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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Lust
Self-Restraint and Morality
Good, Evil, and Perspective
Family
Summary
Analysis
Hours later, Bella can’t stop staring at Edward. He’s lying in the meadow with his eyes closed—and his skin is glittering in the sun. Nervously, Bella reaches out a finger to touch his hand. He confirms, first, that she’s not afraid, and then allows her to touch his arm. When she tries to flip Edward’s hand over, Edward does it “blindingly fast,” startling Bella. Edward murmurs that it’s too easy to be himself around her, and then he asks Bella what she’s thinking. Bella says she wishes she could believe that Edward is real, and that she wasn’t afraid. As Edward sits up and asks what she’s afraid of, Bella says she isn’t afraid of him.
Edward implies that he’s not able to be himself around people, generally speaking—but Bella doesn’t make him feel like he’s bad, or weird, or even all that different—while he can also cease to hide his vampire traits like superspeed and glittering in the sun. Through their relationship, Edward is starting to feel more secure in who he is. For Bella, this all feels like a dream—Edward is unbelievably handsome, in addition to being a vampire. And because of her attraction to him, his fast movements aren’t threatening—they’re just different.
Themes
Edward smells so good that Bella leans closer—and in an instant, Edward is gone. Bella is hurt and shocked. Slowly, Edward returns and says he’s “only human.” Bella suddenly realizes how much danger she’s in, and Edward seems to sense this. In a mocking tone, he says he’s the best predator: he’s gorgeous, fast, and strong. He races around the meadow and throws a branch into a tree, shattering it. Bella is terrified—but Edward also looks beautiful. As Edward returns to Bella and sits down again, he asks her to not be afraid and promises not to hurt her.
Both Bella and Edward are struggling to control themselves around the other, because the other smells so good. Edward may be a vampire, but they’re not so different. And though Edward’s display of his vampire qualities is frightening, his ability to run so fast and shatter branches is also compelling and makes being around him even more exciting for Bella.
Themes
It takes Bella a moment to get over her shock, so she struggles to answer Edward’s question of what she’s afraid of. As he gets frustrated with her silence, Bella realizes this is all new for him too. Finally, she says that she’s afraid because they can’t stay together, and she wants to stay with him. Sighing, Edward says he should leave exactly because Bella wants him to stay. Fortunately, though, he’s a “selfish creature,” he and isn’t going to leave. Bella is ecstatic, but Edward suddenly becomes angry and reminds her that he wants more than her company. He also notes that he’s more dangerous for Bella than he is for other people.
Edward continues to try to impress upon Bella that them being around each other is very dangerous for her. Edward always sees himself as the danger, and Bella as the possible victim who he hast to protect—even if from himself. But as far as Bella is concerned, the danger she’s in only makes their relationship more exciting—especially since it seems like an indicator of how much Edward cares for Bella that he resists his vampire nature. Here, Edward also makes it clear that he doesn’t mean to confuse or upset Bella with his actions or his words; he's just trying to protect her.
Themes
To explain what he means, Edward says it’s a lot like ice cream flavors, or maybe illicit drugs—Bella is his flavor of ice cream, and his “brand of heroin.” He says that this sort of thing doesn’t happen often, but Emmett has twice encountered people that smelled especially good to him. Edward gives Bella a dark look when she asked what happened to those people. Calmly, Bella asks if there’s any hope that she’ll survive this. Edward assures her there is; he’s been denying himself human blood for a long time.
Though it seems unintentional, Edward makes the case here that vampires aren’t all that different from humans. They struggle with desires and urges that, when acted on, can hurt others. It’s possible to see that Bella is so calm about this because Edward actually starts to seem more human in this moment. He's doing his best to resist his desires and protect Bella—and that’s also very attractive to her.
Themes
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Edward says that it took all his self-control to not kill her when she first walked into the biology classroom. She seemed like a demon designed to ruin everything Carlisle had worked so hard for. He almost killed her again in the office that afternoon; it would’ve been easy. Bella shivers, realizing that Ms. Cope could’ve died, too. Edward says he went to Carlisle and ran away to Alaska. He knew he upset Esme and his siblings, but running gave him the space to think, hunt, and decide he was strong enough to return.
To most people, Bella is just a normal—if pretty and smart—teenage girl. But to Edward, Bella is something totally different: a temptress and a demon, here to make his life miserable, if not ruin it. Edward’s ability to resist killing Bella and even leave the state shows his level of control, his desire to protect his family, and his moral will. Because he’s going to such lengths to control himself, the novel frames him as a wholly good character.
Themes
When Edward returned, he’d tried to treat Bella like he would anyone else—but she’s too interesting, and she still smells too good. Though he later told his siblings that he saved Bella from the van because he feared he’d lose control had she bled out in the parking lot, he was really thinking, “Not her.”
Again, Edward doesn’t say it in so many words, but he implies here that he was falling in love with Bella while she was falling in love with him. “Not her” has definite romantic connotations, and it mirrors some of the things Bella has thought about Edward and not wanting to be apart from him.
Themes
Bella knows she should be terrified, but instead she feels bad that Edward has been suffering so much. She asks him about what happened after they spoke in the hospital. Edward says he fought with his family over what to do. He was surprised when Bella kept her word to not tell anyone what she saw. Now, he knows it would’ve been better to blow his cover months ago than it would be to hurt Bella now, when there aren’t any witnesses. He explains that he couldn’t live with himself if he hurt Bella—she’s the most important thing to him now. Bella is shocked and says that obviously, she’d rather die than stay away. She calls herself an “idiot,” and Edward agrees with a laugh.
Bella clearly understands the danger that Edward poses to her. He could kill her in an instant, and she realizes that some people would say she should be afraid (as evidenced by calling herself an “idiot” for wanting to be around him). But Bella’s love for Edward is so deep she’d rather face that danger—or die—than to not be with him. She both recognizes how silly that is, and still feels that way. For his part, Edward feels just as Bella does. He is a danger to her, but she is also a danger to him in that she might entice him to give in to his instincts and make things bad for his adopted family. Yet she’s now the most important thing to him at this point. Bella and Edward’s love has put them both in extreme positions that make that love clear to the other: Bella is willing to constantly risk her life to be with Edward; and Edward is able to keep his inhuman urges in check in order to be with her.
Themes
Then, they discuss what Bella “did wrong” earlier, when Edward ran away. Edward notes that most people are too afraid to get close, so he was surprised when she leaned in. Her throat also smells especially strong. But he insists it was the surprise more than anything, and to prove it, he touches Bella’s neck. Edward then slow leans in to put his cheek against her throat and then her chest. They sit like this for what seems like hours. Then, Edward sits totally still as Bella traces his face with her fingers. Bella stops when he gives her a “hungry” look. He admits that this is hard on many levels, since Bella also makes him feel more human.
Edward again suggests that, for various reasons, Bella isn’t like most other people—in this case, because she’s happy to get close to Edward and isn’t afraid to do so. But this uniqueness functions to make the two of them less alone: it brings Edward and Bella closer to each other, as they find that they can connect with each other in ways that they couldn’t connect with anyone else. And though Edward wants Bella for her blood, saying that she makes him feel more human suggests on the one hand that she helps him to resist his vampiric hunger, but also perhaps that she stirs other “more human” sexual hungers in him.
Themes
Slowly, Bella puts her head against Edward’s chest. He pulls her close, and they sit until the light starts to fade. Then, Edward asks if he can show Bella how he hikes—it’ll be much faster, and he promises not to turn into a bat. He helps Bella climb onto his back and then starts to run. Bella is terrified as the trees fly past, and for the first time ever, she experiences motion sickness. They’re back at the truck in an instant, and Bella can’t make her body move to get down on her own. Edward gently places her on the ground. Once Bella catches her breath, Edward says he was thinking about something he’d like to try. He leans in and kisses Bella’s lips.
At first, going with Edward’s way of hiking seems like a great idea—it seems like there’s no chance for Bella to embarrass herself letting Edward carry her. But Bella finds that while she might not be afraid of the threat Edward poses to her as a vampire, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t scare her in other ways. Even if Edward doesn’t mean to frighten her, he still can’t help but leave Bella on edge and worried as they get to know each other.
Themes
Bella feels like she’s on fire; she grabs Edward’s hair and pulls him close. He turns to stone and pushes her back, waits a moment, and then says he’s fine. Bella apologizes, but Edward remarks that she’s only human. Edward pulls her up and insists that he drive them home. Bella tries to argue, but she ultimately gives in and hands over her keys.
When Bella grabs for Edward, she finds that she’s not as adept at subsuming her sexual urges as Edward is at subsuming his vampiric urges. She’s physically, sexually attracted to him—and especially since this is new for her, she doesn’t yet know what romance feels like, or how to control herself. Meanwhile, Edward insisting on driving them home shows him asserting his control.
Themes
