Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Topic of the Week 03/07: Did Lureen know Jack was gay?
moremojo:
--- Quote from: ifyoucantfixit on August 14, 2007, 05:37:12 pm ---...Her beautifullly made up face and hair smeared and frazzled onto her pillow..
--- End quote ---
Note too the little smudge of nail polish on Lureen's finger in the phone scene. I've taken that as a very subtle hint that she hasn't been entirely collected and focused (understandably so) for a while even before her epiphany from Ennis's single comment.
Brown Eyes:
My opinion on this question changes from viewing to viewing (or depending on my mood).
More and more lately I'm guessing that she may have known deep down but was in denial about it or hadn't quite articulated it yet in her head until Ennis's phone call. There seems to be no real doubt that Ennis's phone call is meant to be a big turning point moment when everything clicks for Lureen and she understands the full picture.
The one point prior to the phone call when it seems she might really know about Jack's sexuality is at the charity dance with LaShawn and Randall. When she sarcastically questions why "husband's never seem to want to dance with their wives"... she seems to be heavily implying some kind of subtext. Who knows if she really was wondering about Jack's sexuality with that statement (but again, I think even if she was, it wasn't articulated fully yet in her head).
Lureen was much more worldly than Alma and may have had a much easier time understanding Jack than Alma could with Ennis. I still think that Lureen is actually tremendously kind to Ennis on the phone... especially letting him know that Jack said Brokeback was his favorite place (even after Lureen understands the full meaning of that word) and also urging Ennis to get in touch with Jack's parents. She didn't need to do either of those things, and her quick decision to say both of those things I think shows something pretty deep about her character (despite all the outward superficiality with the cosmetics and hair dye, etc.).
delalluvia:
No, she didn't. She finally got the inkling when Ennis called, things started to slide into place for her, but before then? No. She knew their marriage was distant, but she didn't know why, she probably just assumed he was bored with her - hence the look on her face during the charity event when Jack was dancing with that Lashawn.
SFEnnisSF:
I always thought she knew by the time of the phone call, because of the way she says "Jack kept his friends addresses in his head". She says it real bitter too. But now in reading this, I think she figures it all out during the phone call. That expains her little sounds she makes and she almost starts to cry...
Katie77:
Im like Atz....my opinion changes on this all the time.....
I think Laureen knew that she was always "second best".....and maybe never knew who she was second best to until the phone call from Ennis after Jack died..
If she had thought he loved someone else, in those days and times, the thought that that would be a man, may not have ever entered her head, but when Ennis called her, it may have been a feeling of "so it was you, so it was a man Jack was in love with"......even then, I dont think she would have tagged him as "gay"...more likely, she came to the realization that she had been "second best" to a man....
They seem to have had a respectful marriage, and the sexual side of it, over 20yrs, or lack of it, may not have been a problem for Laureen...the fact that Jack had friends that she didnt know, and whose numbers he kept in his head, may have annoyed her, but I dont think she would have thought they were sexual friends.....
I dont think she thought he was gay....again in those days, "gay" would have meant that he had never been with a woman, and she knew that was not true....so even after Ennis' phone call i still dont think "gay" was the word she would have thought about the relationship that Jack and Ennis had.
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