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Brokeback Mountain Character Analysis

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Ennis Delmar, a tough cowboy from Wyoming, constantly faces threats to his masculinity in his adulthood ever since his summer workplace on Brokeback Mountain with Jack Twist, a sheep herder whom Ennis finds himself in a romantic affair with. Due to societal pressures and a vivid memory of witnessing a castrated gay man, Ennis continuously represses his emotions and refuses to fully embrace his sexuality and his relationship with Jack. Rather, he opts to continue his relationship with Jack through irregular and often infrequent trips to Brokeback Mountain, never fully settling neither at home nor on the mountain. Through a rejected postcard correspondence, the couple’s preferred mode of communication, Ennis learns that Jack has died. The final scene of the film consists of Alma Jr. visiting her father’s mobile home to tell Ennis that she will be getting married. As Alma drives away, Jack is left alone in the middle of the road in his small trailer home, and as he visits his closet door, draped with his and Jack’s shirts and a postcard of the mountain. Although this scene represents a perpetual state of in between for Ennis, a destiny he chose by repressing his sexuality, Ang Lee closes this neo-Western film affirming its “Westerness,” despite its deviance from the stereotypical plot. However, the final scene demonstrates character development, albeit one that is too late. Ennis Delmar affirms that his employer, a symbol for the desolate Western road, must “find a new cowboy,” for he wishes to rid himself of his solitary life in favor of the family and lover he has lost. Nevertheless, the film closes out with Ennis remaining a typical cowboy, who is forever banished to be on the road – a space in between the mountain, a place with love and solitude, and the plain, a barren space with many people but little room for expression.
Despite having a broken relationship with his daughter, Ennis forfeits a job assignment to attend Alma Jr.’s wedding, stating, “I reckon they can find themselves a new cowboy.” Before yielding to his daughter’s invitation, viewers can see Ennis’ internal struggle with an eye-level view of his face in this shot-reverse-shot moment. Here, the pain on Ennis’ face is transparent when Alma

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