I hate the Twilight Series by Stephine Meyer.
Really, I do. Now, I know it sounds harsh, but I really truly do. For many reasons. I'm a book lover, and Twilight is just poor literature. No literary elements, no character development, and the purple prose is so thick, it's hard to understand what Meyer is actually getting at. But as a book lover, I'm well aware not every book needs to be a classic. In fact, I actually enjoyed Eragon.
So my problem doesn't lie in the poor writing, though that certainly has something to do with it. So, what then, could make me hate a book that it seems every one of my peers love? It's almost like it insulted some of my core beliefs!
Oh wait. It did.
Now, for coherency and length purposes I'm going to discuss the Twilight series in three main categories: The "Heroine" Bella, The "Boyfriend" Edward and Their Relationship, and The Other Females.
The "Heroine" Bella
Twilight is written in first person, so through out the course of the book we're subjected to Bella's every thought, and need. We're also seeing the world as Bella sees it. Bella is given as little personality as possible, so the reader can step into her shoes. She's described as plain, yet every boy in the book wants her. However, she rejects all their advances, no matter how friendly. However, once Edward steps in, it's all over. Edward is a beautiful, gorgeous vampire.
Once Edward and Bella get together, Bella is completely dependent upon him. He becomes her entire life. Bella has no friends outside of Edward. The few people she talks to are so few and far between, they hardly count. The closes thing Bella has to a friend outside of Edward is Jacob, but she gives him up once Edward becomes jealous, and forbids their hanging out. After two weeks of being together, Bella decides to give up her life and become a vampire. Pretty bad, huh? And the worst part is, the only reason given for Bella loving Edward is how hot he is. There are seriously over 100 references to Edward's beauty in the first book alone. I counted.
Now what kind of message is that? A guy is worth everything so long as he's hot? Never do Bella and Edward have a real conversation where falling in love happens. All we hear from Bella is how insanely gorgeous Edward is. Never once does Bella even spare a thought for any of her other "friends". And that seems to set a theme for Twilight. That your boyfriend is the most important thing in your life.
Bella is a weak character. In the beginning of the first book, a boy pricks his finger and Bella almost faints at the sight of it so, of course, one of the boys in her class has to take her out. And this is just the first instance of Bella having to be saved by a big strong man. As the book progresses, Bella finds herself in various dangerous situations. She almost gets hit by a truck. Guess who saves her? Edward. Bella goes with her friends on a shopping trip to seem normal, and she separates from her friends and ends up an a back alley with some guys who want to take advantage of her. Does she scream? Call for help? Try to fight for herself? She thinks about it, then remembers she's a girl so what's the point? But then Edward swoops in and saves the day! This continues on throughout the whole book. Normally while Bella describes her intense fear, and how she feels like feinting. Typical damsel in distress. This girl is nothing with out her man. In fact, in New Moon, she because some depressed that she can't even remember what went on in her life for three months when Edward leaves. Real healthy.
She treats the other boys in the series even worse. She begins using Jacob to do dangerous things so she can hear Edward's voice in her head. She leads intentionally leads Jacob, her only friend, on so she can hear a voice in her head. Mike shows interest in Bella, but doesn't push it it and is perfectly nice and Bella completely brushes him off as a "golden retriever". Eric offers to help her find her way to class and he gets branded as an over helpful nerd. Again, the message here is clear. Do whatever you have to so you can be with your ultra hot boyfriend. The stereotype is also clear: Women are controlling bitches. But that become more apparent later with the other female characters in the book.
The "Boyfriend" Edward and the Relationship
Let's discuss this. The main point of Twilight. The part of the book that encourages young girls to date abusive men, and give up all sense of independence. This is the things that gets me most about Twilight.
Edward is described and portrayed as the perfect man. He's hot, sexy, plays the piano and is a mind reading vampire. What's not to love, right? This dude even sparkles.
Well, there's a lot.
Edward has complete control over Bella's life. Part of this is due to her obsessive nature, but it's also in part to the way he manipulates and abuses her. He starts off following Bella's smell around, and watching her sleep with out her permission or knowledge. That is stalking, and it is illegal. Later on, he invades Bella's privacy by listening in to all her conversations via her friend's minds. He even goes so far as to take the engine out her car so she can't see her best friend. A friend who Edward claims would be dangerous, and a threat to Bella. But this claim holds no water. Bella's best friend is a werewolf, but none of the werewolves have ever tried to hurt Bella, yet Jasper, Edward's vampire brother, tried once to kill her. Then, it is Edward's jealousy that leads him to more abusive, and illegal, behavior. Bella accepts it because she's afraid of Edward leaving her, and of course that age old excuse of, "He only does it because he loves me!"
The relationship in the Twilight series is a very unhealthy one. Both parties are very obsessive, and Edward is abusive. Bella's mind is constantly on Edward. She leaves her friends, and pushes her family to the background all for Edward's sake after dating him for what? Two weeks? She has no life out side Edward, save maybe Jacob. That's not healthy at all. A woman's life should never revolve around a boyfriend. Bella is so obsessed that she falls into depression when Edward leaves after they'd been dating for somewhere around three months. Any normal, healthy person might be sad, but falling into a state of depression where you can't remember anything is not normal, nor healthy, and never will be normal for a three month relationship.
Now, what really gets me here is that so many girls aged 12-17 and older are saying how much they want an Edward of their own. They want someone to "love" them so much they control their every move. That is not right. Edward was stalking Bella. Literally stalking. Following her without permission, and they see no problem with this! What happened to feminism girls? What happened to having you own freedom? What happened to an equal relationship?
It really gets scary sometimes. I once had a conversation with a girl about how abusive Edward was. Her response was, "Yeah, but he's hot!"
Oi.
The Other Females
Every other female in Twilight is shallow, manipulative, and unimportant. The closest you get to a strong female character is Alice, Edward's sister. As the book progresses, however, we find out she's just obsessed with shopping and party, and she's very materialistic. In fact, she kidnaps Bella under Edward's orders for a new car. Didn't I mention the kidnapping? No? Yikes.
Esme, Edward's mom, doesn't really do much but be a maternal figure. Rosalie, Edward's sister, is vain and hates Bella and is later turned into a bitter victim. Angela is Bella's best human friend, but she's hardly around and has very little personality. Jessica tries to make friends with Bella apparently because she wants to be popular. Bella's mother is flighty, irresponsible, and unable to take care of herself. The only female werewolf, Leah, lusts after the pack leader and is judgemental and makes everything harder on all the boys.
All of them have boyfriends that are stronger or more capable then they are.
I could go on and on about this book, but I think I've gone on long enough. Is this what we, as feminist, are encouraging young girls to read? A book's that's primary message is "You're boyfriend is your life?". Not to mention the abusive/obsessive relationship the main characters have. This is a popular book. A very popular book. And girls are eating it up. Meyer presents all this sexism and misogyny as an idea situation. I think, no.
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I've never actually read the books because I'm not into Vampire erotica but I can imagine that they are indeed very sexist. Teen lit has become overtly stereotypical and misogynist- a reason why I abandoned it in my teens. I really liked you commentary and I hope that young women don't buy into that kind of relationship. Sometimes the classic damsel in distress novel causes women and men to romanticize bad relationships when in reality abuse and obsession are just that.
Axelle posted at July 14, 2008, at 02:49PM: "Edward is described and portrayed as the perfect man. He's hot, sexy, plays the piano and is a mind reading vampire. What's not to love, right? This dude even sparkles.
"Well, there's a lot..."
I haven't read the books, but now I wanna read a Twilight/Hills of the Dead crossover:
From Dr, Hermes reviews,
http://community-2.webtv.net/drhermes/kane/index.html :
"'The Hills of the Dead'
"(March 9, 2006)
"I like the way Robert E Howard presented vampires. As in his story, 'The Horror From the Mound', they were NOT sexy, seductive Goth idols that negative-minded teenagers could admire. Howard's vampires were gruesome, silent, single-minded and dangerous; they were walking corpses out to steal the life from the living and this gives them a raw potency that Kate Beckinsale's decadent UNDERWORLD cronies can't match.
"In 'The Hills of the Dead' (from WEIRD TALES, August 1930)...
"...There's one new detail Howard adds to vampire lore, and it seems so obvious and right that I wonder why no writers thought of it before. Vultures regard the Undead as prey and go after them as the carrion they are. ('No fool vulture!" explains N'Longa. 'He know death when he see it! He pounce on one fellow dead man and tear and eat if he be lying or walking!') I haven't read many vampire stories since Anne Rice glamorized them, but I wonder if other writers have picked up on this idea that vultures are the natural enemies of vampires..."
BTW, I kinda cringed at that dialogue, and the reviewer didn't ignore that portrayal either: "...This character is a withered, dried-up ju-ju man, a witch doctor of great age and forbidden knowledge. Although he usually likes to speak to Kane in a pidgin dialect that makes him seem a bit backward, when he switches to his own language, his speech is subtle and impressive..."
Anyway, the vulture in the fanfic oughtta be female. ;)
I haven't read the Twilight series, but I enjoyed and appreciate your commentary. I know that sales of this book have skyrocketed with the news of the upcoming film release, and many are calling it "the next Harry Potter". (Come on, I mean, Harry Potter has its' problems, but Twilight seems like a misogynistic mess. Atleast with HP we have Hermione. How can there be a comparison?) I'll probably end up seeing the film one way or another, but again thanks for arming me with knowledge; I'll just think of it as another point for team J.K. Rowling.
Wow, thank you for writing this. I was considering reading these books because I keep running into glowing reviews of them everywhere. Just tonight my friend was telling me how wonderful she though the first book was.
Now after reading your review, the fact that my friend is utterly dependent on her boyfriend and finds jealous and controlling behavior endearing makes her loving this book make a lot more sense to me...
All my friends keep telling me how great these books are, and how I need to read them, and how it's like the next Harry Potter. I hate books written for teens, especially vampire books so I said no.
But I had no idea that he was abusive. I know several girls that love these books and have mothers in abusive relationships. It's just so sad.
I agree with some of your points about the series - they are definitely not literary, nor is there much character development! - but I think your criticism of Bella misses some aspects of the books.
Although Edward definitely is controlling in some circumstances, Bella by no means accepts the decisions he makes about what she should do- well meaning or otherwise. Her independence from his control (his inability to read her mind) is portrayed as part of the attraction for him. Bella actively seeks to fight the vampires that (handily) all seem intent on killing her, even though she is often outnumbered and lacking the immortality and strength of her adversaries. She never seems to be content to be merely "saved", but is usually determined to protect herself and Edward.
When Bella is confronted and outnumbered by potential rapists her response is to mentally work out which self-defence moves to fight them with - not a particularly passive response - before she is rescued.
Throughout the series, Bella is determined to right the inequality between her and Edward - in terms of strength and so on - by becoming a vampire, even when Edward vehemently disagrees.
I, by no means, think this series is without its flaws, and the healthiness of Edward and Bella's relationship is somewhat questionable, but I don't think Bella is the passive anti-feminist character you believe her to be, as she does show some agency and a determination to decide how she will live her own life.
Finally, someone who agrees with me. Until now I just kept hearing that it's a great book, and that if I love Harry Potter I'll love this, and that it's a "fast read". But I didn't love it. I was so bored I couldn't even get past the middle. How is a book about a chracter that has no actual character talk about a cute boy supposed to be "an easy read"?
@SwimmingHorses - Except Bella doesn't make her own decisions about Edward, or try to keep him safe or Edward's family. In fact, all the vampires were coming after her. If she was concerned about Edward's safety she would have wanted to leave. I don't remember Bella ever wanting to defend herself. In fact, when James gets a hold of her (through her own stupidity) she just lays backs, and talks about how great it is to die that way.
And even though she does try to decided what to do when confronted by potential rapists, she ultimately decides she can't do anything because she'll be over powered. I mean, she could have at least screamed or something instead of deciding to just stand there and do nothing.
Bella is fine with whatever Edward decides to do. When Edward leaves and comes back, she forgives him in a heartbeat. She doesn't even talk with him about their relationship needs to change so that doesn't happen again. She never gets mad at Edward, not even for eavesdropping on her, or stalking her. I think I remember he being mad at him once, but as soon as Edward climbed through her window everything was forgiven.
Bella doesn't even really get to choice how to live her own life. Even when she decides to be a vampire to live with Eddiekins her whole life, it's after two weeks of dating and she has an unhealthy obsession with him. Edward even controls when and where that decision is made, holding above her head until she agrees to marriage which she did not want. At all. Also, Edward picked her college, and even limited her choice of friends. And she went along with it because it was what Edward thought was best.
Oh my. Thank you so much for writing this. I never saw the books from that point of view before. I can't bring myself to read them, because I only saw them as silly, shallow love stories - young girls' erotica. It breaks my heart that my little sister is so in love with these stories. I have to say, though, that my sister is pretty kickass. She is pretty, brilliant and socially well-rounded, she doesn't think she needs a boyfriend and says no when she's uncomfortable. I would desperately like to talk to her about this misogynistic idea but I doubt she would listen to me. It has bedazzled her mind just as much as it has so many other young women.
My twelve-year-old sister reads these as well. She's not really interested in boys yet, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to reading these books. I think I'd rather have these read by older teens who have probably already been in relationships and know that this is neither ideal behavior nor what they should expect, rather than younger girls who might expect this once they begin dating. I know the teenage romance stuff I read before I started dating (Meg Cabot and Ann Brashares books, mainly) influenced what I expected from boys, those books were just slightly more realistic and less abuse-centered than Twilight. (And they placed a value on the friendships between women, as well.) And it saddens me that there are Facebook groups called 'Because I read Twilight I have Unrealistic Expectations of Men.'
AMEN. The one thing I'd like to disagree on, though, is the fainting thing... I think that was just because she was averse to the smell of blood in general. Like Cadel Piggot/Darkkon/English/... from "Evil Genius" having a weak stomach.
But it's hard to take it neutrally against the backdrop of everything else.
This is my least favorite book ever, and I have read a lot of books. It is so bad it's sickening.
I think the problem is that the fan girls haven't read anything other than this. The people who read this are the people who read the 'fad' book of the time. They read Babysitter's Club, Harry Potter, etc. Those books weren't that great. Harry Potter is the ONLY one that can be considered good. But anyway, these people are only looking for something that's not too deep, and that doesn't teach anything, and has a hot boy, because God forbid you actually have to think about a book's meaning. Another thing I hate with Twilight is that it's pushing the good, underrated books off the shelves. I'm not just talking about the 'classics'. I'm talking about modern books that actually have meanings,for example Broken China by Lori Aurelia Williams. Broken China is about a girl that gets pregnant at the age of 12. Bella in Twilight pretty much only gets rescued. I want Bella to get pregnant by Edward, since she loves him so much, and he is so obsessive. In real life, with a girl like So-Special-Bella Swan who everybody loves, she would probably already have been pregnant and had a couple abortions, if she's so clumsy and beautiful.
Thank you, I agree completely. I'm 15 and all my friends love these books. How can you like something when the female main character is overly weak and sensitive? It's stupid.
How about the Holly Black trilogy of 'Tithe', 'Valiant' and 'Ironside'? These involve young girls falling in love with fairies. These fairies are evil and manipulative, but irresistably beautiful. But the one thing which really impressed me was that they weren't heteronormative, the characters all have a kind of transitory sexuality which is subject to change when they meet someone they like, male or female. The main females are angsty and dark and do not need to be saved my male characters. And it is usually the men who are obsessed with the women, not the other way round. There is one rather disturbing unrequited love where a boy ends up brain damaged from taking a drug that will make him assume the likeness of someone she likes.
Has anyone else read these? What do you think of them?