Alan and Clara
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wirenwit — 17 years ago(July 02, 2008 04:13 AM)
He is gay. Look at the tag lines for this movie:
"The red-hot lowdown on a southern familythat people talked about in whispers!"
"A story of the Modern South!"
"NOTHING - BUT NOTHING !WILL BE WITHHELD!when this searing expose of this Southern family comes boldly to the screen!" -
butaneggbert — 10 years ago(July 26, 2015 09:11 PM)
He sees Clara as his property - understood in the community for some time - and Ben as lower class than he is.
Alan is a rich, idle man, aware that his lack of masculinity marks him as flawed in that culture. He idealizes what he perceived as Clara's pristine chastity - and backs off whenever she evinces any sign of healthy sexuality.
Ben is a very real threat to Alan, especially if Alan is sexually repressed and/or gay. Ben is lusty and superbly masculine - everything Alan knows is valued, and knows he himself isn't.
If he believes Clara is chaste, he can't bear to think of dirty Ben touching her. If he's aware Clara is frustrated, he can't risk Ben's overt sexuality around her.
He simultaneously looks down on Ben as an uncultured working-class lowlife, and as someone he wants a long, long way away from "his" Clara. -
MTulliver — 17 years ago(July 06, 2008 04:44 PM)
I also got that impression. And I think the reason why his mother was so possessive was that she did not want people to know her son was gay. She didn't want any girls to get close enough to him to find out.
She'd prefer people to just think he is a Momma's Boy. -
HillieBoliday — 15 years ago(March 21, 2011 01:37 PM)
Here I am 3 years later.but I think you have hit the nail on the head!!
In southern culture, or any culture for that fact,
having granchildren was a credit to the family legacy.
However a "momma's boy" Alan might have been, or how controlling his
mother might have been; being able to continue the family generations
was and still is extremely important.
I have always thought that Alan was gay, and his mother was going to
great lengths with this "momma's boy" charade, to keep that fact hidden.
Having a son that was gay, was equally scandalous, as being the one
who is discovered as gaythus why I think she did everything she could
to keep that fact hidden.
"OOOI'M GON' TELL MAMA!" -
gs-web — 16 years ago(September 12, 2009 07:42 PM)
I think he was gay - and of course there is nothing wrong with that - but back then it was a mystery. This film was made in 1958 from a William Faulkner novel, so you have to read between the lines.
Alan was from an old, wealthy family and a different social strata, so it was difficult for Clara to read him. She kept thinking that he was a courtly gentleman and so she kept waiting for him to grab her and give her a kiss. Thats the point - he was not ever going to grab her and give her a kiss. Gay men don't want to grab a woman and give her a sexy kiss and it leaves a lot of room for a woman, especially many years ago, to drift along in a relationship with no future.
In the beginning of the film Clara is sitting on the front porch talking about men with her girlfriend. Neither of them have a beau and Clara goes over to Alan's house shortly after that conversation and tells him she is beginning to worry, because a girl wonders when men aren't coming around.
Here are the reasons I think Alan was gay:- He never gives Clara an explanation for why he isn't good for her, but he tells her he is no good for her. He is from one of the oldest, wealthiest families in the area, so why is he no good for her? Because he is gay!
- He never grabs her and lays a big one on her. Why? Because he is gay!
- Clara's father calls him a sissy when he goes over to Alan's house to make the wedding arrangements. Why? Because he is gay and the father finally figured it out. Also, don't miss the dichotomy of the fact that Alan doesn't make things clear to Clara and then Clara doesn't make things clear to her father - but the father is old and wily and figures it out when he is face to face with Alan and his mother.
- Thats why the father introduces the character of Ben Quick as a potential alternate groom for Clara - because he is a lusty, heterosexual male and Clara won't have to stand around for 6 or 7 years wondering how he feels.
And, finally, its probably much clearer in the book, which I haven't read.
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kaskait — 14 years ago(May 06, 2011 12:39 PM)
I've had the notion that Alan may have been homosexual. But there are so many various factors working in the film against this pair.
One of the main reasons, unspoken but shown loud and clear, was the class issue. Clara was definitely NOT from a blue blood family. And her father is just a step up from the criminal class. She is not someone Alan would marry nor would his family accept a marriage to her.
I definitely had the feeling that he kept Clara on the leash as a form of rebellion against his mother and the rest of the family.
As for Clara, I think she liked the idea of possibly being a member of an old blood family. That fantasy kept her running after Alan when it was clear he wasn't that serious about her. -
Miinerva — 14 years ago(August 26, 2011 10:54 PM)
"that he's a "sissy"? "
You could make a good argument for either distinction. I
don't
think the character's gay. And if Varner actually did think he is, why on earth would he want Clara anywhere near him? He would have found someone else.
I do think Alan liked his low-keyed southern gentleman, man-of-leisure approach to small town life. He wasn't about to change.
"Mr. Willoughby, you are not welcome here." -
tmcdaniel1 — 12 years ago(March 03, 2014 12:50 PM)
Have to say this is the most independent analysis so far. Most of the posters are quick to call him gay but, that maybe, just maybe, he is running things just the way he wants them.
He has status in the community. He has a nice home and, perhaps, more money than certain people think. He gets to do what he wants when he wants. How many of us can say that?
At that time, having children is a must do thing if you married. Maybe he just doesn't want that responsibility or burden. Maybe he just doesn't like kids that much. Who knows what his ambitions are? The story never shows that clearly.
Combine all that with a low sex drive (compared to the Varner/Quick crowd) and you have a unique individual that performs his social duties (remaining part of the culture) without being pulled into things that don't attract him.
I say he's a cool one, that Alan. -
mike-848 — 12 years ago(July 04, 2013 10:20 PM)
I don't see the gay angle. I see the class angle. Varner may have been rich, but he was a brute and ungentlemanly. Alan was of the old money, landed gentry.
Clara was intelligent and beautiful but I think Alan just couldn't go further in their relationship because of her father. -
joeparkson — 11 years ago(July 22, 2014 11:27 AM)
It's fashionable to read a gay subtext into a character. Stewart didn't back down from Varner, nor did he hesitate to get into Quick's face at the picnic. True, he was not romantic. Many men are like that; cool, reserved, undemonstrative. Doesn't mean they're gay. I can see however, why Clara is disappointed. He sure doesn't radiate sexual excitement.
Soy 'un hijo de la playa' -
mike-848 — 11 years ago(July 22, 2014 01:54 PM)
Yes, he was sickly also. He would sit outside with a blanket on him during a hot humid Mississippi summer. Maybe he had the effects of malaria from the war? His illness is never explained.
Anyway, Clara was also a cold fish because she wasted all those years for Stewart to make a move towards the alter. It took a rascal like Quick to open up her inner sexual desires. She showed those hidden desires in her fathers store when Quick kissed her long and hard and she reciprocated.