A DARK FANTASY IN
THE DIGITAL LIGHT: A CRITICAL STUDY ON STEPHENIE MEYER’S TWILIGHT
Dr. A. Sophiamary
Assistant Professor
of English
Sona College of
Arts and Science
Salem.
Abstract
Mankind is blessed with technology in this
modern age they soon became intimate and inseparable. Digital humanities uplift
the world literature to the next level irrespective of ethnicity and
nationality. It increases the popularity of literature and creates the urge to
read thework of art and it also helps in better understanding of the text by
providing audiovisual effect. It gives life to imaginary characters and aids to
sense their presence on screen. People aremesmerised, attracted and influenced
by these characters and just want to imitate the same. It reaches everyone
everywhere in a very short period of time at a rapid speed. Love is the universal
feeling that makes the world go round, in literature it deals with affection or
desirebetween people. One can explore romantic, triangular, familial,
unrequited and forbidden love in
literature. The Twilight series are stunning
creations that glorify the attributes of passionate love. The American novelist
and film producer Stephenie Meyer is popular worldwide for her vampire
romance. Her writings also took a digital
form that addicts the viewers in a positive way andmade them crave for such a
love in their lives. The paper focuses on both novels and movie versions of
this romantic tale and alsoapplies film theories and other theories for
analysis. The Vampire literature, its growth, transformation and updation are
taken for the study. It is a forbidden love because Bella is ahuman and Edward
a vampire. Bella should normally be a prey for Edward as vampires naturally have
the thirst for blood but here the story is entirely different. Bella did not
have any fear for Edward but she craves to be with him all the time. The
passion between them is too intense thatthey feel an extreme form of ecstasy
and comfort in their love relationship and companionship.
Keywords: passion, beauty, love, digital,
vampire, blood, romance
Love is the universal feeling that makes the
world go round, in literature it deals with affection or desire between people.
One can explore romantic, triangular, familial, unrequited and forbidden love
in literature and the Twilight series
Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse
(2007), Breaking Dawn (2008), Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
(2015) and Midnight Sun (2020) are
stunning creations that glorify the attributes of passionate love. The American
novelist and film producer Stephenie Meyer is popular worldwide for her vampire
romance. Her writings also took a digital form that addicts and influences the
viewers in a positive way and made them crave for such a love in their lives.
Digital humanities use digital technology in the field of humanities and are
very helpful for research purposes one can see the intersection of both
technology and humanities in this stream.
Thirty-five-year-old author Stephenie Meyer
ignited the international frenzy by the release of her legendary work Twilight. The idea strokes her mind in a
dream where she saw a handsome sparkling vampire boy and a human girl. Meyer
needed a break from her boring tiresome routine and writing Twilight was a great relief and elation
to her. Though married for fifteen years she did not share her passion and
thoughts even with her husband, in an interview she says, “My husband thought
I’d gone crazy. I’d barely spoken to him because I had all these things going
on in my head, and I wasn’t telling him about this weird vampire obsession
because I knew he’d freak out and think I’d lost my mind” (Twilight).
She tries her best to document the dream by recollecting the things she saw.
She wrote it because of her own interest as it was entirely different from
reality and she wanted to remember it so badly. Initially, she never thought
that it would become a great novel even she was never a writer before.
Meyer started to spend her time in the
fantasy world with imaginary beings. When she completed her writing, it was
long enough for a book and it was hard for anyone to reject. Her sister
understood her well and supported her to send the book for publication to
various agencies, “She was the only one in the world who knew what I was doing”
(Twilight). The release of the first two movies created an incredible
stir among the audience and the three young stars were a dazzling highlight.
The British actor Robert Pattinson was the perfect fit for the lead role of
Edward the vampire and Mayer says that he is something unusual and different
from everyone. While meeting him she felt like the dream and the reality met
each other. And the crew was fortunate to have the phenomenal actress Kirsten
Stewart for Bella’s character.
Even Meyer’s mom gave a suggestion to her for
the climax of New Moon, “You know,
Stephenie, maybe a little more action at the end would be a good idea. Maybe
you need that” (Twilight). This induces the author to introduce the
Volturi in Italy all powerful coven of vampires. She says, “That’s kind of my
favorite part now, and it’s there because my mom told me it would be better
that way” (Twilight). The film director Catherine Hardwicke discussed
and always got suggestions from the author Meyer for the successful making of The Twilight Saga.
Mankind is blessed with technology in this modern
scientific age and they soon became intimate and inseparable. Digital
literature study uplifts the world literature to the next level irrespective of
ethnicity and nationality. Literature takes a digital transformation in the
form of E-books, films, video games and web series in recent times. Innumerable
benefits and uses are enjoyed due to the arrival of this new kind of knowledge.
The research focuses on both novels and movie versions of this romantic tale
and also applies film theories and other theories for analysis. The history of
Vampire literature, its growth, transformation and updation are also taken for
the study.
It is a forbidden love because Bella is a human and
Edward a vampire. Bella should normally be a prey for Edward as vampires naturally
have the thirst for blood but here the story is entirely different. Bella did
not have any fear for Edward but she craves to be with him all the time. The
passion between them is too intense that they feel an extreme form of ecstasy
and comfort in their love relationship and companionship. Where there is true
love there will be peace and happiness for sure one can clearly understand this
by comparing the families of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. Though vampires are
not blood-related they understand each other far better than humans they show
genuine care and affection on one another. They do have commitments and happy
marriages.
On the other side, the heroine’s human family has
divorced parents although Bella is close to her mother her father Charlie fails
to spend time with her. Usually and psychologically children are more attracted
to their opposite-sex parents they love to spend more time with them.
Especially the love bond between a father and daughter is always special and
beautiful and Bella missed those moments during her childhood. She falls for
Edward not just by attraction and passion but also, she sees a highly
protective and caring father in him, the unshared and concealed love for an
imaginary father is also opened up on Edward as an added bonus. She feels that
she is secure in the arms of Edward. She is pretty impressed when Edward
shields to save her one afternoon in the school when a boy’s truck was close to
hit her after skidding. In the wet, cold, dreary and isolated Forks city of Washington,
she feels the warmness of love for the first time. She is just seventeen and
realises a strange feeling grows inside her that her pupils dilate and seeshim
as her saviour and their eyes spoke a lot more than words. Symbolically in the
movie version when Bella meets Edward for the first time a taxidermied owl
makes Edward look like he has the wings of an angel. The film director projects
Edward as the guardian angel for the young beauty.
The relationship between Bella and Jacob is peculiar and
unique the heroine cultivates liking and intimacy with this werewolf hero.
Though Jacob longs to have consummate love with Bella which contains all the
three elements of intimacy, passion and commitment he can achieve only one
element called intimacy in their relationship. Although he tries his level best
he could not reach, attain or take away the place of Edward and this result in
envy and possessiveness. The flames of jealousy burn him every day but could
not affect the beautiful passionate love, Bella acts as the central figure and
the whole story moves around her. The love bond between Edward Cullen and Bella
Swan can be compared to Catherine and Heathcliff’s love in Wuthering Heights it
is pure, true and filled with madness. They desperately want each other and
this addiction steals the hearts of the readers and viewers.
Bella likes Jacob profoundly and always seeks for his
friendship in every stage of her life. He also possesses similar qualities to
Edward like loving, caring and protecting her and so she is mesmerised to him.
Both the heroes are ready to sacrifice anything for Bella’s safety and
happiness even their own lives and desires. Both of them come forward to take
any pain for their loved one. It is a triangular love story between a human, a
vampire and a werewolf.The series shares many moral messages with society and
proves that love is selfless and it liberates people.The different facets of
love like patience, kindness, humility, gentleness, happiness, respect,
compassion, cooperation, caring, equality and empathy are also brought into the
bright spotlight. When goodness is taught through the virtual platform it
creates a magical and everlasting impact on everyone regardless of gender and
age differences. This method is ultimately successful in preserving the work of
art in digital format for the future generation. The research also proves that
the couple Edward Cullen and Bella Swan fall under Consummate love according to
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love.The story also makes the readers and viewers
remember the saying, “All is fair in love and war” (Wikipedia).
Love is
been highlighted in each and every chapter of this masterpiece both Edward and
Bella were ready to sacrifice their life for each other which can be witnessed
throughout the book. Bella achieves her destination by holding her love in
marriage she was also ready to transform as a vampire and to become one with
his family. She undergoes lot of pains with pleasure for her unconditional love
that they become one body as they desired. This fantasy tale contains various
life lessons each vampire has unique supernatural powers and they use it
wisely, by staying together they do wonderful things. They help and support
each other always.
Vampires have their own laws and they abide them, Cullens
are virtuous and ethical they never harm any humans. Bella is very bold, smart
and strong in her mind she always finds a way to win her attitude is extremely
impressive and admirable. She never steps away or shrinks away instead she
fights back her battles bravely. The vampires are shocked because their
supernatural powers never worked on her, after transforming as a vampire Bella
becomes physically and mentally influential. She is gifted with the mental
shield ability so that she can protect and shield herself and also anyone from
any kind of peril. Even the volturi head Aro who has the power of tactile
telepathy was afraid of this young beautiful vampire heroine Bella Cullen. She
is a combination of beauty, intelligence and power. She acts as the best role
model for the young women today.
Where
there is absence of love there will be selfishness certainly as the air fills
the unfilled tumbler. There are many malicious characters that one can come across
in the Twilightseries the best
example is Victoria the main antagonist in Eclipse
and New Moon. She possesses the power
of enhanced self-preservation to sense and escape danger but she uses it to
take revenge against Bella for being the reason for her lover’s death. She
wants Edward to feel the same pain like her after losing his love Bella. She
plans wickedly and creates a war against Cullens by misusing humans for her
personal reasons. She did not make use of her powers for the goodness of
anyone. The female characters are portrayed as stronger ones either positively
or negatively.
Digital humanities increase the popularity of literature
and create the urge to read the work of art and it also helps in better
understanding of the text by providing the audiovisual effect. It gives life to
imaginary characters and aids to sense their presence on screen. People are
mesmerised, attracted and influenced madly by these characters both internally
and externally and just want to imitate the same. It reaches everyone
everywhere in a very short period of time at a rapid speed and also paves way
for the other blooming streams of humanities like Fashion humanities, Food
literature, Cultural studies, Medical humanities, Veterinary humanities and so
on.
People learn good and evil and the consequences of this
both through literature and digital humanities, they study how to be and how
not to be by travelling with these characters. Moral ethics are fed and
injected into them gradually by adding digital flavour unconsciously. The
research also analyses the importance of making choices in life and achieving a
real family. In the fast-changing world where all fields are getting
digitalised it is time for everyone to grow, learn, update and move on along
with the flow and also to hold the moral and let go immoral. By having this
powerful media in hands and if handled wisely great and drastic reformation can
be seen in each and every individual and in society and the earth will become a
digital paradise.
Works Cited
Person
(2009) The woman behind twilight, Oprah.com.
https://www.oprah.com/entertainment/twilight-series-author-stephenie-meyer_1/all.
“Twilight”
author: It started with a dream - CNN.com. (n.d).
https://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/11/18/o.twilight.newmoon.meyer/
“Wikipedia
the Free Encyclopedia.” en.wikipedia.org,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Is_Fair_in_Love_and_War.
“A Quote from Twilight.” Goodreads,
www.goodreads.com/quotes/234636-what-if-i-m-not-a-superhero-what-if-i-m-the.
Dream, Twilighters. The Day Stephenie
Had the Dream. www.twilightersdream.com/2017/06/the-day-stephenie-had-dream.html.