Brokeback Mountain

This essay is based on a picture and its significance in terms of context, theme and universal application; these can also be used as criteria for the analysis of the photo and the message that comes through it. It is going to be mentioned each element of the picture, extrapolated their significance in terms of theme, and finally all the information are going to be applied to a universal concept.

The shot represents the inner side of Ennis's closet's door, only few elements are present however because of the location of the picture ,after Jack's death, at the end of both the time frames of the film and the short story, their significance is indicative of Ennis's nature and the relationship he'd had with Jack.

Starting from the background of the frame, the first element is the closet itself; it's made up of wood which represent the simplicity of the character and his social status. The fact that nails are hammered in it in order to hang the shirts and the picture is indicative of the disregard of Ennis towards his possessions even though they are rather limited and therefore precious.

The second element is the picture which can be related to what Jack said previously in the story: "All we have is Brokeback mountain"; it represent the best frame of the relationship that Ennis and Jack had together and perhaps the only frame that Ennis wants to keep as a memory of the time they spent together. It is not a case that the photo is hanged behind the shirts, as Brokeback Montain is a past event of their relationship that they left over their shoulders.

The third element, the shirts, arranged in such way, give a really powerful message. First of all it's a typical cowboy piece of clothing, which is indicative of the the kind of men they are meant to be, according to the stereotype linked to that figure but as well as that there is the irony of two homosexual cowboys not able to take the risk to stand against a society that criticize and isolates them. Furthermore it is possible to catch another message from this element: the shirts are one into the other and particularly Jack's into Ennis's, this might represent that since Jack is dead, the only way for his partner to keep him alive is as a memory, bringing Jack inside him throughout all his life. Moving the focus on the metallic clothes hanger, we can see that has a simple shape and it's stylized, it might be related to Ennis's personality that is rough and simple.

However the most important detail goes back to the meaning that all of what is hanged in the closet has for Ennis, it is a way to keep Jack's memory always with him, to keep alive the love that there was between them, but is even more important the fact that all of this is in the inner part of the closet, which cannot be seen if not intentionally opened, another way to still keep the secret within a protected area such as the personal