Breakfast at Tiffany’s portrays the complicated relationship between love and sex. Many of the relationships are built on a foundation of sexual desire. Holly wants to be loved but the world around her sees her only in terms of sex. The men who attend the party at Holly’s apartment, for example, are demonstrably physically attracted to her, even if they have spent little time talking to her. Similarly, men feel entitled to sex after spending time talking to Holly. In the opening chapters, a man insists that he should be allowed into her apartment (to pursue a sexual relationship, by implication) because he paid for Holly’s dinner. Likewise, another date becomes abusive when drunk and Holly is forced to exit through the fire escape and wait in the narrator’s room because the men in her life treat sex with a sense of entitlement which is devoid of love.

Women also treat Holly’s sexuality in a similar manner. Holly’s neighbors and even her friends (including the narrator) imply that she exchanges sex for money, even if Holly vehemently denies this. Holly is forced into a position where every relationship in her life is predicated on the complicated intersection between sex, love, money, and social power dynamics, meaning that she is forced to adhere to society’s expectations regarding sex, even if she does not agree with these views.