Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 16/07: Did Alma Jr. know Ennis was gay?
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: souxi on December 01, 2007, 03:33:51 pm ---I wouldn,t say that Alma senior was vicious. You have to remember that she loved Ennis, and as if that wasn,t bad enough that he loved someone else and not her, what made it doubly worse for her, was that it was a man. That had to hurt.
--- End quote ---
IMO she was not the most attractive character in the Thanksgiving scene -- she seemed to deliberately goad her ex-husband into a confrontation on a family holiday with her daughters in the next room.
But oddly enough, this made her a more likable character overall. It kept her from becoming the proverbial Suffering Victim.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Marge_Innavera on December 04, 2007, 11:29:22 am ---IMO she was not the most attractive character in the Thanksgiving scene -- she seemed to deliberately goad her ex-husband into a confrontation on a family holiday with her daughters in the next room.
But oddly enough, this made her a more likable character overall. It kept her from becoming the proverbial Suffering Victim.
--- End quote ---
She sort of grimaces at the dinner table when Junior asks Ennis to tell his saddle bronc story.
And I think she did deliberately goad Ennis in the kitchen--though that must have been building up for years.
LauraGigs:
--- Quote ---she seemed to deliberately goad her ex-husband into a confrontation on a family holiday with her daughters in the next room.
--- End quote ---
I have to disagree. Do you remember at the final lake scene when Jack asks, "All this time, you ain't found no one else to marry?" He's basically doing the same thing Alma is: checking out where Ennis' heart is at . . . how he's doing.
Around when my father died & we were all dealing with it, my brother-in-law would ask, "how's your head and your heart?" Basically the same question. Very direct, and also too touchy-feely for the period (and especially to someone like Ennis). Jack and Alma's question to Ennis is basically another way of asking that. (It's obviously not literal; they of all people would be the most shocked if Ennis were to remarry.)
It's when Ennis says "once burned". The flow of Alma's activities in the kitchen stops, her face freezes, and her demeanor changes. That was the final straw.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: LauraGigs on December 04, 2007, 01:24:59 pm ---It's when Ennis says "once burned". The flow of Alma's activities in the kitchen stops, her face freezes, and her demeanor changes. That was the final straw.
--- End quote ---
While I don't agree with you that the "once burned" comment from Ennis was the last straw for Alma, it sure wasn't something very nice to say to your hostess. :-\
LauraGigs:
I don't know. Alma makes the 'married again' comment in a relaxed and offhand way, in a languid, almost sleepy voice (full of milk and turkey). It's after his "once burned" reply that she visibly bristles.
He'd cheated on her for years with someone he's met before they were even married (making his marriage to her a sham), sodomized her when she didn't want it, yelled at her out on the street, and indicated ("I'll be happy to leave you alone") complete lack of interest in her sexual and emotional satisfaction. And after all that, he's blaming her for the failure of the marriage?
I think anybody would let him have it after that, and be justified in doing so.
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