You know how we think about that trailer scene as being a wedding ceremony, with Aguirre being the preacher/God? Well, it just suddenly occurred to me (as maybe it already had to others) that Aguirre also roughly establishes the form the rest of their lives will take: they'll live separately, on the QT.
They'll get together for a couple of high altitude fucks breakfast and dinner, but they'll sleep with the sheep (pretend to follow society's rules) hunderd percent, no fire, don't leave no sign, roll up that tent every morning case the Forest Service snoops around -- that is, pretend not to be doing what they're doing in case the people on the pavement snoop around.
Maybe this is all obvious to other people, but it's the first time I've thought about the wedding/trailer scene in quite this way. I've concentrated on the certificate (they came together on paper) and the vows (No! No! Not on your fucking life!) and the ring (the watch), and walking down the aisle (the steps) and the kiss (the handshake). But I've never thought of the wedding service in terms as literally as this.
Two years in, and it's still going ... 
I can't believe I've never noticed that before! Duh! It always struck me that Aguirre bringing them down from the mountain early, cutting their summer short, and their time together, and maybe altering the course of how their relationship might have developed had they had longer up on the mountain, but I can't believe I never noticed that with Aguirre's trailer! Must. Pay. Better. Attention.!!!
I always thought in the s.s that Ennis was almost like Jacks guardian angel/protector, his role being to look after and protect Jack in the same way he looks after the sheep.But I think this protective mode is a counter balance to his inherent vulnerability.
In their last trip there is a beautiful line where Proulx writes "Ennis put his arm round Jack pulled him close"Almost a protective gesture.In both the ss and film there is the dozy embrace scene,where again Ennis holds Jack,keeping him close and safe.
In the motel reunion scene she writes "Ennis pulled Jack's hand to his mouth"
Ennis calls Jack "little darlin" after the reunion kiss. Ennis also admits to Jack that he was ill after comming down from BB, and he realises that he should not have let Jack out of his sight.Once he is out of sight and the protection of Ennis,it is almost as if his fate has been sealed.It is also a very deep thing for Ennis to admit to.It is tantamount to saying I love you.In fact probably even more meaningful.He was sick literally, and emotionally too.
Ennis is the tender one of the two in the short story.Interestingly the only time when Jack tends to Ennis,after the fight,Proulx writes "he laid the ministering angel out".It seems that Ennis wants to be the one doing the "looking after" He does not like it when Jack tends to him.
When he hears about the accident he wants to curse Lureen for "letting Jack die on the dirt road"
It seems that when Ennis is not around to protect Jack, he expects Lureen to do the job for him.Or maybe he just feels so guilty for not being there himself.
I agree Fiona that Ennis is both seen as the protector, and sees himself as the protector, and the fact that in the SS especially we get to see his vulnerability simply adds to the pathos of the whole situation, but in the SS we get the story almost entirely from Ennis's POV. I think though that although in more subtle ways Jack's also protective of Ennis - he doesn't relate the whole of his conversation with Aguirre the summer after the mountain to Ennis, tries to clean up Ennis's cut after he's thrown when the horse is startled by the bear, doesn't tell Ennis about the other men, or later on about Randall, or his trips to Mexico, and probably more I've missed (it's late and I'm getting tired), and though it could be argued he doesn't tell Ennis to protect himself, I think a part of it's wanting to protect Ennis and take care of him in his own small ways, and later, with the things he doesn't tell Ennis protecting Ennis's delicate view of their relationship as "we're not queer". He's certainly not the protector in the same way that Ennis sees himself as "the protector", but he's protective of Ennis.
It strikes me that Ennis has the deeper love albeit allied with the deeper fear.He does not go with any other men.His love for Jack is his sole male love.There is no one else who can fulfill that need.He even talks at the motel of having "wrang it out a hundred times thinking about you"
There is something very raw and emotionally searing about that statement.For someone as closed as Ennis to admit to something so deeply sexual and personal indicates to me the depth of his love for Jack.
He immediately then seeks reassurance from Jack,saying"you do it with other guys"
That breaks my heart when I read it.It is such a needy thing to ask, and again gives a vulnerability to Ennis.He is in the throes of a very deep love,which he does not understand,and needs some validation from Jack.
He later admits to being scared when he says "there's no reins on this one.It scares the piss out a me"He is so desperately vulnerable here.He is stripped bare,both physically and emotionally, nowhere to hide.So that scene in the s.s is more poignant for me than in the film,where it occurs outside with them both clothed.
That scene breaks my heart because even though Ennis asks him outright, and despite his love for Ennis, Jack lies to him.
"'Shit no,' said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own." I guess he's trying to protect Ennis, in the same way he doesn't tell Ennis about his trips to Mexico (though in the end by that point in the story, post-divorce after Ennis 'sends him away', I think there's been a fundamental shift in their relationship), but it still jars. Jack can't admit his need for Ennis and his need to find a "substitute" for Ennis, and neither of them in twenty years manages to outright admit their love in so many words.
Throughout the s.s I always felt that Ennis was far and away the more emotionally vulnerable one, and that his need to protect/look after Jack was a way of counter balancing this vulnerability.
Yep, Jack was definitely the stronger of the two - and I seem to remember that Ennis admits as much at one point, but Jack had his vulnerabilities too, though not so obvious, as discussed in the TOTW the other week. One of the many tragedies though is that though he sees himself as Jack's protector, ultimately his actions and his sending Jack away put Jack in harm's way. Who knows how things might have turned out differently if only?
I just wish, and I have said this on other posts that Ennis had called Jack" little darlin" in the film.But maybe coupled with the ending that would just have been way too emotionally draining.
I don't know about the ending, but I wish they'd left the "little darlin" in the reunion scene. Probably it was felt adding "romantic" stuff in would over-Hollywoodize it without the grittiness of AP's prose, but as it was in the original SS I feel it would have been fitting. Ah well, I guess they had their reasons...
