Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
"Jack, I swear..." What do you think Ennis meant by that?
Mary Twist:
Thank you very much Mr. Light. You know.... some folks thought that I was, well... umm, "deceased". Oh, no. I do not know why. I did not assume that they were dead. I'll come back and see you again.
--- Quote from: starboardlight on May 03, 2006, 07:38:09 pm ---welcome, pull up a chair, and make yourself at home. help yourself to the coffee, but don't ask for the cherry cake. ours only has one cherry in it, so it's best to avoid that awkwardness.
--- End quote ---
jopo:
I kinda thought "Jack, I swear..." was Ennis with his totally wounded heart affectionately scolding Jack because of what Ennis thought Jack's risky sex with others led to. Of course it could have meant any of the things others here thought it might have meant as well.
:'(
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: jopo on May 08, 2006, 02:15:08 pm ---I kinda thought "Jack, I swear..." was Ennis with his totally wounded heart affectionately scolding Jack because of what Ennis thought Jack's risky sex with others led to. Of course it could have meant any of the things others here thought it might have meant as well.
:'(
--- End quote ---
That's a thought-provoking take, jopo. Never thought of it that way, but it's certainly a possibility. I do sort of go against the majority on this and think of it as if he's saying something to the effect of "I swear... I don't know how the hell I'm gonna survive without you." Because shortly after in the short story comes that bit about the space between what he knew and what he wanted to believe was true and the final line of "If you can't fix it" (in this case, Jack's death), "you've gotta stand it."
serious crayons:
Also in the short story -- and I don't have it in front of me so I'm paraphrasing -- it talks about how Ennis says, "Jack, I swear" even though Jack himself was never much for swearing. I've always interpreted that as meaning that he is saying "Jack, I love you" (or something similar) even though Jack was never much for verbal endearments, himself.
TJ:
--- Quote --- "Jack, I swear -- " he said, though Jack had never asked him to swear anything and was himself not the swearing kind.
--- End quote ---
Ennis was not the person who would make a promise to anybody, by swearing an oath, to do something. And, as Annie Proulx wrote, Jack never asked him to swear a promise either.
Even when Ennis set up their get-to-gethers, all of them were just tentative dates.
I just say that Ennis (although he did not finish his sentence aloud) swore a promise to Jack when He hung the on-a-hanger shirts on a nail under the postcard as soon as he put up the postcard. (Although, in the movie, the shirts and the postcard had been hanging INSIDE the trailer closet on the BACK of the closet door for some time.) I like the book version better.
When politicians take their oath of office, they are sworn in. They do say, "I swear---," making a promise to the government and the state or federal Constitution.
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