Previous
Chapter 22
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
Bella dreams she’s floating in dark water. She hears a happy sound—a new furious snarl. Something slashes her hand, and then she knows she’s dead. She can hear an angel calling to her and something else snapping and breaking. The angel tells Bella to please stay and calls for Carlisle. He weeps, but Bella can’t tell him to stop. Carlisle says Bella’s leg is broken. When he prods Bella’s side, Bella realizes this probably isn’t heaven—it hurts too much. But then, a scalding pain in Bella’s hand starts to overtake every other thought. Finally, Bella screams that her hand is burning and begs someone to “stop the fire.”
Consumed by pain and loss of blood, Bella is in an almost dreamlike state, yet in that state she’s aware of Edward and Carlisle arriving to try and save her. That she thinks of Edward as an angel shows that Bella thinks of Edward as being wholly good—that is, the exact opposite of how Edward sees himself. Edwards weeping communicates his own love for Bella. The fire in Bella’s hand makes clear that James bit her—Carlisle and Edward have to not just save Bella’s life, but also stop her from becoming a vampire.
Themes
Edward and Carlisle realize that James bit Bella. Alice says that Edward has to do it, and Carlisle tells Edward to suck the venom back out. Edward is unsure, but Carlisle says he can’t help—Bella’s head is bleeding too much, especially if Edward is going to be taking more blood. Bella screeches for Edward, and with a determined expression, Edward puts his lips to Bella’s hand. It burns worse at first, but then Bella starts to lose consciousness. She hears Edward say that he can taste the morphine now, and she croaks that it doesn’t hurt anymore. Carlisle asks where Mom is, and Bella says she’s in Florida—and she smells gasoline. Then, suddenly remembering, Bella says that the video will tell Alice where she came from. Edward picks Bella up as she loses consciousness.
Edward having to suck the venom from Bella’s hand brings together all of Edward’s fears and desires into a single moment: his desire for Bella’s blood; his love and need to protect Bella; his fear that he is truly, at heart, evil and he won’t be able to control himself because of that desire. But as Bella screams Edward pushes past his fear and acts, and he sucks out her blood along with the venom and does not lost control—his love and desire to protect Bella wins out over his vampiric instincts. Meanwhile, as soon as Bella’s pain diminishes even slightly she already starts thinking about others (as when she talks about her mom and tells Alice about the video).
Themes
