Theme of Love in Twilight by Meyer Stephanie

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Theme of Love in Twilight by Meyer Stephanie

Twilight by Stephanie is a story that is based on love and fairy tales throughout the context of the novel. There are two main characters in the book that the author develops to create the theme of love, and these are Edward and Bella. Bella used to live with her father in a modest house who was a well-respected town official. While she was living in town, Bella met a handsome and mysterious young man. She became intrigued by the unique looks, and the strange behavior of the young man and this made her spend most of her hours in bed dreaming about the young man. One of the days Bella found herself in terrible danger and just when it seemed like it was going to be too late, a young man appeared and saved her. It is with no doubt that the mysterious and handsome young man was indeed Edward. The unique behavior that Edward is described of possessing is because he is a vampire and this contributes to the strange behavior as he is not a normal human being.

Twilight is unique from the other works of traditional vampire literature as it incorporates the use of the elements of love and fairy tales throughout the novel, a characteristic that slightly deviates from the other traditional vampire novels. Most commonly, many of the books that are written about love are about a boy and a girl meeting and finally falling in love. Between these stories and falling in love, there are always some obstacles that the characters need to overcome before they can break through and live happily ever after. When Edward and Bella met, they were instantly drawn together, but they couldn’t be together due to their nature as Bella was a human and Edward was a vampire, and this aspect of being a vampire stood between their love as well as mutual happiness. The novel, therefore, follows a classical pattern in the way Edward and Bella met and the obstacle standing in between them, but there is a twist in the story since the boy Edward is a vampire making the love story more complicated and more exciting than just when Edward had only been a normal boy.

Due to the fact that Edward is not a human, the love between Edward and Bella is prohibited, and this resemblance to the traditional love stories like that of Romeo and Juliet is a contributing factor to the Twilights popularity. There was, therefore, a high probability that just like the case of Romeo and Juliet ending in tragedy, the same was deemed to happen between Bella and Edward. Edward is possessed by extra powers that are resultant from his vampire nature, and this can be very dangerous to their relationship with Bella. The danger can be detected when Edward tells Bella that “I could kill you quite easily, Bella, simply by accident” (271). In the contrast whatever is wrong and forbidden tends to be more exciting and this is the case that happens to Twilight as it is the danger and passion that come with the supernatural creatures that make the novel different from the rest of the ordinary love stories. There are obsession and excitement between the two characters, and in this sense, Mayer not only combines the different genres but also associated the novel Twilight to the classic gothic literature.

The story of Edward and Bella is narrated through the eyes of a 17-year-old Isabella “Bella” Swan as she describes herself as “Slender” and “Ivory-skinned” (Twilight, 9) where she also considers herself as very unattractive. Young women who read the novel can easily relate to her character for various reasons, and one of them is the fact that Bella symbolizes the everyday girl in high school in their adolescent and just like the many teens in high school she does not fit in and therefore she is very much a loner. Bella thinks that there is nothing special about her, but she happens to be the only girl in the small town of Forks where she lives with her father. Other girls catch Edward’s eyes who is an outsider, but to our expectation, as it is the case for every teenager, Bella gets fascinated by Edward. Bella enters an unknown territory when she moves to live with her father, and this means that she must adjust to fit in a new school and place and this is among the issues that are experienced by the people especially the teens who are in school.

In the novel, Bella is developed as a character who is old-fashioned, and this is depicted when she moves in with her father in Forks town and immediately she assumes the role as a kind of housemaid through taking care of his father and as well cleaning their home, simply assuming the roles of a woman in the house. Instead of acting like most of the modern teenagers, for example by being rebellious, she assumes the role of caring and protecting his father a thing that most of the teenagers can’t afford doing. By doing this, it means that Bella is kind-hearted and filled with love and that’s why she cares for his father, and therefore it is not a surprise that she is tempted to fall in love with Edward, who is like more than a hundred years old and thus Edward suits her manners.

In the novel, Edward is portrayed as being a gentleman and therefore, his gentlemanlike behavior, as well as his controlling manner, suits her motherly and sacrificial behavior more perfectly due to the sense that they complete each other. Just like any other girl of the 21st century could drive a car, Bella as well could drive but she is submissive making her easily dominated by the male characters, a fact that can be considered odd bearing in mind that she used to live with her mother the whole of her life except for the occasions that she visited her father. Her submissiveness to the male characters may be derived from her almost non-existent relationship that Bella had with her father, compelling her to crave for male attention because to some extent she feels lonely as she no longer lives with her mother.

The lack of a nuclear family in Bella’s life may be significant to her romance with Edward, and this may not only be because that Edward has saved Bella in most occasions throughout the novel. There are various instances where Edward has saved Bella, and one of them is when Edward saves her from being crushed to death by a car. The fact that Edward saved her several times does not imply that it is the reason that Bella fell in love with him. But it is vividly indicated in the book that Bella was very much drawn to the entire family of Edward since there are the many ways the family that she had always needed and wanted (Twilight, 126). In this sense, we, therefore, gets to know the reason as to why Edward saves Bella as he does not only do this to protect her from the impending physical danger but also from her mental distress.

The absence of a devoted father and mother can be said to be among the reasons that contribute to the necessity for Bella’s rescue as she is not happy with her life and that there is something that is missing and that is the family love. Bella is aware that Edward and his family will make a complete family for her and therefore she needs to be with them. Meyer tries to describe the Cullens, the vampire family as a regular American family who plays baseball and just like any other human family (68). Edward’s family is in some ways better than Bella’s human family both father and mother who are not committed as parents, but that of Edward is a complete representation of a perfect family. By Bella getting involved with Edward romantically, she also gets a chance to connect and get close to his family, the one she had always dreamt of and this enhances the appeal for Edward.

Through Bella’s experiences and thoughts, we get to know that Edward Cullen is her love interest and soulmate. The two are constantly drawn to each other as if there were a higher power that was responsible for pushing them together. Right from the beginning, it is quite clear that there is something different about Edward as his old-fashioned and charming manner along with his outstanding looks resemble more of a traditional gentleman and not just an ordinary male in high school. In the novel, Edward is described as “a runway model” (Twilight, 221) or a “god-like creature” (Twilight, 224) and these descriptions separated him from the others.

Edward is depicted as more of a mysterious character unlike Bella as the readers of the novel are provided with direct and unlimited access to Bella’s thoughts while those of Edward are inaccessible and limited and therefore makes him more mysterious as less is known of him. Being provided with unlimited access to Bella’s thoughts implies that the readers can relate to her and even feel as though they are on her side and at the same time there is an enhancement of the mystery that surrounds Edward. From the novel, there is ample mystery as well as suspense that surrounds Edward characterization and is vivid by the clues that are provided by Meyer about Edward, his family and the rest of their kind, some of them are even said to pose extreme danger to Bella (Twilight, 61).

The whole story is based on love between two different individuals. Bella is human while Edward is a vampire. A lion can never be in love with a lamb as this is kind of love is forbidden. Despite this fact, the two lovebirds, Edward and Bella fall in love breaking the odds that are set and to which prohibits their love with the fact that a vampire cannot be in love with a human bur fellow humans. The love between the two is not based on rules, it is boundless and cannot be restricted by what other people tend to think of being right or wrong. Edward goes against his natural instinct due to the urge of being close to Bella.

Despite their relationship being forbidden and full of complications, Meyer in the book shows that Bella’s world had changed for better upon engaging in a relationship with Edward. It is a fact that the difference between the two can only afford Edward to offer happiness to Bella but he cannot provide her with a normal future or a normal relationship. There is a clear distinction between love and lust in the novel especially in the instance where Edward pushes himself to the very limits of self-control in an attempt to save Bella’s human life when she is bitten by James, one of the Cullen’s family member. It is therefore evident that the theme of love has dominated the book with two different characters falling in unconditional love despite the societal retractions.

Work Cited

Meyer, Stephenie. The twilight saga collection. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009.