Melodrama Season: Eternal Yearning

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Melodrama Season: Eternal Yearning

Isobel Speirs, GFT Youth Board

The world was forever changed on one cold December day in 2008 with the release of the film Twilight. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight tells the story of Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen — a human and a vampire. The film follows the story of their love, as fragile and fresh as any first love. As part of the Too Much: Melodrama on Film season at GFT, I have decided to take this opportunity to talk about one of the most prolifically melodramatic films with two of the most melodramatic characters. The theme? Yearning. The subjects? No other than THE Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.

First, let me explain what yearning is. Categorised as a feeling of intense longing or desire for something you cannot or do not have, there is a persistence in yearning. This persistence is encapsulated, one way or another, within every character in Twilight. For some, it is longing for attention (like Jessica with Mike) or to repair a fractured relationship (like Charlie with Bella). For others, like our two protagonists, there are a multitude of things they want, and when you're a vampire in love with a human, the stakes are higher than most.

‘I’d never given much thought to how I would die. But dying in place of someone I love, seems like a good way to go.’

Bella is your classic fish-out-of-water. She’s moved halfway across the country, to live with the dad she hardly sees, in the small town of Forks — a place she’s only ever spent a few weeks at a time in. It is within this seemingly uninteresting, depressing place that she meets the alluring Edward Cullen and his shockingly attractive family. Everyone in Forks knows the Cullens — everyone except for Bella.

It isn’t until Bella encounters Edward one-on-one that she begins to ask questions with unexplainable answers. His mood swings, colour-changing eyes, and the impossible way he was able to cross a parking lot in time to stop a car from crushing her (with only his BARE HANDS!?!). I mean, talk about making a girl swoon! However, there’s more to it than just an ‘adrenaline rush’, and both we, the audience, and Bella, know that.

Bella yearns for Edward. To know him, to understand him — both who and what he is — and to be with him forever. When you’ve got a century old vampire who's invested in you, no matter how fragile and awkward you perceive yourself to be, there is nothing in the world that can convince you he isn’t the man of your dreams.

All Bella desires from Edward are three things; the first two — honesty and love — he gives her. It’s the last thing she craves that he struggles with — turning her into a vampire. As a self-proclaimed ‘monster’, it is the one thing Edward is inherently against doing, but, like I said before, teenage love is a powerful thing.

‘And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.’

Edward is perhaps the person who yearns most, both within this film and the rest of the franchise. He wants many things, the first to be as far away as possible from Bella (all while continuing his high school education, of course!). When being transferred out of the biology class they share is not an option, he opts for the next best thing — running away for a week.

After taking some time to reconnect with the earth in order to avoid killing Bella, Edward returns as the new-and-improved, charming, restrained version of himself, but we all know how the saying goes; distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Throughout the film, Edward is constantly at war with himself. He wants to leave Bella alone but can’t help trying to get to know her. His yearning for closeness and to protect Bella is stronger than his self-control, and he knows that. That’s why when he saves her from being hit by a car in the school parking lot and inadvertently begins a chain of events that no amount of angst can stop, he gives Bella the chance to leave. His ache for her blood, her presence, aside, he is willing to let her go. He puts the needs of Bella above everything else in his life, no matter the cost and if that isn’t love, what is?

‘Edward: That’s what you dream about? Being a monster?’

‘Bella: I dream about being with you forever’

To be a vampire is to constantly yearn. To want. To hunger. To be a teenage girl isn’t much different. Whether it’s fitting into a new school, making friends, or desperately trying not to murder everyone around you — the problems of a teenage girl and a vampire do not differ as much as you would imagine. Bella and Edward both crave one thing at the end of the day, to be with each other, eternally. Maybe being with your first teenage love doesn’t sound appealing to you now, but I’m sure if you asked your 16-year-old self what they thought, the answer would be different. That’s what Bella and Edward want, because at the end of the day, they’re just two kids (17 and 104) in love, which is one of the hardest things to be.

So teenage love aside, I have one question for all you readers. A question I'd never forgive myself if I didn’t ask…

Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Twilight screened on Tuesday 28 October as part of the BFI Film Academy Recommends programme, free for 15-25 Card members.

Too Much has been made possible thanks to the BFI Film Audience Network, through funding from the National Lottery.

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