A Compare And Contrast Breakfast At Tiffany's

Film vs. Novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, both the film and novella, is a classic that deserves recognition even today. It is a story about a woman, Holly Golightly, who receives money from both from male escorts and a man in prison. She one day meets the new writer that lives in her apartment complex, Varjak. As time goes on she gets close to Varjak, the writer, and meets a man named José. She later in the film decides she wants to marry him to get away but ends up not going through with it. However since most of the plot is the same in the film and novella, the film should be viewed first as it is a little better “read” then the book because of the viewablitity, the difference in endings, and the similarities in the plots. The main reason that the film is better and easier to accept is that it is more viewable then the book. The film makes the viewer able to see the characters and their relationships more clearly. In the film you can see when Golightly first meets Varjak, she is immediately attached to him and even calls him Fred, her brother who she loves very deeply and is in the army. Being able to see this connection in the film gives the viewer a distinct notion that, despite never seeing Varjak before, Golightly is very comfortable with him. However in the book this is less clear and the reader may not get that as quickly
as if they watched the movie. Also watching the movie you can see as Golightly accepts money from the escorts for going to the washroom and making her getaway. Making this an action scene gives the viewer the impression that this is a serious thing she is doing, but showing her elegance in her escape implies it is nothing new for her. As for the difference in the endings the film portrays a little bit more of a happier ending making it a little easier for the viewers to like the ending and to not leave a large hook at the end with many unknowns. In the film Golightly ends up deciding she wants to marry José, goes to jail, then doesn 't get to be with José and accepting her love for Varjak. This closes up almost all of the unknowns the book leaves open. We can see she loves Varjak, we can see she finds the cat, and we can see she and Varjak live happily ever after. The novella however has a little more of a sad ending. Golightly escapes going to jail, moves to Brazil but can’t be with José because he has a family already, and is constantly moving around. The film’s ending is more of a modern twist of the story that would motivate people to watch the film over the novella. The ending serves to express that even the most open-ended or spontaneous people can settle down eventually and find out what they really want. The novella though only ever shows the open-ended ness of Golightly. As a reader you can only assume that she will never settle down and she will never truly take control of her life. The plots of both the film and novella are very similar.
Both the film and novella make Golightly to be very spontaneous and very loveable. She makes the same actions in both the movie and novella. The plot serves to show her as a very likeable person because she is always getting money from escorts just by telling them she is going to the washroom. She is perceived as the same person in the film and novella with hardly any differences. She is shown as a little more spontaneous in the book but the film rounds her out a little more, proving that she has times that she is jumping from one thing to another and times she is calm and
caring. In conclusion the novella is a classic and deserves to be read but only after the movie has been watched to understand the relationships better and why Golightly is the way she is. Though the plots are the same, Golightly is very different at the end of the movie then the end of the novella. The movie shows progress and hope, while the novella expresses the continuation of her current behaviors and actions. The movie is all in all a better representation of the story then the novella is.

Works Cited
Breakfast at Tiffany 's. Dir. Blake Edwards. Perf. Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Paramount, 1961. DVD.
Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany 's. New York: Random House, 1958. Print.