Talk:Bella Swan/@comment-2020973-20190119154114/@comment-38474921-20190210072648

I see her obsession with her love interest as more of an extension of a human caught up in supernatural circumstances. These situations she's in are entirely unrealistic scenarios that aren't possible for any of us in the real world to have to make those kinds of choices, so who knows what the 'proper' way to deal with her life is....

The entire basis of her being so committed to Edward is because of that fantastical circumstance. It's all because he's supernatural, part of the world of magic, and one of a kind (essentially) since as far as she knows their trist is the only one of its kind, given the nature of what kind of creature he is. She would have never let an ordinary human take over her entire identity like that. I think Stephenie's whole idea in writing New Moon was what if true love left you? Like I said, we aren't dealing with some run-of-the-mill high school romance, not some random boyfriend, some who isn't at all replaceable once you've met him. What she meant to portray is something that's pretty much otherwise impossible to have in high school -- true love. The real deal. Your other half, your true soul’s match. What happens if he leaves? If it was merely some hearbreak that was difficult to get over, that wouldn't have been true love.

"One thing I truly knew -- knew it in the pit of my stomach, in the center of my bones, knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, knew it deep in my empty chest -- was how love gave someone the power to break you.” 

"Forbidden to remember, terrified to forget; it was a hard line to walk."

Is it healthy? Of course not. But it isn't real, either. She's a character facing impossible circumstances created for purely entertainment purposes. I find Bella's way of handling grief to be no less valid than how you or I might handle it. And despite her psychotic breakdown, she still does push through her agony and live for others, particularly for Charlie. Like I said in my first post, this has always been her style.

The lack of character development and background information about her personality that you mentioned is, I think, intentional on Stephenie's part. She left out a whole world of details about what Bella is like, even simply how she looks physically, so that the reader can most easily step into her shoes. She wants you to become Bella. No matter what you might think about these books, you can't deny they were extremely popular. This was one of the main reasons for that.

And Bella doesn't even know herslef that well either. That's what I would say is her biggest flaw, that lack of self-knowledge. She never would have pursued her companionship with Jacob if she had understood the way she felt around him was something more than friendship. If she was merely friends with Jacob, there wouldn't have been a sense of giving up on him when it was time to run back to Edward. She could have saved everyone a lot of heartbreak if she'd known herself better. But she definitely isn't just jumping into a desperate decision that she might regret later.

Everything through these novels, every backstory, every relationship, all of it is centered around Bella realizing and coming to terms with the price she'll pay to become a vampire. Also, that without that separation in the second book and all the pain that ensued, she probably wouldn't have understood that Edward truly was hers to keep. Through all the strife and the impossible, they still ended up together forever. It wasn't just some choice on a whim.

"The bond forged between us was not one that could be broken by absence, distance, or time. And no matter how much more special or beautiful or perfect than me he might be, he was as irreversably altered as I was. As I would always belong to him, so he would always be mine."