Jack Twist
Encyclopedia
Jack Twist is a fictional character
of the short story "Brokeback Mountain
" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name
directed by Ang Lee
, where he was portrayed by American
actor Jake Gyllenhaal
. Jack's story is depicted by the complex, sexual, and romantic relationship he had with Ennis Del Mar
in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
Jake Gyllenhaal was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his performance.
ranch [kid]" who finds himself in a personal sexual situation he did not foresee, nor can understand. She said both men were "beguiled by the cowboy myth," and Jack "settles on rodeo
as an expression of the Western ideal. It more or less works for him until he becomes a tractor salesman." Jack is also the more romantic one out of him and Ennis, being the one who pursues the relationship and insists that they should live together officially. He is open about his desires and discontents, which is also shown in the novella, when he tries to open Lureen's eyes about their son's dyslexia
even though he knows that he has no saying in the matter, since she holds the money and thus makes the decisions.
) is his sexual orientation
, if any specific one at all. He has sexual and emotional relationships of varying and fluctuating degrees with Lureen, but he still shows more sexual desire towards men in general than Ennis, who has no relations with men other than Jack, while Jack sleeps with other men, including male prostitutes
. While meeting Ennis in the mountains for the very last time, Jack says he is having an extramarital relationship with a woman; which might have affirmed that he is bisexual
. However, it is likely that the woman, the "ranch foreman's wife," was actually the ranch foreman himself, as in a previous scene, he invites Jack to a cabin to "do a little fishing and drink some whisky ..." In a later scene, Jack's father mentions that Jack had revealed a plan before he died to come up with a male ranch neighbor friend and do up the family ranch and live there.
Some film critics suggest Jack was bisexual rather than strictly homosexual. Sex researcher Fritz Klein
stated he felt Jack to be more "toward the gay side of bisexuality." Gyllenhaal himself took the opinion that Ennis and Jack were heterosexual men who "develop this love, this bond," also saying in a Details
interview: "I approached the story believing that these are actually two straight guys who fall in love." The film's producer, James Schamus, and LGBT non-fiction author Eric Marcus
, opined that the characters were both gay.
Novelist Brent Hartinger
analyzed some of the discussion about the sexual orientations of the characters, writing for AfterElton.com. Hartinger personally "felt it inconceivable" that the characters could be considered bisexual and not gay because the film consistently showed their dissatisfaction with their heterosexual partners and deep emotional and physical fulfilment with one another. Hartinger added that Del Mar insisted on anal sex with his wife, and Twist sought out other males for sex outside of his marriage when Del Mar was not available. Hartinger puts down efforts to describe the characters as bisexual to a mixture of bisexuals who misunderstand "what it means to be gay" and some who rightfully feel starved of media representations of bisexuality. For Hartinger, the actors' opinions of "straight guys who just happened to fall in love" seems to come more from Gyllenhaal and Ledger's acting method rather than an assessment of the text. Hartinger ended the discussion with a quotation from Annie Proulx, on the subject of her short story, to illuminate the ways in which different people interpret the sexualities of the main characters:
, rodeo cowboy
Jack meets and falls in love with ranch hand Ennis Del Mar
(portrayed in the film by the late Australia
n actor Heath Ledger
).
When the two 19-year-old men first begin work on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stationed at the base camp while Jack watches after the sheep higher on the mountain. They initially meet only for meals at the base camp, where they gradually become friends. After a time they switch roles, with Jack taking over duties at base camp and Ennis tending the flock. One night, after the two share a bottle of whiskey, Ennis decides to remain at the base camp overnight instead of returning up the mountain. Ennis is at first reluctant to even sleep in the same tent as Jack, but later that night the men share a brief, intense sexual encounter. Over the remainder of the summer their sexual and emotional relationship deepens further.
After the job is finished the two part ways. Jack moves to Texas
, where he meets and eventually marries rodeo princess Lureen Newsome (portrayed in the film by Anne Hathaway
), having a son with her.
Four years after they separate from each other, Jack sends a postcard to Ennis, asking if he wants to meet him while he passes through the area. The men reunite, and their passion immediately rekindles. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch. Ennis, for various reasons, resists. Unable to be open about their relationship, Ennis and Jack settle for infrequent meetings on camping trips in the mountains.
As the years pass, Ennis' marriage eventually ends in divorce, causing Jack to hope that this will allow him and Ennis to live together. But Ennis continues to refuse to move away from his children, and remains uncomfortable about men living together. On another trip with Ennis in the mountains, in 1983, Jack discovers that in order to keep his job, Ennis cannot meet with Jack again before November. Ennis and Jack's frustrations finally erupt into a bitter argument and a struggle that becomes a desperate embrace. However, the two men part upset.
Months later, a postcard Ennis sent to Jack about meeting in November, has returned to the post office, stamped deceased. In a strained telephone conversation, Jack's wife, Lureen, tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident while changing a tire. While she explains what happened, images of Jack being beaten to death by three men flash across the screen. The scene can be interpreted either as meaning that this is what really happened and Lureen is covering up the truth, or simply a figment of Ennis's imagination, showing what he thinks may have happened given his memories of a hate crime
committed in his town when he was young. Lureen tells Ennis that Jack wished to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. She suggests that Ennis contact Jack's parents about this.
Ennis visits Jack's parents in Lightning Flat, Wyoming and offers to take Jack's ashes to Brokeback Mountain. Jack's father refuses, insisting that Jack's remains be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother is more welcoming, and allows Ennis to see Jack's boyhood bedroom. While in the room, Ennis discovers two old shirts hidden in the back of the closet. The shirts, hung one inside the other on the same hanger, are the ones the two men were wearing on their last day on Brokeback Mountain in 1963. Ennis takes the now rolled-up shirts with him; Jack's mother silently offers him a paper sack to put them in.
At the end of the story, Ennis opens his own closet to reveal that he has hung the two shirts reversed, with his plaid shirt hugging Jack's blue shirt. They hang inside the door beneath a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jack's shirt. With tears in his eyes, Ennis mutters, "Jack, I swear ...".
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
of the short story "Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain (short story)
"Brokeback Mountain" is a short story by American author Annie Proulx. It was originally published in The New Yorker on October 13, 1997, and was subsequently published in a slightly expanded version in Proulx's 1999 collection of short stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. The story won an O....
" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
directed by Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
, where he was portrayed by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
. Jack's story is depicted by the complex, sexual, and romantic relationship he had with Ennis Del Mar
Ennis Del Mar
Ennis del Mar is the fictional main character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Ennis's story is depicted by his complex, sexual, and romantic relationship with Jack Twist in the American...
in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
Jake Gyllenhaal was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for his performance.
Characterization
In an interview about her work, and "Brokeback Mountain" in particular, author Proulx stated Jack Twist was a "confused WyomingWyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
ranch [kid]" who finds himself in a personal sexual situation he did not foresee, nor can understand. She said both men were "beguiled by the cowboy myth," and Jack "settles on rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
as an expression of the Western ideal. It more or less works for him until he becomes a tractor salesman." Jack is also the more romantic one out of him and Ennis, being the one who pursues the relationship and insists that they should live together officially. He is open about his desires and discontents, which is also shown in the novella, when he tries to open Lureen's eyes about their son's dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
even though he knows that he has no saying in the matter, since she holds the money and thus makes the decisions.
Sexual orientation
One mystery surrounding Jack Twist (as well as Ennis Del MarEnnis Del Mar
Ennis del Mar is the fictional main character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Ennis's story is depicted by his complex, sexual, and romantic relationship with Jack Twist in the American...
) is his sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, if any specific one at all. He has sexual and emotional relationships of varying and fluctuating degrees with Lureen, but he still shows more sexual desire towards men in general than Ennis, who has no relations with men other than Jack, while Jack sleeps with other men, including male prostitutes
Male prostitution
Male prostitution is the practice of engaging in sexual acts for money. Compared to female sex workers, male sex workers have been far less studied by researchers, and while studies suggest that there are differences between the ways these two groups look at their work, more research is needed.Male...
. While meeting Ennis in the mountains for the very last time, Jack says he is having an extramarital relationship with a woman; which might have affirmed that he is bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
. However, it is likely that the woman, the "ranch foreman's wife," was actually the ranch foreman himself, as in a previous scene, he invites Jack to a cabin to "do a little fishing and drink some whisky ..." In a later scene, Jack's father mentions that Jack had revealed a plan before he died to come up with a male ranch neighbor friend and do up the family ranch and live there.
Some film critics suggest Jack was bisexual rather than strictly homosexual. Sex researcher Fritz Klein
Fritz Klein
Fred "Fritz" Klein was an American sex researcher, psychiatrist, inventor of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid and author. He was also a pioneering bisexual rights activist, who was an important figure in the modern LGBT rights movement.- Life and career :Klein was born in Vienna, Austria, to...
stated he felt Jack to be more "toward the gay side of bisexuality." Gyllenhaal himself took the opinion that Ennis and Jack were heterosexual men who "develop this love, this bond," also saying in a Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...
interview: "I approached the story believing that these are actually two straight guys who fall in love." The film's producer, James Schamus, and LGBT non-fiction author Eric Marcus
Eric Marcus
Eric Marcus is an American non-fiction writer. His works are primarily of LGBT interest, including Breaking the Surface, the autobiography of gay Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, which became a #1 New York Times Bestseller and Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights,...
, opined that the characters were both gay.
Novelist Brent Hartinger
Brent Hartinger
Brent Hartinger is an American author and playwright, best known for his novels about gay teenagers.-Early life:Hartinger was born in Washington State. His family moved to Fircrest, Washington when he was an infant. He attended a Catholic grade school and middle school, and a Catholic high...
analyzed some of the discussion about the sexual orientations of the characters, writing for AfterElton.com. Hartinger personally "felt it inconceivable" that the characters could be considered bisexual and not gay because the film consistently showed their dissatisfaction with their heterosexual partners and deep emotional and physical fulfilment with one another. Hartinger added that Del Mar insisted on anal sex with his wife, and Twist sought out other males for sex outside of his marriage when Del Mar was not available. Hartinger puts down efforts to describe the characters as bisexual to a mixture of bisexuals who misunderstand "what it means to be gay" and some who rightfully feel starved of media representations of bisexuality. For Hartinger, the actors' opinions of "straight guys who just happened to fall in love" seems to come more from Gyllenhaal and Ledger's acting method rather than an assessment of the text. Hartinger ended the discussion with a quotation from Annie Proulx, on the subject of her short story, to illuminate the ways in which different people interpret the sexualities of the main characters:
Fictional character history
While on a 1963 shepherding job on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in WyomingWyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, rodeo cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
Jack meets and falls in love with ranch hand Ennis Del Mar
Ennis Del Mar
Ennis del Mar is the fictional main character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Ennis's story is depicted by his complex, sexual, and romantic relationship with Jack Twist in the American...
(portrayed in the film by the late Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n actor Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
).
When the two 19-year-old men first begin work on Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stationed at the base camp while Jack watches after the sheep higher on the mountain. They initially meet only for meals at the base camp, where they gradually become friends. After a time they switch roles, with Jack taking over duties at base camp and Ennis tending the flock. One night, after the two share a bottle of whiskey, Ennis decides to remain at the base camp overnight instead of returning up the mountain. Ennis is at first reluctant to even sleep in the same tent as Jack, but later that night the men share a brief, intense sexual encounter. Over the remainder of the summer their sexual and emotional relationship deepens further.
After the job is finished the two part ways. Jack moves to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where he meets and eventually marries rodeo princess Lureen Newsome (portrayed in the film by Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
), having a son with her.
Four years after they separate from each other, Jack sends a postcard to Ennis, asking if he wants to meet him while he passes through the area. The men reunite, and their passion immediately rekindles. Jack broaches the subject of creating a life together on a small ranch. Ennis, for various reasons, resists. Unable to be open about their relationship, Ennis and Jack settle for infrequent meetings on camping trips in the mountains.
As the years pass, Ennis' marriage eventually ends in divorce, causing Jack to hope that this will allow him and Ennis to live together. But Ennis continues to refuse to move away from his children, and remains uncomfortable about men living together. On another trip with Ennis in the mountains, in 1983, Jack discovers that in order to keep his job, Ennis cannot meet with Jack again before November. Ennis and Jack's frustrations finally erupt into a bitter argument and a struggle that becomes a desperate embrace. However, the two men part upset.
Months later, a postcard Ennis sent to Jack about meeting in November, has returned to the post office, stamped deceased. In a strained telephone conversation, Jack's wife, Lureen, tells Ennis that Jack died in an accident while changing a tire. While she explains what happened, images of Jack being beaten to death by three men flash across the screen. The scene can be interpreted either as meaning that this is what really happened and Lureen is covering up the truth, or simply a figment of Ennis's imagination, showing what he thinks may have happened given his memories of a hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
committed in his town when he was young. Lureen tells Ennis that Jack wished to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain. She suggests that Ennis contact Jack's parents about this.
Ennis visits Jack's parents in Lightning Flat, Wyoming and offers to take Jack's ashes to Brokeback Mountain. Jack's father refuses, insisting that Jack's remains be buried in the family plot. Jack's mother is more welcoming, and allows Ennis to see Jack's boyhood bedroom. While in the room, Ennis discovers two old shirts hidden in the back of the closet. The shirts, hung one inside the other on the same hanger, are the ones the two men were wearing on their last day on Brokeback Mountain in 1963. Ennis takes the now rolled-up shirts with him; Jack's mother silently offers him a paper sack to put them in.
At the end of the story, Ennis opens his own closet to reveal that he has hung the two shirts reversed, with his plaid shirt hugging Jack's blue shirt. They hang inside the door beneath a postcard of Brokeback Mountain. Ennis carefully fastens the top button of Jack's shirt. With tears in his eyes, Ennis mutters, "Jack, I swear ...".