Rhetorical Analysis: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a romantic comedy film that focuses on the eccentric Holly Golightly, and her new neighbor and friend Paul Varjack, who she calls Fred, after her brother that he shares a striking resemblance to. Their friendship is threatened when Holly’s husband tracks her down and talks to Paul Varjack, revealing that Holly, who is actually named Lula Mae, is an adoptive mother of four from Tulip, Texas. Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals—ethos, pathos, and logos—can be seen scattered throughout the movie, some scenes more obvious than others.
An example of ethos is seen in scene 7, where “Holly’s” husband tracks her down and talks to Paul. He monologues about Lula Mae and establishes credibility with Paul before he asks if Paul will tell Lula Mae to go home with him. He does this by telling Paul “When I married Lula Mae she was going on 14. Now you might think the average person going on 14 wouldn’t know his own mind. But you take Lula Mae. She was an exceptional person” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s 0:48:02). While Lula Mae’s age is never stated, it can be assumed that she is about twenty years old. We don’t know how long ago she ran away, but seeing as Doc is only just now trying to find her because her brother will be returning soon, we can infer that she has been gone only a few years. This means they were married and knew each other for at least half a decade. This further establishes his credibility. He also informed Paul that, as far as he was concerned, Lula Mae had no reason to run away, as her children did everything. She basically had no reason to be unhappy. She simply ran away because she had “never been to New York.”
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Another example of ethos is in scene 4, where we are first introduced to O.J. Berman, Lula Mae’s agent. First, he shows his authority by blowing out Paul’s match when he tries to light Lula Mae’s cigarette, telling Paul that he’ll do it. Lula Mae wanders off after telling O.J. to help make Paul famous. When Paul and O.J. are left alone, O.J. asks Paul if he thinks Lula Mae is a phony. Berman states that she is, in fact, a phony, and shows his credibility by informing Paul “I’m the guy that discovered her. A couple of years ago, back on the coast here (Breakfast at Tiffany’s 32:00).” After his credibility is established, he tells Paul that she had a hillbilly accent and it took a year to get it to go away with the help of French lessons. This is believable because Berman showed his credibility earlier.
Furthermore, in scene 13, we see a good example of logos by O.J. Berman. He seems very knowledgeable about many entertainment-based things, such as covering up a scandal. In scene 13, after Lula Mae had been arrested, Paul calls O.J. Berman because he knows that Berman will know what to do. O.J. Berman tells Paul exactly what to do, with the confidence of a man who has been in this situation many a time. He informs Paul that she’s set at a $10,000 bail and that she will be out by 10:00 a.m. thanks to his lawyer. He then instructs Paul to “bust into that dump she lives in, collect all her junk. Get down to the jail. Get her out. Take her straight over to a hotel under a phony name, right (Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1:43:20)?” Paul then, following O.J. Berman’s instructions, picks Lula Mae up in a cab to take her to a hotel.
Scene 7 is also a good example of pathos, as Doc is very emotional throughout the monologue; he is talking about his wife, after all. He begs Paul to be his friend and lets Lula Mae know that he’s there and wants to take her back home. He tells Paul the story of how Doc first met Lula Mae. She and her brother were on his farm stealing turkey eggs and milk. He says that the two of them had run away from a terrible home far away from Tulip. “She had good cause to run off from that house. Never had any to leave mine (Breakfast at Tiffany’s 0:50:00).”
Another example of pathos is scene 14, which starts with Lula Mae insisting on going to the airport and to South America instead, and in an emotional moment, throws Cat out of the car. This is the last straw for Paul, as throughout the story she continuously showed just how selfish she is. Paul then tells her that she’s a chicken, and that “you’re terrified somebody’s going to stick you in a cage… you’re already in that cage. You built it yourself… It wherever you go” (Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1:50:56), and then proceeds to look for Cat. This helps Lula Mae finally realize how selfish she had been, and she gets out and starts to look for Cat with him. The entire scene is very emotional, from Paul’s anger to their desperation to find Cat, who was soaking wet, as Lula Mae forced him out of the taxi into heavy rain.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s has a seemingly happy ending, of Paul and Lula Mae kissing passionately in the rain, Cat smushed between them. However, if you think about it, the ending raises many questions. Will Lula Mae still leave, will she go back to her family in Tulip, Texas, or will she abandon them and stay with Paul? Whatever the ending, it is still an incredible movie, with many examples of ethos, logos, and pathos.
Works Cited
- Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Directed by Blake Edwards, Performances by Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Mickey Rooney, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Alan Reed. Paramount Pictures, 1961.
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