In the Twilight of Patriarchal Culture: The Struggle for Female Identity in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilig

The book investigates Meyer’s popular Twilight saga from a feminist point of view, focusing on the development of Bella’s character and her quest for identity in a rigidly patriarchal world. Bella’s life is entirely determined by the two central male characters who form a polarized axis which slowly tears her apart. Bella’s low self-esteem and her strong attachment to the over-idealized Edward Cullen are read as symptoms of her placelessness in a world that does not grant her space to develop as an autonomous subject. Bella’s wish to become a vampire can be equalled with a woman’s desire to gain access to a higher social realm via her husband and thereby escape her marginalisation in patriarchal culture. In order to live eternally in the idealized, capitalist, patriarchal and overly religious world that Edward represents, Bella has to make a series of sacrifices. Leaving her mother behind, she moves into a male dominated world which is divided into morally idealized vampires and racially devalued werewolves. She is forced to give up her friendship with Jacob Black, who represents her autonomous self, in order to find her patriarchal pre-defined destiny as mother and wife. Similar patterns of stereotypical representations of femininity can be found in various characters of the saga. A more controversial note is brought in by Bella’s half-vampire child who can be seen as a destabilizing factor of the saga’s rigid dichotomy. Taking all this into consideration, we have to ask whether it is desirable that millions of young women worldwide admire Bella and set her up as their role model.



Text Sample:

Chapter 3, Edward and Jacob: magnets with reversed polarities or two poles of Bella’s existence?

‘It took a little effort, they were strong enough to put up a fight, but I forced them to co-exist side-by-side.’ (Eclipse 86)

In this chapter I want to take a closer look at the two male characters who play a crucial role in Bella Swan’s life. As we have seen in the previous section, Bella’s quest for self-affirmation is mainly characterized by her desire for recognition from male characters. They determine how Bella defines herself as a subject in society by confining her to pre-defined gender roles, while Bella sees her attachment to men as the only way to transcend precisely these limitations. After her love relationship, in which she identifies extremely with the invincible and immortal Edward, she is left behind, like a lost moon’ circling around an empty space (N.M. 177). In order to compensate for this unbearable void she turns to someone who seems more her equal: the werewolf Jacob Black. This move throws Bella into a severe dilemma, which can only be fully comprehended if we see it as the representation of a fracture line running through her own ego. Looking at the ways in which Bella’s character is shaped by her relationships with Jacob and Edward, I want to find out what the two male characters represent for her, and why they have the power to tear her up inside.

The main point I want to suggest in this chapter is that Edward and Jacob represent two irreconcilable parts of Bella’s personality, which she desperately tries to integrate into a world that forces her to choose between mutually exclusive binary oppositions. In the dream that Bella has in the night following her first long conversation with Jacob, which introduces her to the mythological world of the Twilight Saga, the inner split that corresponds with the outer enmity between vampires and werewolves becomes apparent for the first time.

,I opened my eyes to a familiar place. […] I recognized the green light of the forest. I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks somewhere nearby. And I knew that if I found the ocean, I’d be able to see the sun. I was trying to follow the sound, but then Jacob Black was there, tugging on my hand, pulling me back toward the blackest part of the forest. [...]‘Run Bella, you have to run!’ he whispered terrified. [ I was ] still pulling against Jacob’s grasp, desperate now to find the sun. [...] I was watching a light coming toward me from the beach. And then Edward stepped out from the trees, his skin faintly glowing, his eyes black and dangerous (T.L. 113-114)’.

In this passage we can find images opposing the dark enclosed space of the forest, with sunlight and the vastness of the ocean. Jacob is here associated with a force that keeps pulling Bella back into the sheltering darkness of the forest, while Edward is a light coming towards her from the beach, tempting her to step out into the open space where she would finally find the sun. Even though Edward poses a threat to Bella’s life, he holds a great fascination for her, as he embodies freedom and transcendence of all physical limitations. Jacob, on the other hand, acts as her protector, and Bella feels safe in the familiarity of his world which is closer to her own, but he is also associated with the comforting, confined spaces Bella longs to escape.

Bella soon starts to believe that by transforming her into a vampire, Edward could give her access to a new world that would imply unlimited freedom to realize herself as an autonomous subject in a reciprocal love relation. Opposed to this, her old friend Jacob does not offer this kind of transcendence, but he is himself limited to a body that is not fully under his control. His transformation into a werewolf that coincides with puberty seems a great burden for him at the beginning, and we get the impression that his whole existence is biologically determined. As he explains to Bella: ‘What I am was born in me. It’s part of who I am’ (E. 99). This is reminiscent of the, anatomy is destiny’ doctrine of biological determinism, and stands in opposition to Beauvoirs famous claim that ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ (The Second Sex 295). Taking this as a starting point, and looking at what Beauvoir writes about the female experience of puberty, I want to explain why Bella feels so strongly linked to Jacob.

When Jacob changes into a werewolf the transformation comes upon him like an illness that determines his destiny by unalterably defining his purpose in life. Due to his bodily constitution he has to commit himself forever to the protection of humans against vampires. In addition to this he also has to submit himself to the biologically pre-defined order of the pack, where the voice of the ‘Alpha’ has priority over all other voices. Bearing this in mind, it is not surprising that, when Bella asks him what is wrong, he replies: ,Everything, every part of me hurts’ (N.M. 196). Beauvoir claims that the young girl goes through similar experiences during puberty. She writes:

‘It is a strange experience for an individual who feels himself to be an autonomous and transcendent subject, an absolute, to discover inferiority in himself as a fixed and preordained essence: it is a strange experience for whoever regards himself as the One to be revealed to himself as otherness, alterity. This is what happens to the little girl [...] The sphere to which she belongs is everywhere enclosed, limited, dominated by the male universe (Beauvoir 324)’.

I want to suggest that it is this similarity of experience that forms the basis for the strong emotional bond between Bella and Jacob. They both feel themselves limited by and trapped in social structures, which force them to subordinate themselves to a pre-defined order that is presented as natural. Beauvoir describes this experience of submission as one that is specific to women in patriarchal culture:

‘The young boy, [...] looks towards an open future; he will be a seaman or an engineer, he will stay on the farm or go away to the city, he will see the world [...] the young girl will be wife, mother, grandmother, she will keep house just as her mother did [...] she is twelve years old and already her story is written in the heavens (Beauvoir 325)’.

I am aware that The Second Sex was first published in 1949, and that after the socio-political changes that Second Wave Feminism brought about in the 1970s, the situation of women has improved considerably, at least in Western democratic societies. But applied to the fictional world of the Twilight Saga this quote describes the reality of Bella Swan’s life very well. As we will see later, her future is defined in exactly these traditional terms of marriage and motherhood, leaving only little room for her to develop as an autonomous individual.

Taking into account that Jacob’s experiences in puberty are very similar to what Beauvoir describes as specifically female, we can explain Bella’s feelings of fusion, and the way she internalises Jacob’s pain as her own, in the scene where Jacob kisses her in Eclipse:

‘In this moment, it felt as though we were the same person. His pain had always been and would always be my pain - now his joy was my joy. I felt joy, too, and yet his happiness was somehow also pain. Almost tangible - it burned against my skin like acid, a slow torture (E. 469)’.

In this scene Bella sees a possible future with Jacob unfold before her eyes, she admits that she is in love with him, but at the same time we learn that this love is , not enough to change anything’ (E. 469). She is determined to share her future with Edward, who would not only give her a prestigious place in the social order, but would also transform her into a superior being freed from all physical limitations. Jacob represents everything Bella has to sacrifice in order to gain this new freedom. He is associated with the body, nature and all uncontrollable passions and emotions that are rooted in the physical domain. His transformation into a werewolf is caused by a ‘natural’ genetic disposition, while the existence of vampires ,goes against nature’ (E. 99). Jacob’s anger and his inability to control it stand in opposition to Edward’s superhuman self-control. We learn from many small instances, but most clearly from the big scar on Emily’s face, that ‘Werewolves are unstable’ (E. 110), and that they present a greater threat to humans than the Cullen vampires.

Jacob can even be seen as a link to the animal world. In his wolf-form he is completely detached from his human mind, while instincts and drives have a great influence on his perceptions and judgements. This becomes especially clear in the last chapter of Eclipse when he phases into wolf-form in order to escape the pain that Bella’s final decision to marry Edward inflicted on him.

‘And I was alone. So much better. Now I could hear the faint rustle of the matted leaves beneath my toenails, the whisper of an owl’s wings above me, the ocean [...] Hear this, and nothing more. Feel nothing but speed, nothing but the pull of muscle, sinew, and bone, working together in harmony as the miles disappeared behind me[...] I pushed my legs faster, letting Jacob Black disappear behind me (E. 558)’.

Even the way in which werewolves find their partners echoes biological determinism and seems to leave little room for the decisions of an autonomous human subject. The process of ,imprinting’ is very similar to the biological fixation that young animals have on their mothers, as it is presented as absolute, final and unalterable. It is also worth mentioning that imprinting works only on the male side, which means that women are the objects that male werewolves imprint on. But I will go into more detail concerning this topic in the chapter on Quileute legends.

Let me now focus once more on Bella’s subjectivity and the ways in which Jacob and Edward influence her self-image. I have already pointed out that the two male characters form a structure of binary opposites that represent a split in Bella’s ego. It can be claimed that in order to achieve equality with Edward, Bella has to repress everything that Jacob represents. But I want to draw attention to the fact that there are two different aspects to Jacob Black’s personality that also have to be viewed as separate aspects of Bella’s character.

Until now I have only mentioned Jacob’s existence as a werewolf and the way he rebels against his biologically determined destiny. But Jacob’s friendship with Bella develops in the weeks prior to his transformation into a werewolf. During this time he finds himself in the situation of a child that has not yet been initiated into the social structures that determine his later role in life. He is presented as innocent and carefree. The Quileute myths, which later shape his entire existence, are nothing but ‘scary stories’ (T.L. 108) that he only tells to entertain and impress Bella. It is this spirit of childlike freedom that first attracts Bella to him and makes her choose Jacob as her ‘personal sun’ (N.M. 174). When she is with him Bella feels equally freed from social pressures. Even at later points in the narrative when Jacob is already trapped in his changing body, and Bella’s future with Edward is fixed, Bella can still trace a former version of herself in him, as the following passage shows.

,As we walked, I felt myself settling into another version of myself, the self I had been with Jacob. A little younger, a little less responsible Someone who might, on occasion, do something really stupid for no good reason. (E. 90)’

From this instance we can conclude that Jacob also represents the parts of Bella’s personality that are associated with her childhood. In the chapter on Bella’s subjectivity I have already mentioned the separation from her mother, and what this implies for her psychological development as an individual. Bella is forced to leave the maternal space behind in order to find her place in the symbolic order, which ultimately causes a split from her own ego. Now I want to point out that the young Jacob, prior to his transformation into a werewolf, is a representation of Bella’s childlike self. The self she was before patriarchal structures formed her into a woman, and burdened her with all expectations that are implied in this role. This explains why she frequently speaks of ‘my Jacob’ when talking about the first weeks of their friendship. Seen from this point of view, Jacob is not only diametrically opposed to everything that Edward represents, but he also stands for aspects of Bella’s personality that do not stand in direct relation to Edward at all. Considering this double identification with Jacob, it is not surprising that the separation from him is a painful experience for Bella that makes her question her entire existence. In the beginning, she turns to him because she tries to hold on to her free childlike self, and later Jacob becomes a fellow sufferer in an equally aporetic situation.



Astrid Ernst, Mag. Phil., was born in Linz in 1983. During her studies of Anglistik and Amerikanistik at the University of Wien, she specialised in culture and gender studies.

Through her long-term interest in post-structural feminist theory and its application to literary works, she found the research topic for her Diplomarbeit: ‘Tracing Female Subjectivity and Self-affirmation in Meyer’s Twilight Saga’. With this thesis, she successfully completed her studies in 2012. As a freelance journalist, she works among others for the environmental protection organization Global 2000.