Holly Golightly Character Analysis

Golightly initially comes off as a strong, independent, and fearless woman who doesn’t let anybody take charge of her life, but her pain and vulnerability later prove that she might not fully embody that persona. As further emphasis, Golightly can also be seen as irresponsible and scatterbrained when it comes to how often she loses her keys. Furthermore, one can see that Golightly isn’t using her looks just to keep up with her lifestyle, but she also uses them to get herself out of all kinds of trouble. Her upstairs neighbor whose bell she always rings when she can’t find her keys, Mr. Yunioshi, grows more and more tired of her constantly waking him up or disturbing him, yet she always finds a way to mollify him by telling him that he will …show more content…
She is not only in denial about the circumstances of her life, but also its sadness and tragedy. Whenever she talks about a grim part of her life, especially when she relayed to Paul that she feels as if she has never truly belonged anywhere, she simply shrugs and smiles. It’s as if Golightly is childishly pretending that everything is going to be okay. Her childish behavior also extends to her pretending to live a glamorous life. She plays up her stylish wardrobe, hiding under big, beribboned hates and cos-tume pearls. She looks forward to royal bliss in Brazil with José de Silva Pereira, a man she bare-ly had the chance to know yet fall in love with. Despite that, she tries her best to become a suita-ble wife for José, and even begins to act like a proper woman of her time: knitting, cooking, and learning Portuguese, the primary language of Brazil. From her desperate want to mold herself into a perfect wife, one may see that she is not actually the dominant player in her relationships. The men whom Holly Golightly appeared to dominate and manipulate are actually the ones who turn out to be in control. She isn’t changing José to make him a better husband for herself, but she is “caging herself,” the “wild thing” in order to be with him. No matter how much she might attempt to lure men in with her charming manner and perhaps sexual endeavors, José de Silva Pereira, Rusty Trawler, and other suitors alike are …show more content…
As Paul gains his independence and ability to live life on his own terms after refusing his female suitor by finally earning a real living through writing; in contrast, Holly Golightly starts off with a measure of independence, which she then sacrificed for the stability of “belonging” to Paul. Even though at first Holly Golightly can be seen as a self-empowered, independent, and strong woman who is capable of fighting ste-reotypical gender roles, we soon come to realize that she actually succumbs to those very roles, and hers to seek not success in her independence, but fulfillment and security in the arms of a