archetypes

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2006)

I like to think of Ennis and Jack as archetypes. I think that they both portray two very different social paradigms. I think their interactions are a microcosm of one aspect of the last 300 years (say) of GLBT issues.
For me Ennis represents a conservative worldview. In this schema, which incidentally existed in the west for many centuries, it was known and accepted that gay sex happened and it was technically illegal, but largely turned a blind eye to. A man's primary role was to get married and produce heirs. What he got up to in his private life was generally speaking his own concern, so long as he didn't speak of it in polite company. It wasn't really until the late 19th or early 20th centuries that sodomy was hunted out and judicially punished on a substantial scale. Until then it was mostly ignored.
Jack represents the progressive liberal for whom this kind of double life is anathema. Sure, he lives a double life (he is forced to in some respects) but on several occasions he offers to give it up for Ennis. We are left with the strong impression that he would have given it up for Ennis, had Ennis agreed to live with him.
Ennis, by far the more pragmatic of the two, is resigned to his fate. It is not what he would choose, but it is what the fates have dished out and he believes it is his duty  he will do what he must do not what he wants to do: "If you can't change it, you've got to stand it."
In my opinion, Jack wins in the end. He dies a tragic hero, unhappy in love and yet consistently ready to be brave and constantly urging Ennis to be brave with him. In the end he dies morally uncompromised and a martyr for the cause.
Ennis is the one left behind to wonder 'what if?' I almost felt the pain when Ennis visited Jack's parents and Jack's father so dismissively told him Jack had another man he planned to bring to Texas.