The Relationships Within Twilight





The relationship between Bella and Edward is very odd to me. Edward is a vampire who appears as a teenage boy, even though he has been alive for many, many years. Bella is just an average teenage girl who happens to randomly meet Edward in awkward situations. This in turn starts a relationship between the two of them.

This is when I thought that the book was odd. Typically people would want to stay away from vampires, but Bella is driven towards Edward in an almost excessive manner. That reason being, she wants to become like him. Edward didn't ask to be a vampire in the first place. He had to go through much pain and suffering to be where he is today. That's why he is angry with Bella for even thinking of wanting to be like him. She couldn't possibly understand the traumatic pain and suffering. Edward is still attracted to her despite her crazy way of thinking. Edward knows how it feels to live forever in a body that is cold and dead. He understands how he must kill to sustain his bloodlust and hunger. Bella however, believes that everything will work out as long as she has Edward always by her side.

I think that her drive to become like him is so strong and unnerving that it actually makes you want to see if it will actually work out. This is where I believe Edward can be used to outline the rest of the book. When they are both together they usually have to face some sort of conflict that in the end, reveals more of their true nature as human or vampire. By viewing their relationship further in the book they don't really have much in common. They don't have many things that they both find interesting. The only thing that they do have in common is their interest in each other. Edward is interested that Bella is willing to stay near him when she is a human. Bella is interested in Edward because he is so unlike any person she has met. Her curiosity and eagerness to be like him helps push the story, but it kind of creeps me out.

By Edward trying to keep Bella human, it shows how much of his human like aspects and morals he still has. Seeing that Edward thinks this way makes me believe that he accepts what he is, but he has major inner term oil. The term oil would be trying to keep Bella a human as long as possible. This becomes harder later on due to certain circumstances that ultimately test Edward.

Gothic as perceived in Contemporary Culture

 "Gothic" can be perceived as over exaggerated in contemporary culture in many ways, such as in fashion and appearance. My perception of the Gothic culture is based mostly on appearance and life style. I believe that many people see how a life style, or an amount of dark clothing can "label" a person as being "Goth." 

Appearances is one main factor. I'm not saying that any person that fits this description is Goth, I'm just saying this through observation. Most of the people that I could consider as Gothic would be those who have dark hair, wear dark make up around eyes or mouth, have a fair complexion, and quite a few tattoos or piercings. Another factor involves their style of clothing. Typically Gothic clothing is constantly wearing black clothing with rips, holes, pins, spikes, chains, dark band names, ect.

These two factors are so over exaggerated because it seems that in order to fit this description people have to either force it, or embody it. If a person must force this image to portray a Gothic culture, then they are in my opinion, not Goth. Those people who have been living and embodying this type of culture for a long time appear to resemble what the term "Gothic" means. 

In today's culture "Gothic" is usually used to describe something dark. This is different for those who think of Gothic Architecture and see it as beautiful, not dark. That's how I realized that peoples' perceptions over time can be changed just by the word and how it is used to describe things. Personally if someone were to walk up to me and say that the object they were holding was Gothic, I would think to myself "Is it dark and evil looking?" It's just out of habit that I think this because I have subconsciously trained my brain into thinking that's what it means. 

This is why I believe that in today's culture Gothic can be perceived as over exaggerated based on fashion as well as appearance. There are also many other things that show how Gothic can be perceived as over exaggerated in contemporary culture today such as images, books, and even T.V.