Silver Linings Playbook Emotions

Do Emotions Create a New Path towards Reform

or Does Self-Absorption Consume Us All?

Silver Linings Playbook depicts emotion, both good and bad, throughout the movie. Emotions including sadness from the loss of a loved one, betrayal from a loved one, and doubt with concern towards the clarity of the future. Both Pat and Tiffany struggle to deal with the emotions they've had to endure, yet respond to it in very different ways. Pat responds to his emotions in a non-traditional manner, yet is constantly trying to win his wife Nikki's heart back by bettering himself physically and mentally. Also, Pat often becomes enraged quickly in many unfavorable situations. Tiffany responds to her emotions that she felt was her fault in the first place, by

going around sleeping with other men in order to make up for the lack of compassion and love she had with her husband in the last few months of her marriage. Both methods of coping with emotion for both characters have benefits, yet also have many drawbacks as well. Emotion and self-absorption have very similar qualities. In many cases, we become self-absorbed in our emotion and the goals that we intend to put into motion with said emotion that we forget what emotion really is.
In the past, Pat's focus was always bettering himself because he felt that Nikki never truly loved him for who he was in the past, and in the future tried to improve himself in order to win her back. Throughout Silver Linings Playbook, Pat focuses more on Nikki's needs than his own, and is still focused on how their relationship was in the past. Self-absorption here is evident with the fact that Pat cannot move on from the past and his emotions and into the future where new opportunities can be found. This aspect of masculinity is greatly under-represented in the media because the media often portrays men as dominant and are able to move on quickly. If the media were to present a man with looks like Bradley Cooper's as a weak little man, it would completely destroy Cooper's reputation.
Tiffany's issues with self-absorption start with her new lifestyle after her husband's death. By sleeping around, she became self-absorbed in her endeavor to settle her conscious and guilt of her husband's death. However, the first time Tiffany is introduced, she gives off a sense of acceptance towards the past and is willing to accept her personality benefits and flaws in their entirety. Even when Tiffany's sister Veronica brags about her in front of her face at dinner, Tiffany doesn't make up excuses about what Veronica says; she embraces them. Even when she confronts Veronica about her thinking that she's "not all there", Tiffany does not act like a typical woman would and get all defensive. She goes on the offensive and doesn't become sensitive like a traditional woman. In Silver Linings Playbook, it appears that despite the fact that we revolve around Pat's storyline, Tiffany becomes more of a dominant character than Pat ever would be. However, one instant that shows Tiffany not as the dominant character is when she is first reminded by Pat that her husband died.
When Pat brings up the fact that her husband died, she breaks down. Instead of just breaking down, however, she goes on the offensive once again, accusing Pat of knowing nothing about what it is like to lose a loved one. Here we cannot assume Tiffany is just like any other woman. The death of a loved one is not something to take lightly because it is filled with many negative emotions. If someone I loved suddenly died and I never got to say goodbye I would express a lot of emotions due to the fact that someone that I knew is gone forever and I would never see them again.
Both characters bring a sense of brokenness into the plot, in which the movie suggests that it cannot be solved unless they are both brought together. This phenomena of two people with similar problems and not being able to solve them without one another is very traditional of the media. However, in Silver Linings Playbook, we do not see the traditional "weak" female character that is normally portrayed in movies, nor do we see much of the emotions that a traditional "dominant" male character would portray either. Tiffany is shown to be an amazingly strong woman despite all the quarrels and challenges that she's been faced with. Also, we somewhat see the traditional "dominant" male in Pat, yet Pat has some drawbacks. Pat's dominance is shown through the violence he's contributed towards, but is misleading as after each display of aggression in the movie, we see Pat go soft and is very forgiving after what he's done. These displays of aggression and emotion are commonly seen in real life, yet when the media reports on them, they expand the integrity of how severe the reaction is.
Both of Tiffany and Pat's emotions change throughout the movie as they get to know more about each other.

They also see how much they are alike more than they are different, which comes to be part of their salvation in overcoming their emotions and self-absorption. As their relationship grows, Tiffany senses Pat's brokenness, which reminds her of herself and the brokenness she has endured. After they first meet each other, as Pat walks Tiffany home, Tiffany states that they have more in common than they realize. She also states that they are the same people, all due to the fact that neither of them lie to anyone and would rather hear the truth straight up from someone than have to pull it out of someone. Tiffany becomes attracted to Pat over time as they practice more on their dance routine. Pat sees Tiffany as someone that challenges him as a man, yet also accepts him as himself over someone else. Despite all the time that Tiffany and Pat spend together as partners for their dance competition, the more and more Pat slowly realizes that he has feelings toward Tiffany. One occurrence of this in the movie shows Tiffany stripping off of her shirt and Pat being able to see her through a mirror's reflection. He then leaves the house running at lightning speed for home, only to lay on his bed and just think about what he's seen. Pat's confusion and doubt toward the future seem to help him realize that Nikki isn't coming back and that he's focusing on the wrong

person.
Once Tiffany and Pat get to the dance competition, both of them act as if they're a couple together instead of just dance partners. After realizing that Nikki is at the dance competition along with Veronica and Ronnie, Pat does nothing but focus on the competition itself calmly and collectively rather than trying to win Nikki back or make efforts to grab her attention towards him. However, when Tiffany sees Nikki with her sister, she nearly melts down and goes off to the nearest bar. Tiffany normally wouldn't care if her sister had made an appearance but the fact that Nikki had been there without her knowing puts her entire plan into jeopardy, for fear that Pat will try to reconcile with Nikki and ruin the relationship that she had with Pat. To conceal her emotions, Tiffany goes off drinking with another guy. Emotions throughout this entire scene were running high on both sides of Pat's relationships. Pat knew that if he didn't go through with this dance competition, he might not only lose Nikki, but Tiffany as well.
One scene that truly shows great emotion is Pat and Tiffany's dance routine.

As if for the first time, Pat and Tiffany truly connect on their own level. Pat realizes throughout the dance that he has been putting all of his attention towards the wrong woman. The dance exemplifies Pat and Tiffany's relationship well, with the classic, simple romantic music as their normal lives, but when a catchy, rhythmic pop song comes on, their dance turns completely different and has new energy. It is if their dance is just like their relationships along with their mental illnesses. Most of the time we see tranquil, calm, romantic moments with them, and yet in the blink of an eye, chaos and spontaneity take hold, creating something in real life may be panic and aggravating, but here represents the life and creativity each of them hold. The dance then returns back to the romantic side, but instead of trying to impress Nikki, Pat in this last part tries more to please Tiffany, realizing that he's in love with her more than his is in love with Nikki. Also, as the dance goes on, Pat realizes that his self-absorption towards Nikki has

ceased.
After their dance is completed, and after they receive their score, Pat goes up to Nikki for a brief conversation, instead of cheering on with Tiffany. Tiffany sees that Pat goes off towards Nikki to talk with her, and she feels heartbroken and betrayed. In a matter of seconds, Tiffany leaves the theater. Pat looks for her as if he's lost another loved one, and once he learns she left without him, he realizes that he no longer has feelings for Nikki and instead wants to focus all of his attention towards Tiffany. Emotions in this scenario change hands quickly, and the dominance that Tiffany once displayed is now gone. After Pat catches up with Tiffany, he confesses that she only talked to Nikki to say he's moved on, and that now he only wants to spend time with her now, and that he loves her now instead of Nikki. Filled with emotion, Tiffany and Pat embrace one another.
Emotions are very relevant in Silver Linings Playbook, as they drive the entire plot of the movie. Without emotion here, no new opportunities arise. We saw that many characters were very self-absorbed in their own endeavors, yet they put their emotions in front of their own endeavors.