I recently watched this for the first time and loved it, I just had a hard time figuring this out. It seemed to me that he was and I know that after the revelation he says something about feeling attraction before (?) but I wanted to hear you guys' opinion.
shareI just watched it tonight for the first time and yes Avigdor did say he loves Yentl and wanted to go away with her and start a life as a married couple, but when he said now you can relax and stop studying and thinking and let me take care of things, Yentl realized that he would never be happy with her because he wanted to turn her into a woman like Hadass. Yentl too knew at this point that she would never be happy with him, although she did love him, because he would not talk to her in the same open and equal way as he did when he thought she was a man and that killed her. So she gave him up so he could be happy with an old fashioned woman like Hadass and so she could go and be independant in America and continue learning for the rest of her life. The learning was more important to her than being with Avigdor as he would want her to stop learning and start "acting like a woman".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y RIP MJ from San Diego
Yes he was. He was even attracted to her but he couldn't acknowledge his feelings until he felt free to do so.
For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco
You're also asking if Avigdor felt something for Anshel, and the answer is yes. He said so in the big reveal scene, when he acknowledges that he felt something but thought he was going crazy for feeling it. In other words, that he felt a homosexual attraction for Anshel, but did nothing about it.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.