Brokeback Mountain

According to Mendelsohn, Brokeback Mountain is not a social tragedy with universal themes. Instead, it is a specifically gay tragedy. By stating that the movie is about social issues, critics will be denying its effect on tackling the quagmire in gay relationships. Mendelsohn argues that the movie cannot be criticized in any other way that a gay film that ultimately shows the tragedies that gay individuals undergo in the society. It, therefore, does not intend to show universal themes such as love and emotions but shows the plight of two gay men that face hard choices in pursuit of their relationship, which ends up tragically. While the plot does not out rightly agree that the Ennis and Jack are gay, their relationship and actions show that they are by all aspects gay that live in pretense and suppression of their actual feelings. They, therefore, have to live in a closet since they cannot engage in the relationship openly as their bisexual counterparts.
The metaphor of the closet shows that Brokeback Mountain is a gay tragedy. It is meant to show how homophobia in the society has pushed gays to live in pretense and suppress their emotions and relationship in secret. The movie is meant to let the address the plight of gays and not to elicit sympathetic emotions among the viewers. The secret affair between the two main characters remains a secret to the society. In fact, they cannot move in together in fear of the reprimand and rejection that will follow. They, therefore, choose to pursue their affair as though it was illicit for more than 20 years.

The two cannot be together since the society does not approve their union and eventually lose out as they do not end up together. When Jack dies, Ennis is plunged into a wave of uncertainty and regrets as he did not love as he would have wanted but as the world dictated.