Romeo and Juliet’s well know “star-crossed lovers” tale provides the basis of Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga New Moon. New moon follows the plot in which Edward Cullen, (a vampire) is in love with Bella Swan, (a human); thus making this love under normal circumstances, forbidden. This element as well as the conflict keeping Edward and Bella apart along with similar character roles mimics Romeo and Juliet’s tragic tale, but with a happier nding.
Naturally, people want what they can not have. Romeo and Juliet’s families have been fighting with each other for ages, leading them to their impending doom before their relationship even begins. Readers might assume that Edward and Bella’s relationship is doomed. Edward being a vampire thirsts for Bella’s blood because it smells amazing to him. The only thing stopping him from devouring her in an instant is his undying love for her. Is this love enough? Stephenie Meyer writes on the very first page of her novel “This violent delights have violent ends, and in heir triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume” (Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI).
This quote on the very first page of her novel implements a foreshadowing parallel to Romeo and Juliet’s prologue. New Moon starts off with Bella trying to avoid going to her own Lang,H. 2 eighteenth birthday party that Edward’s family had arranged. “Oh be fair Bella! […]? “I thought my birthday was about what I want” (pg 11) Bella complains. Juliet tries to get out of her party that her parents want her to attend so she can get to know Paris (Act I sc 3).
Bella uses the excuse of her requirement to watch Romeo and Juliet for a class assignment to get out of celebrating her birthday. During the movie Edward explains his views on Romeo’s numerous mistakes (pg 17). The beginning scene and chapter of Romeo and Juliet and New Moon have the same story line serves as a direct parallel to Romeo and Juliet. New Moon’s specific references to Romeo and Juliet works as evidence that New Moon is influenced by Romeo and Juliet. Bella unwillingly goes to Edward’s house for her party and almost gets killed in the process by Edward’s blood thirsty brother because of a paper cut that Bella received from opening a present. After this incident Edward decides it would be best if he and his family move away permanently so he does not put Bella’s life in any more danger (Love Vampires).
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is banished from Verona for killing Juliet’s cousin. This example again continues to show that the plots in both stories are similar because both of the lead male characters had to leave their loved one. ” Edward is Bella’s whole world and his abandonment is a harsh blow. Her whole world falls part and as she becomes withdrawn from the world she soon loses most of her friends becoming more isolated and lonely” ( Love Vampires).
During the time that Edward is away, Bella gets closer to her friend Jacob Black and finds that he is the only person she can confide in (370-371). He is half human, half werewolf. She secretly has feelings for him but does not acknowledge it because those feelings could not compare to those that she has for Edward. On the other hand Jacob loves her. Bella’s father, Charlie has known Jacob Black since he was a young child and refers that Bella is in a relationship with him rather than Edward.
This holds true for Capulet’s Lang, H. 3 feelings toward Paris. Once Romeo is banished from Verona, Capulet tries harder to get Juliet to marry Paris; Juliet resents the idea, just as Bella dislikes the idea that Charlie disapproves of Edward. To get out of marrying Paris, Juliet devises a plan to make it appear that she is dead “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee” (Act 4 sc 3). Bella similarly to Juliet acts recklessly, putting her life in danger. (Chapter 8) She purposely does this to see hallucinations of
Edward to comfort her reassuring that he really did exist; that he was not a figment of her imagination. Bella runs out of ideas on how to do something more reckless than the previous attempts. She decides to jump off a cliff; something she has seen Jacob’s friends do once. This nearly kills her. Alice, Edwards’s psychic sister, sees this and Edward reads her mind. This leads Edward to believe that Bella is dead. Edward calls Bella’s house and had a miscommunication with Jacob over the phone. Jacob confirms there is a funeral, but he does not clearly state that it is not Bella’s funeral.
This happens in Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has a miscommunication. He received news that presumed Juliet dead, Balthasar to Romeo, “Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument, and her immortal part with angels lives” (Act 5 sc 1), and lacked knowledge that Juliet only appeared to be dead. This moment of realization that their lovers are dead, drives Romeo and Edward to suicidal missions. ” Edward attempts to commit ‘vampire suicide- – by revealing his vampire qualities in public and bringing on the wrath of the Volturi- – when he thinks Bella has done the same by jumping off a liff” (Kirk, Connie).
Romeo decides that poison will be his way of suicide, Lang,H. 4 “Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight. Let’s see for means. O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men. I do remember an apothecary […]” (Act 5 sc 1). Before Romeo attempts to kill himself, Paris confronts him. At this point, Paris and Romeo begin arguing, this leads to a fight. Romeo, in the end, slays Paris; ” O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, open the tomb; lay me with Juliet” (Act 5 sc 3). Romeo then kills himself with the poison.
As everyone knows, Juliet awakes from her fake death to find Romeo truly dead. Like Romeo, Juliet does not want to live without her true love nor marry Paris, so she takes Romeo’s dagger and kills herself. This is the point where Stephenie Meyer had changed her closely related plot of Romeo and Juliet, to a different ending to New Moon. “Instead of the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet, “Juliet” is about to save her “Romeo. ” (Kirk, Connie).
Bella goes to Italy to prove to Edward that she is really alive. “In the first moments after Bella saves him and he is disoriented, thinking he sees Bella in eath or some other state of being, Edward quotes Romeo from the scene when he sees drugged Juliet lying in the tomb, presuming her to be dead, “Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty” (452). Both Edward and Romeo, neither one content to live if their lovers have died, think their lovers are so beautiful that even death cannot take that beauty away. ” (Kirk, Connie).
Once Edward realized Bella was alive, and after encountering some issues with the Volturi, they returned home. Once they return home, Edward, like Paris has to face Jacob. Bella is scared at this moment. She ponders about how Romeo and Paris’ fight ended; “Jacob Black wants to see me […] that stopped me cold […] they fight; Paris Lang, H. 5 falls” (555).
In the end they do not physically fight. This ends with Edward and Bella, happily together. As a reader can see, New Moon resembles closely to Romeo and Juliet. Stephenie Meyer herself explains that “Shakespeare is a big influence. I’m always coming back to things he has done. ” (Margolis, Rick). The characters are quite similar as well as the plot, almost identical; but with everal tweaks here and there with vampires and werewolves thrown in.
Bibliography
- Kirk, Connie A. “Theme of ‘New Moon’ Is ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ 24 May 2009. Web. 31 Mar. 2011.
- Margolis, Rick. “Love at First Bite. ” School Library Journal (2005). Home. Web. 31 Mar. 2011.
- Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and, 2006.
- Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Pocket, 1992.
