Whew, I just caught up on this thread. Great analyses, folks!
MUCH earlier, I asked the question:
So what do you think it was that Cassie did fall in love with? and Mel replied:
Hey Meryl, didn't we discuss this a long time ago, on LJ? I could swear you were one of the people who answered the question for me!
There's the "Ennis is a very attractive man" thing, like Katherine mentioned. He's especially attractive for someone into the Marlboro Man type.
And I don't remember who brought it up in LJ, but somebody made a really good point -- that there's just something about Ennis, maybe a sense that there's something beneath that reticent surface, that there's a man truly worth knowing locked away in there. I don't know if Cassie is the sort of perceptive person who would see that; she clearly doesn't seem to understand that not only is she the wrong key to unlock Ennis, she's the wrong type of key altogether. (Jack, on the other hand...)
And there's something else that I've thought of since that discussion. You know, Cassie works as a waitress in a bar; along with drinking and smoking, she probably deals with an awful lot of harrassment from men who might just like to rile up a pretty girl, and who probably frequently hint that they would like to have sex with her. And Ennis doesn't do that. She might read that as being a nice guy (along with being very reserved), rather than as simply not being interested in sex with pretty girls. (So by being uninterested, Ennis becomes desirable... at least in contrast to the many jerks in the world.)Thanks for the lengthy reply, Mel! I don't remember being in on that topic on LJ, but the points made are certainly well observed. Ennis's good looks are a plus, but good looks can't save a guy who is a jerk.
I think Cassie picked up on Ennis's loneliness, myself. He didn't even sit around with other guys while he drank his beer. She took a chance coming on to a loner, but some women, as you mentioned, prefer that. What does Carmen sing....
L'un parle bien, l'autre se tait; et c'est l'autre que je prefere, il n'a rien dit, mais il me plait (One man speaks, another is quiet, and it's that one I prefer. He says not a word, but I like that.) Maybe, like Jack, she sensed the intense part of Ennis that lived just under the surface and was drawn to it. Poor girl! If Ennis had been self aware enough not to let her get involved with him, he would have spared her a lot of pain. But he wasnt.
(That last observation was brought to you courtesy of some memories I have, of being one of the few women in a cowboy/roughneck/geologist bar in the 80's. I didn't hang out there more than once; I was trying to be "one of the boys," and it sure didn't work. I can't imagine what it would have been like to work as a waitress there.)I love picturing you in a rough and ready geologist bar. I'll bet they's mean sumbitches, geologists.
What if going to Alma Jr's wedding was actually symbolic of giving in to society's demands? If putting the shirts in the closet symbolized Ennis in the present -- if Ennis was willing to deal with the unpleasant crowds because he's putting that part of himself away, putting it fully into the closet again, and if without Jack around, he's less worried that people will figure out about him?I lean more toward this tragic interpretation, too, just as I am one of the Tire Ironists as opposed to the Accidentalists when it comes to Jack's death. It's why we come out of the theater shaking our heads and wiping away tears. The Ennis of Proulx's prologue is living in that trailer almost as in a tomb. Jack will remain his secret. Movie Ennis symbolizes this neatly not only by keeping the shirts hidden in the closet, but by concealing Jack's shirt beneath his own. The glimpse of redemption Ang Lee provides us with is some comfort, but a happier ending would have diluted and falsified what I feel is the real message: This is what happens to people when society insists they fit a certain mold and punishes them if they can't.