Alma are at the outdoor drive-in movie, watching a 1960s black & white Southern California beach movie, you could look at Ennis from many different angles. Is Ennis just conforming to the standards of 1960s American society and its expectations of universal heterosexuality as "normal" when he drapes his arm behind Alma, sitting beside him in the vehicle? You might also see some hesitation in Ennis's movement of his arm, as he slides it into an outstretched position behind Alma. Does such hesitation (whether it actually occurred in the movie or is only just a distortion of my memory) show Ennis's introversion and shyness, his uncertainty and self-doubt? Or does it show that Ennis has his own doubts about the wisdom of pretending he's heterosexual (when he knows he isn't)? Perhaps his conscience might be troubling him about "foolin'" Alma, leading her to believe that he has an heterosexual interest in her that he doesn't. Perhaps all of these things are going on in Ennis at the same time. There might be other thoughts within him that other people will see that we don't. There's no certain answer, here.
Yet all of these different ways of looking at Ennis are helpful in providing insight into his character.
Ennis's personality is further complicated because he's become so expert at hiding what he feels and hiding who he is. Alma, of course, in their Thanksgiving argument, having told Ennis that she found the same note she had put in his tackle box five years later, says "don't try to fool me Ennis! Jack Twist?...Jack Nasty!" Alma "knows" that Ennis & Jack were having sex together. Ennis still tries to tell her "You know nuthin' about it!" as he grabs her arm and twists it to keep her from saying anything more. (Ennis might also have been upset with her attack on Jack and her view of his love for Jack as something that's only "physical" sex and, thus, "dirty." This might be a third case where Ennis lost control of himself. He bolted, perhaps as much afraid of his own loss of self-control as of having his homosexuality exposed, with Alma shouting behind him, "Get out of my house!")
There's a psychological theory about how you can tell when people are lying in a courtroom. Judges and lawyers often make the common mistake of thinking that if people are speaking loudly, shouting, yelling, and displaying lots of emotion they must be telling the truth. (This is a very dangerous assumption, of course, and an unprofessional one, if it's used to determing the guilt or innocence of a defendant to any significant degree rather than relying upon physical evidence and the consistency of testimony.)
This theory relies upon an observation of the general character of facial expression while someone is speaking. When someone is lying, their face becomes less animated. The facial muscles are held more rigidly. This rigidity in the expression of facial muscles is unconscious. Someone telling a lie has no control over it. Thus, when telling a lie - according to this theory - people will be noticeably less animated in their facial expressions than when they are being truthful.
I read about this theory in an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. It could have been around the time of the Monica Lewinsky affair (or perhaps much earlier, since the article has stayed with me, in my memory, for a long time). I decided to put it to the test.
U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a nationally televised White House news conference, on January 26, 1998, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." I watched his facial expression to see how rigid his face was. For a normally very animated, effusive speaker such as Bill Clinton (who has been described as being at his "best" in front of an audience), his face seemed almost deathly stiff.
A similar rigidity appears on Ennis's face from time to time throughout the movie. (Of course, this is how the actor, Heath Ledger, plays the character. It is perhaps one of the best acting performances ever. It is certainly one that Annie Proulx, herself, finds amazing, saying that she felt that Heath Ledger had read her mind when she saw the movie, in her January 19, 2006 "Bookworm" radio interview on KCRW-FM, the Santa Monica College radio station in Santa Monica, CA.)
Ennis's facial rigidness seems especially pronounced after his divorce from Alma. But it also occurs before his divorce. On one of their camping trips (while Ennis is still married to Alma), Ennis tells Jack that there's no way two men can live together. Then Ennis tells Jack about how his father showed his young son, Ennis, age 9, and his older brother, K.E., age 11, the old gay rancher Earl's body in the irrigation ditch, the face covered with welts from a tire iron. Ennis's face is very rigid. Ennis is looking away from Jack. His eyes are sad (disappointed because he can't let himself agree to live with Jack?). But his eyes look as if they are looking out through the mask Ennis's face has become. Was Ennis lying to Jack when he told him there was no way two men could live together?
At times, Ennis's mask (facial rigidity) slips away. It falls off when he asks Jack by the stream if Jack has ever wondered if people "know" about "fellas like us" (whether people could tell if Ennis & Jack were homosexual just by looking at them). It's completely removed when Ennis breaks down in their May 1983 argument (and loses control of his emotions, perhaps the first - or second time - that happened since the "thing" overtook him, at the bottom of the landing steps to the apartment over the laundromat in 1967, when Ennis kissed Jack).
He never puts that mask back on after that (at least not with so much rigidity). His face never again seems to give his whole personality the impression of his mask's ghastly pallor. He appears much more vulnerable. He refuses to carry on the pretense of heterosexual romance with the waitress, Cassie. There's a "young" look on his face when he sees Jack's parents in Lightning Flat, WY (when he attempts to collect Jack's ashes to take to Brokeback Mt.) He even agrees to attend his daughter Alma, Jr.'s wedding. His eyes are sad as he looks at the memorial he's made for Jack in his trailer, with the two bloody shirts from their last day on Brokeback Mt. (bloodied by Ennis's nose bleed caused accidentally by Jack) on a hanger with a postcard of Brokeback Mt.
Whatever it is that we see in Ennis's personality that draws us to him - or, whatever it is that we think we see in Ennis's personality - I think it starts to become clearer to us as we go over the details of the movie (again and again). For those of who are so deeply moved by the movie, there is something deep inside of us that the movie has touched upon. It is now emerging out of the depths of our minds, perhaps into conscious thought.
It takes time for this happen. In the meanwhile, we may feel a lot of confusion about Ennis and the other characters. Our minds turn this way and that, as they grope their way through confusion to understanding.
To find answers to the question of Ennis's character, it's necessary to look at many different sides of his character. These, of course, will leave varying impressions upon us, good and bad.
We sort out which of these impressions seem most significant and which seem less significant. I think it's vital that we always keep in mind what we find admirable in either Ennis or Jack (or any of the other characters). We care about Brokeback Mountain because we care about what happens to the characters in it. We care about the characters because we find something in them that moves us, that stirs our emotions. I don't think Brokeback Mountain would have the effect upon us it has if we weren't touched to the heart by Ennis & Jack in some way.
