The Head and Heart Kiss

By Matt Sakalosky

[1] In many ways to many people, Thomas Jefferson is put on a pedestal, almost as a demigod, being one of our founding fathers and the writer of the Declaration of Independence. With that depersonalization comes the separation of the man’s humanity and the deeds he has done. In this scene of Jefferson in Paris, the scene in which Jefferson and Cosway have their first kiss and Jefferson injures his wrist, the director and writers attempt to show the full spectrum that most do not attempt to find in such a historical figure (0:52:21). This scene demonstrates the Head versus Heart battle that is shown earlier in the movie, and it shows Jefferson’s emotional side that is often overlooked when researching men of Jefferson’s stature and historical status.

[2] Although Cosway puts up for the Heart side in the Head versus Heart scene, and Jefferson ends up making points for both cases, each of these characters have their own promises and responsibilities that logically should never be broken and fall under the head category. Jefferson’s promise in this respect is to his dead wife, that he would never marry again. Cosway’s promise is the promise of marriage to her husband, although Cosway says that they are “good friends, but he cannot love me the way a man loves a woman,” making the viewers assume that Mr. Cosway is homosexual. The Head versus Heart controversy is heard all throughout the movie and in different respects to different characters, but, in the act of kissing, the two main individuals forcibly decide to block the pleas of their heads and listen to their lovers’ hearts.

[3] Most people, sometimes even historians, look at historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson as sober, introspective intellects and sometimes completely void of our basic human emotion called love (along with all the wacky and silly things people do when they experience this part of human nature). This scene attempts to show that in many ways Jefferson is the same as all of us dealing with love. With Cosway here, Jefferson is portrayed as a romantic, seeing nothing but the present when he is with the one that he loves. He even begins to worry that he shall “never see [Cosway] again,” which is an anxiety common to those who are faced with the possibility of distance between themselves and their loved ones. He also becomes very spontaneous, something not shown as Jefferson’s daily character in this movie, when in love, exemplified by the act of jumping over the stack of logs and injuring his wrist. All of these things point to the reasoning that Jefferson has a romantic side that believes in love as a living, breathing thing, as a known fact of life.

[4] In conclusion, this scene is an attempt to show the moviegoers an aspect about Jefferson that is missed by most of history and those who know it; Jefferson was human and experienced emotions in the same ways that all of humanity does. Whether it is in a way that is specific to this movie, as in fighting for the Heart in the Head versus Heart battle, or general to all of history, as in showing Jefferson in goofy teenage-like puppy love to make his historical image less intellectual and more rounded, James Ivory does a great job at getting this scene to reveal a different side of Jefferson.