For Charles Dickens, a wedding is celebrated with breakfast, which is called "the wedding breakfast" and takes place immediately after the wedding ceremony!
However, breakfast is not always happy in Dickens; a young Pip has a nightmarish breakfast with baddy Uncle Pumblechook in Great Expectations! Breakfasts at horrid private schools in David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby are equally bad. The same goes for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, when Jane is at Lowood, the --you guessed it-- horrid private charity school she is sent to by her evil Aunt Reed.
On the other hand, breakfast at the school where Lucy is teacher in Villette is plentiful and happy; in A Little Princess, the Magic makes surprise fairy tale breakfasts for orphan Sarah to eat at the attic!
In Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian orders a lavish breakfast for Ana after a momentary stay at the Heathman; for the two young lovers, breakfast is always a way to express emotion and discuss their relationship and what they feel for each other.
In fantasy novels like The Belgariad by David Eddings and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams, breakfasts are always taken on the road (because the protagonists are on a quest). In front of the campfire, the novel heroes eat their hard biscuits and dried meat, dreaming of home, comfort and buttered toast.
So you could say that breakfast is a way to set the tone, and reflect a novel's direction and themes!
Personally, I love breakfast as indeed I love all my meals. But what I wouldn't give for a breakfast with Christian Grey! It doesn't have to be at the Heathman or a luxury hotel...
;-)
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