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Tiffany’s
The birdcage that Holly gives the narrator is an embodiment of the kind of existence Holly fears most—namely, one in which she can’t exercise her personal freedom. When she gives the cage to him for Christmas, she makes him promise never to put a living thing inside of it, clearly feeling that the cage represents confinement and restriction. Interestingly enough, the narrator doesn’t see the cage in these terms, instead thinking of it as a beautiful object. It is, after all, a very large and ornamented birdcage. In this way, the birdcage stands for one of the fundamental differences between Holly and the narrator, which is that Holly’s fear of losing her freedom renders her unable to see—like the narrator can—that some kinds of stasis and domesticity can actually be quite beautiful. In this sense, the birdcage signifies the fraught relationship Holly has with her own idea of autonomy and freedom.
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The Birdcage Symbol Timeline in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Birdcage appears in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
...bored yawn, which diminishes his excitement. During this period, he sees a beautiful and lavish birdcage in a storefront window and fantasizes about owning it, though he knows he’ll never be...
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...she has a present for him. Bringing him into her bedroom, she shows him the birdcage. Beside himself, the narrator comments on how expensive the cage was, but Holly disregards this,...
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In the present, the narrator still has the birdcage. However, shortly after Holly gave it to him, he gave it back. This transpires when...
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...the narrator to get out of her apartment. Accordingly, the narrator marches upstairs, gets the birdcage, and puts outside her door. The next morning, he sees it sitting on the curb...
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