Hannah Davich

The Queerness of Love

Final Essay

The Sorrows of Young Werther vs. Brokeback Mountain

He has herall very well and goodhe has her. I know he has her just as I know all
sorts of things. I think I have become accustomed to the knowledge, but in the end, it will
drive me mad and be the death of me. And has his friendship for me remained constant?
Doesnt he see an interference in his rights in my devotion to Lotte, and a silent reproach
in my attentions? I know it, I can feel ithe doesnt like to see me. He would like to see
me go. My presence oppresses him (104). The Sorrows of Young Werther
Her presence, her fate, her participation in my destiny force the last tears from my
parched brain. Oh to be able to lift the curtain and step behind it! That is all there is to it
so why do I hesitate? Because no one knows what it looks like back there? Because no
one ever returns? And because it is characteristic of our spirit to anticipate confusion and
darkness in what we do not know? (109). The Sorrows of Young Werther
Right, said Jack, and they shook hands, hit each other on the shoulder, then there was
forty feet of distance between them and nothing to do but drive away in opposite
directions. Within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand
a yard at a time. He stopped at the side of the road and, in the whirling new snow, tried to
puke but nothing came up. He felt about as bad as he ever had and it took a long time for
the feeling to wear off (8-9). Brokeback Mountain
*For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to same-sex desire as homosexuality, even
though the term was not yet coined when The Sorrows of Young Werther was written.

In The Sorrows of Young Werther and Brokeback Mountain, love, specifically in

the form of homosexual desire, is socially unacceptable, so it is expressed through more
conventional channels as a cover. The key difference in the two texts, however, lies in
that Werther denies his desire and convinces himself that he is in love with Lotte,
although his language reveals otherwise. Conversely, both Jack and Ennis express their
desire in private, while publicly starting their own families to appear normal and
heterosexual.
Werther fixates on his relationship with Albert, subconsciously craving to be with
him but knowing the impossibility of it. In a passage from page 104 of the text, he repeats
the phrase he has her three times, focusing on the image of Albert and Lotte together.
He is fixated on the possession: Albert has her. This fixation, followed by obsessive
reflections on his relationship with Albert, insinuates that Werther would like to be the
one Albert possesses instead of Lotte. Again he refers to the act of know[ing]
something several times. In this context, to know is to acknowledge that something is
accepted as true. Werthers repeated assurance that he know[s] [Albert] has her
represents his attempt to make himself accept that it is reality, although he does not wish
it to be true. Regardless, Werther feels that knowing Albert possesses Lotte and not
Werther will cause him to go mad and even be the death of [him], for he so
desperately wants to be the one possessed. He then completely focuses on Albert, making
references to him, his, or he nine times in the overall passage, while only referring
to Lotte three times. Werther only cares about what Albert thinks and feels, and his only
concern is their relationship. He wonders, has his friendship for me remained
constant?, bearing a striking resemblance to a teenage girl who obsesses and

overanalyzes, for he is ruled by his emotions and desires. In the phrase interference in
his rights, interference symbolizes Werthers attempt to divide Albert and Lotte by
pulling Lotte away and appearing to give all his attention to her, which is much more
socially acceptable than giving all his attention to Albert. He refers to Alberts rights,
which are his entitled allowances as Lottes lover, which Werther wants to sever or
interfere. However, even though Werther cannot outwardly give his full attention to
Albert due to social constraints, he sends a silent reproach in [his] attentions. Because it
would be unacceptable to voice his true feelings for Albert, Werther does so silent[ly].
Yet he sends reproach[es] rather than romantic feelings, for he is upset with Albert for
being with Lotte rather than Werther. But in spite of his strong desire for Albert, Werther
is sure that Albert does not want to be around him. However, that Werther can feel it
indicates a connection between them, suggesting that Albert feels something for Werther
as well, but would rather run from these emotions. Werther fixates on what he assumes to
be Alberts aversion to him, for his unnerving desire for Albert has made him very selfconscious and hyper-aware. Werther feels that his presence oppresses him, giving
himself authority over Albert, primarily because Albert shares his feelings but is still too
scared to acknowledge them, so he hides from them instead.
A second passage from page 109 reveals the nature of the relationship between
Werthers internal and external desire. Werther contemplates what it would be like to
actually give in to his desires, but fears the immensely intimidating foreign nature of
homosexuality. Although Lottes presence, fate, and participation have played a
part in his destiny, she is only a supporting role: she merely participat[es], suggesting
that there is much more to Werthers destiny and life than just Lotte, contrary to what

he outwardly expresses in his letters. In using the term destiny, he feels there is an
inevitability that cannot be changed, i.e. his homosexual desires. As much as he would
like Lotte to be the true object of his desire, his destiny says otherwise, which removes
any feeling of responsibility for his emotions. The phrase last tears shows that Werther
is done being sad over a falsified desire: his brain has been parched, for he has been
starved of the sustenance he truly needs, and that is to focus on his internal homosexual
desire. By saying his brain is parched rather than his heart, he suggests he has been
deprived of mental and psychological satisfaction; he has felt no shortage of emotion,
which is correlated with the heart, but his brain has been left unsatisfied. The image of a
curtain represents a separation or divide between his internal and external desires and
emotions. Werther craves to lift the curtain: he wants the strength to overcome this
social barrier, but he is too weak. He wants to step behind it: as opposed to simply
looking behind the curtain, he wants to be fully immersed in his internal desire, which
would end his struggle. He then asks a series of questions about why [he] hesitate[s],
the repetitive syntax of which reflects how confused, lost, and unsure Werther is. His
struggle seems unprecedented, leaving him feeling completely and utterly alone. He
repeatedly refers to a lack of knowledge, stressing how there are no accepted facts or
truths, reinforcing how alone he feels. He believes that, once one step[s] behind the
curtain, no one ever returns. He focuses on the drastic nature of the decision to
acknowledge his homosexual desires, for he is under the impression that there is no
coming back from it. He associates it with confusion and darkness, both negative,
scary, and deterring images connoting the unknown. In an effort to unify himself with

humanity and feel like he is a part of the world, he refers to our spirit, attempting to
reassure himself that others have been and still are in his same situation.
Jack and Enniss struggle is of a very different nature: they give in to their desires
and must deal with the debilitating consequences from feeling such foreign emotions.
After their first summer together on Brokeback Mountain, they must part ways
indefinitely, as depicted on pages 8-9. Both not knowing the proper way to say farewell
to a same-sex lover, they appear to part in a stereotypical masculine fashion, for they
shook hands [and] hit each other on the shoulder. Their actions are insincere, not
because they are emotionless, but because they each feel an extraordinary surplus of
emotion which they do not know how to interpret. Both clueless as to what they are
supposed to do next, they realize there was nothing to do but drive away in opposite
directions. Jack and Ennis each know that their relationship could never fit in to the lives
they each lead, and this leads them to part ways, heading down paths completely
unrelated to each other. Yet within a mile Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts
out, for even though he may be outwardly dismissing their relationship, the emotions are
still deep within him, and he can feel them tearing him apart. Coming from a family and
society with very conventional beliefs, he feels what he desires is wrong and injurious.
Yet in leaving Jack, Ennis feels empty, for even as he tried to puke, nothing came up.
He now lacks the food and sustenance that Jack temporarily gave him, leaving him bare.
As their relationship progresses and they see each other more frequently, Jack and
Ennis must do all they can to keep their forbidden love affair from spilling into their daily
lives and activities. As they lay in bed their first night together after four years of
separation, Jack wants to find a way for their relationship and their independent lives to

coexist, but Ennis rejects the idea, explaining, I built a life up in them years. Love my
little girls. Alma? It aint her faultWe [kiss] in the wrong place well be dead (13). In
saying that he built his life, Ennis suggests that the life he has now is handmade and
forged: he constructed it; it is not natural. This does not mean, however, that he does not
love his family, or at least his children. But in spite of that, he does not lie and say he
loves his wife. Instead, he says, it aint her fault. It is ambiguous here; he could be
talking about several things. For one, he could be referring to his homosexuality. He does
not want to blame Alma for his inability to love her, for he cares about his family and
does not want to hurt her for something she did not do. He could also be referring to their
life together. It is not her fault that he is now married with children and having an affair
with a man. Ennis took the initiative and married her, and he is the one who got her
pregnant twice. But in spite of acknowledging that the life he leads is fabricated, he also
knows that being with Jack is not an option. Given the social climate at the time and the
extreme violence Ennis has witnessed against gays, he knows they truly could be killed if
they are caught together in the wrong place. The potential consequences are too drastic
for them to risk getting caught.
In both The Sorrows of Young Werther and Brokeback Mountain, the main
characters struggle to balance their internal desires with external pressures. Werther
represses his homosexual desires and interprets them as his insatiable love for Lotte,
although the study of his language reveals what he himself does not see or understand.
On the contrary, Jack and Ennis become engrossed in their homosexuality and passionate
love affair, but must not reveal their true desires to anyone but each other, so they build
more socially acceptable lives to distract the public world from the reality of their

relationship. This tension not only allows for captivating stories about star-crossed
romances, but also gives insight into the difficulties faced by people struggling with their
sexuality, both then and now.