Or to paraphrase Jane Austen's Miss Elizabeth Bennet,
"There is just enough between the two to make one good man."
Yes, yes, I exagerate. Well, it is a paraphrase, after all.
And NO, I don't mean that either Jack or Ennis
were not inherently 'good'.
What I mean is that both are damaged.
So between them, you have the makings, perhaps of one
undamaged man?
One 'whole' man.
My fancy.
Ignore it if it offends.
At any rate, this idea of 'relief' discomfits me.
But I have to admit that an element of it probably exists in Ennis.
Though I suspect he would fight to the death, after the discovery of
the shirts, to deny it.
Oh Jo, that prologue speaks of nothing 'ended' nothing 'begun' to me.
And yes, I agree that Jack NEVER gave up on Ennis. He gave up on himself
and his own ability to make his dreams come true. In the end, he probably
accepted that his father's opinion was the true one.
That is one of the tragedies of Jack Twist.
I don't know, however, that I agree completely that Ennis ever truly
realized how Jack felt about himself, how much he needed the approval
that never came. I don't know that Ennis, even towards the end of his
life, was ever that aware of Jack's inchoate neediness.
Oh, he finally realizes that Jack loved him from the getgo, that much is
evident, but I don't know that Ennis was able even then to put two and
two together and realize the depth of Jack's despair.
The visit to the farmhouse shows Ennis what Jack
ran away from and how having a father like the 'stud duck' would
have shaped him, but...I just don't see Ennis doing a great deal
of soul-searching and analyzing. He was just not that kind of person.
In fact, in the short story, he ALREADY knows about the pissing in
the bathroom episode when he goes to the farm. It was there in memory
and still Ennis couldn't figure out how this sort of thing might impact
Jack's need for approval. Although seeing the father in person probably
helped ferment an idea or two.
Try as we might, we are never going to have our happy ending.