Did anyone else pick up that Gilbert may have been in love with a man?

I don't think this was even a 'may' but a fact. He was a homosexual and this was the 50's and Gilbert was studying to be a minister, all things that made being a homosexual impossible. The man he was in love with was married and heterosexual and cared for him only as a good friend. Gilbert's marriage to Arial was a chance for him to try and be 'normal' and live a normal married life, but for him trying to have sex with woman who he did not love was what made it so disgusting to him. Perhaps if Arial could have known this she might have reacted differently to his suicide. It was not her so much as the truth about himself that he had to run from.

I agree

realiz wrote:Perhaps if Arial could have known this she might have reacted differently to his suicide. It was not her so much as the truth about himself that he had to run from.

I think she did know it. I think she knew it all along. Her reaction to the wedding, getting drunk, may reflect this knoweldge, but she still had some hope and belief. Ariah walks around in a daze after the suicide, not only because of the death, but maybe because everything she grew up to believe to be true went over the falls with Gilbert. Nothing was real to Ariah anymore, not even herself, she made herself a myth.

I agree. In a way what Arial was looking for was similar to Gilbert, only instead of running from someone she loved and wanted, she was trying to find that myth that she'd been brought up to believe in that marriage and finding a man was the key to happiness and success for a woman. But an important part of the myth was that man had to love you and desire you, even more so than how you felt about him.

She may not have known before the honeymoon as she was naive and inexperienced. Perhaps a part of her believed that some magic would happen (part of the myth) on that honeymoon night that would make everything work out.

I don't believe that Arial knew about Gilbert's sexual orientation. Their backgrounds were too protected for either of them to have much knowledge of homosexuality. Gilbert himself didn't even recognize it except as his own unique desire for his friend. She sensed that she had disgusted Gilbert during the honeymoon night but thought it was because her drunkenness and wantonness, not because of his sexual orientation.

Chris OConnor wrote:Why do I get the feeling that Dirk is going to eventually go over the falls too? Am I nuts?

Chris, read on.

I agree that perhaps they did not even recognise such a thing as 'homosexuality' but I also think Gilbert's best friend was that way inclined too, otherwise, why did his 'best' friend not attend the wedding?

Good point. Seems as if he might have been distancing himself from Gilbert. He married first, perhaps to stay in the closet.