Breakfast At Tiffany's Arranged Marriages

1680 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Studying gender roles in literature

Throughout history, society has never cared much for women’s happiness. Arranged marriages were used to buy and to sell women to the highest bidder and women were expected to comply for the best in interest of their families. While society did not care if a man has an affair, a woman is expected to keep a content facade. Helga Crane from the novel Quicksand, May Newland from the novel The Age of Innocence, and Holly Golightly from the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s all have suffered through marriages in order to have a place in the world. The patriarchal society that these women live in has conditioned them to believe that in order to not only survive, but also ensure that their love ones survive, they must belong to the “strongest” man that …show more content…

Holly spend her childhood outside of society, running with her brother Fred from their abusive foster parents. Holly and Fred were later taken in by Holly’s future husband, Doc Golightly. Once Holly marries Doc, she lives an easy and comfortable life, but it was not the life that Holly thought would be for her. While married to Doc, Holly has a fairly comfortable life, she has enough food each day, a safe place for her brother to live and no worries about whether she has enough money to live on. Doc was also not the husband she thought she would marry so she flees in search of her ideal life. Holly moves around and finally settles in New York. In the 1960s, women were expected to still be housewives, still under the control of their husbands or their fathers, so a single woman living alone is considered inappropriate with assumptions that she is selling herself. No matter what Holly choices are, society still controls her fate. If Holly is married, life becomes doable but once she defies society, she has to face society’s consequences. In New York, Holly struggles to maintain her lifestyle and supplements her income by visiting a felon. When Holly goes against societal norms, society will push her out. Society will not allow Holly to make it on her own, so she has to resort to illegal activities in order to survive. Holly knows that society will not let her support herself or her brother by herself, so she actively seeks for a potential rich husband, Rusty Trawler, even if he might be gay. Doc later comes to visit and tries to take his “wife” home. Once he sees Holly he says: “geese don’t they feed you up here” which proves that it is evident to Doc that Holly is unable to support herself in her new lifestyle. Once Doc realizes that Holly will not leave with him he then threatens that her brother will have to stay in the army to survive, which

Show More
Related

  • My Home My World By Stephanie Coontz Summary

    358 Words  | 1 Pages

    Both Stephanie Coontz in “Great expectations” and Archena Bhalla in “My home, my world” address the issue about marriage and arranged marriages. While Stephanie mostly speaks on couples don’t make marriage their top priority and don’t last for a long time. And she gives an example by saying that “People nowadays don’t respect the marriage vowels.” She also believes that in the 18th and 19th centuries, conventional wisdom among middle-class men was the kind of woman you’d want for a wife was incapable of sexual passion which has changed in the 20th century. Also that marriage was viewed in the prospective that work relationship in which passion took second place to practicality and intimacy never was important with male. Bhalla speaks

    Read More

  • Jack's Run: Summary

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    The director of the FBI is head of the investigation, but it begins very slowly. The next morning, Holly and Reacher are once again transported in the white panel truck. Holly didn’t understand why Reacher did not attempt to escape the night before, but Holly felt responsible for his safety. That night they are held in a barn, however, it is clearly shown that Reacher and Holly are watching after each other when all the sudden one of the kidnappers tries to rape Holly ruthlessly. Reacher breaks free from his restraints and kills the kidnapper and then hides his body so that none of the other kidnapers would know about what went

    Read More

  • The True Confessions Of Charlotte Doyle Critical Analysis

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    Hollybrass, and blames it on charlotte. On page 188 it said, “ Mr. Hollybrass had to die. No one could possibly believe I would do such a thing. So yes since you are unnatural proclaimed so I hasten to remind you, by all you shall be held responsible.” Captain kills Hollybrass so he could blame it on Charlotte and the crew would not like her. All the crew members respect captain and know him well, so no one would think that he killed him but Charlotte is new and the crew bight think she killed him. These are some ways that this book has violence

    Read More

  • Edna Pontellier and Elizabeth Bennet: Challenge of 19th Century Conventional Methods

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Bible which is seen as one of the most sacred text to man has contained in it not only the Ten Commandments, but wedding vows. In those vows couples promise to love, cherish, and honor each other until death does them apart. The irony of women accepting these vows in the nineteenth century is that women are viewed as property and often marry to secure a strong economic future for themselves and their family; love is never taken into consideration or questioned when a viable suitor presents himself to a women. Often times these women do not cherish their husband, and in the case of Edna Pontiellier while seeking freedom from inherited societal expectations and patriarchal control; even honor them. Women are expected to be caretakers of the home, which often time is where they remain confined. They are the quintessential mother and wife and are expected not to challenge that which...

    Read More

  • Holly is a Runaway

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ing to KFC every year was better than roasting an actual turkey. Although, her mother still always opens a can of spiced peaches and a small can of cranberry sauce. In the end, Holly eventually opens up completely to her imaginary Ms.Leone.

    Read More

  • Janie's Perfect Marriage In Their Eyes Were Watching God

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human beings are not isolated individuals. We do not wander through a landscape of trees and dunes alone, reveling in our own thoughts. Rather, we need relationships with other human beings to give us a sense of support and guidance. We are social beings, who need talk and company almost as much as we need food and sleep. We need others so much, that we have developed a custom that will insure company: marriage. Marriage assures each of us of company and association, even if it is not always positive and helpful. Unfortunately, the great majority of marriages are not paragons of support. Instead, they hold danger and barbs for both members. Only the best marriages improve both partners. So when we look at all three of Janie’s marriages, only her marriage to Teacake shows the support, guidance, and love.

    Read More

  • Love and Marriage in Gallant's The Other Paris

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gallant typecast both Carol and Howard as ordinary young people, and like typical human beings, both have faults and beliefs that follow the accepted practices of society. As all women of a certain point in life (if that certain point can be said as the age of ?twenty-two?), Carol frets incessantly over her age, being ?under the illusion? that very soon she would be ?so old? that no man could possibly want her. Here, Gallant ridicules the standards of age and beauty expected by society from women like Carol, a thing common even in a more open and accepting world like today?s. Like her peers throughout time, Carol is pressured not only by her friends or parents but also herself to get a man while she able to attract someone much more suitable than that ?medical student with no money.? Her vanity and fear of ending up old and alone embodies societal views toward spinsters as women pining away in some dingy corner. Likewise, Howard also has the same pride as men now. His sister?s caution and unwelcome prediction that he will soon be just ?a...

    Read More

  • Carmen by John Benton

    1750 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bud grows fond of Carmen and she decides to live with Bud who is a drug dealer, but after she repeatedly steals drugs from him, he kicks Carmen out.

    Read More

  • The Dependent Holly Golightly, main character of Breakfast At Tiffany's

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    Holly Golightly is one of the most interesting and complicating characters that can ever be written about. She doesn't even know her own self. Holly thinks that she is independent and self reliant. "I've taken care of myself for a long time."(p.27) Even OJ Berman (her agent) knew that she was full of her self. "She isn't a phony, she's a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes." (p.30) Holly also used to steal things, which she thought was a way of being independent and survival.

    Read More

  • Breakfast at Tiffany's

    463 Words  | 1 Pages

    Holly is not only a physical paradox of a girl and a woman, but so is her personality, she has an odd mixture of child-like innocence and street smart sexuality. This is most apparent in Holly's chosen profession, the one dubbed "the world's oldest". Holly seems to always have a man banging on her door or passing out in her apartment asking for more money or another "appointment". Holly's first real conversation with the narrator takes place some time after the midnight hour when she escapes from one of her drunken clients via the fire escape and knocks on the narrator's window. Much to his surprise, she is wearing only a robe and asks if she can stay in his apartment until the man in her's passes out or leaves.

    Read More

  • Reservation Blues

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alterations: Comparing the Changes Caused by Marriage of the two Bessie Head Short Stories, “Life” and “Snapshots of a Wedding”

    Read More

  • Theme Of Patriarchy In Jane Austen's Emma

    1968 Words  | 4 Pages

    married. However, “for pragmatic reasons, the author’s conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness” (“Austen, Jane”). Als...

    Read More

  • Compromise and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen gives us the reader a very good idea of how she views marriage, as well as society. The theme of marriage is set in the very opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice; "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Austen, 1) As Norman Sherry points out, this is Austen's way of implying that 'a single man in possession of a good fortune' is automatically destined to be the object of desire for all unmarried women. The statement opens the subject of the romantic novel; courtship and marriage. The sentence also introduces the issue of what the reasons for marrying are. She implies here that many young women marry for money. The question...

    Read More

  • Themes Of Marriage In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the beginning of time, marriage exists as a large part of life. The values of marriage change on a year to year basis and as trends continue to change so will marriage. There have been numerous reasons for marriage throughout time such as arranged, wealth, love or many others. In the 18th century, many marriages were based on one’s class and wealth and not true love. Today, many marriages do not take wealth or class into account they focus on that person’s inner self and love. Marriage exists as an overlying theme throughout Pride and Prejudice and every marriage appears for a different reason.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Women In David Copperfield

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within these marriages, readers get a sense of how education plays an important role in a successful marriage, as this fulfills both of their dreams of personal identity. Although women in the nineteenth century were viewed to be superior wives and mothers, manage the household, and perform domestic tasks, it was important for women to become educated as “an education was supposed to enable these girls to become successful women in society” (Leigh 117). Women were not meant to be “trained” in some way to become good wives, but needed to be formally educated in order to be a successful wife and

    Read More

More about Breakfast At Tiffany's Arranged Marriages

Open Document