Talk:Bella Swan/@comment-5505664-20120722142745/@comment-60.242.219.179-20121012154522

The original definition of a Mary Sue was a character that was essentially an idealised version of the author i.e. relatively shallow and lacking meaningful character flaws, that the author projects themselves on to live vicariously through the character for the purpose of wish fulfillment, which means the work ends up practically revolving around this self-insert. Let's see how this can be applied to Bella:


 * Meyer has stated in an interview that she named Bella after the daughter she never had. During the process of creating and naming the character, she admitted that she "loved [the as of then unnamed female lead for Twilight] like a daughter; Bella's physical description matches Meyer's fairly closely. Tthe author investment in the character is clearly there, and the coddling of Bella throughout the series demonstrates it. Writing in first person is also a subtle way to create a stronger link between author and protagonist


 * Bella has flaws like plainness, cluminess and bad luck, but these rarely inconvenience her in any meaningful way and are commonly disregarded as flaws outright e.g. her clumisness is seen as endearing by other characters. She is stated to have many traits, but we only see evidence of a select few of these; this results in Bella appearing to be rather one-dimensional despite the author's attempts to claim otherwise.


 * The protagonist Bella (who also serves as an author stand-in for Meyer) captures the attention of an impossibly attractive and rich love interest, they fall in love almost immediately and ultimately gives her wealth, immortality and a loving family without sacrificing anything from her previous life, despite the fact that this sacrifice was treated as a major plot point. That is pretty blatant wish fulfillment right there.


 * On a vaguely related point, a unattributed saying goes that "every first novel is the author either as Jesus or as Faust". And Twilight was Meyer's first novel...

The verdict: Bella is an epic Mary Sue.