Binary Opposition

The Twilight series is overflowing with binaries which are necessary to create and build the story line. The binaries include natural/unnatural; good/bad; student/teacher; reality/appearance and the most obvious, masculine/feminine.

Bella falls in love with Edward in a natural way. She is intrigued by his mysterious, bad boy persona and finds herself head over heels for the guy that remains a mystery to everyone. Edward on the other hand is initially attracted to Bella by the scent of her blood and finds himself obsessing over protecting being with the girl of his unnatural dreams. This is the binary of natural versus unnatural forms of love.

In this series it’s as though Bella is a student, entering what she always thought was a fictitious world. Edward and Jacob are her teachers trying desperately to win her love by having her understand the risks and threats of being involved with the other ‘creature’. By teaching her the ways of the Vampires and the conflict between them and the Werewolves they are getting Bella more and more involved with every secret that’s exposed.

Edward and Jacob appear to be completely normal young men with great looks and stature, when in reality they are casing the truth about their inhuman qualities. Reality showcases the real them, Edward a sparkly, blood sucking vampire who never sleeps and Jacob an oversized, hairy werewolf. The use of this binary opposition displays a sense of enigma and presence of occult.

Bella is pure, innocent, human and a fragile female. Edward and Jacob exude masculine qualities and of strength, muscles and mystery. These qualities of contrast come together in the books and movies to create a collision of two completely different worlds into a love story that prevails.

Without binary oppositions Twilight would be lumped together with all other love stories, boy meets girl, boy fights for girl, girl falls for boy. Binary opposition plays a huge part by creating the Twilight series as we know it today, a unique love story.

Where's the White Horse?

Edward Cullen’s undying love for Bella Swan can bring a tear to the most skeptical romantic. The way he is willing to risk his life for her shows a level of love that most people dream of. The people that dream of this unrealistic fantasy like relationship are the young followers that are enamored with the modern day love story of Twilight. Their obsession and idealization with these two characters can have a negative effect on their perception of reality. The fantasy-like beliefs cause unrealistic expectations that often lead to disappointment when not measured up to in reality. The truth of the matter is, young men, as hard as they try, can never be like Edward Cullen. They don’t possess the vampire-like qualities that give them super human strength which aids them in the defense against evil villains. Regardless of the threat Twilight poses to the masculine entity in a relationship, men globally find themselves becoming passionate about the series as Times Newspaper in India states “And it's not just the women who seem to be lusting after vampire blood - men seem equally taken by the series too. Says fashion choreographer Karun Raman, ‘I actually watched the movie first and then went on to read the book. To say that I'm hooked is putting it mildly. The special effects are brilliant and the love story has been woven in so beautifully’” (Suresh).

Due to the Twilight obsession with young and old, male and female, expectations in relationships are shifting to unrealistic heights. An article by Laura M. Botherson states “Husbands may become even less motivated to please their wives if they know they are competing with a fantasy--it's a contest they can't win. Most men won't even try. It makes for a vicious cycle of a woman feeling unloved--making her more susceptible to the Twilight fantasy, and the husband being less likely to even try to connect with her” (Brotherson).

Using mythological creatures to create a mysterious world of masculine characters creates an ideology of masculinity that men are starting to crave. The casting for this series strategically considered aesthetics when choosing strapping young actors with muscles, strength and smooth chivalrous speech to play the roles. Young girls everywhere dream of a knight in shining armor on a white horse to come and rescue them from their uneventful lives. These impossible standards make it hard for the average Joe to measure up or even come close to these expectations. Inevitably these unrealistic expectations not only result in disappointment for the young woman who does not have her fantasies come true, but the eager suitor who just does not measure up. Twilight’s love story although very heart-warming has damaging effects on its young followers and creates a false reality that they can’t come to terms with. Edward Cullen is a fictional character, in a fictional world – his dilemmas are manufactured and so are the resolutions. Twilight enthusiasts everywhere should accept this for what it is, a fantasy and not model their expectations around this. After all, it is hard enough for the young men to muster up the courage to court a girl, much less conquer the world. Give the guys a break, they are only humans!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk24ui7eeyI

Suresh, Tarunya. "Twilight Saga Gaining Popularity - Times Of India." Featured Articles From The Times Of India. 02 Dec. 2009. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-12-02/news-interviews/28108922_1_harry-potter-series-stephenie-meyer-s-twilight-twilight-saga

Brotherson, Laura M. "The Twilight Obsession and Its Effect on Marriages." Self Improvement from SelfGrowth.com. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

A Love After Sunset

Twilight is a four part romance-fantasy themed novel. The author Stephanie Meyers penned the four part series in the following order; Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Three of the four novels have already turned into motion pictures and have generated a following like no other. Teenagers and young adults everywhere go through fanatical lengths to be a part of the phenomenon, attending Twilight conferences or joining fan groups. The young actors that play the main characters have essentially become bigger than life over night due to the cult-like following of the Twilight series.

The story is set in Forks Washington, and Isabella Swan (Bella) moves in with her father Charlie in this rainy, dreary American small town. In her high school is the Cullen clan, a group of adopted children to the town’s resident doctor. The group seems tight knit and they stick to themselves, they appear snobby and weird to the rest of the town. However Bella is intrigued by this and very much infatuated with Edward Cullen. The feeling is mutual but much to the dismay of the Cullen clan who seem very adamant about getting close to others. This is because if people got close to them, they would get close to the long guarded secret of them being vampires. Young love prevails and Edward and Bella stand against all adversaries, she becomes accepted by the modern aged vegan vampires. Being a fragile human in a world full of vampires has its share of life threatening risk, and this is what Edward, Bella and the Cullen clan have to face to keep their secret safe.

The characters may change, but the love stories remain the same. From the fairytale love of Cinderella, Rapunzel to Romeo and Juliet, our society is in love with being in love. Young girls have graduated from the cliché Disney fairytales to fantasies such as Twilight. This enormous following proves that young girls are still being deceived into believing one day they’ll find their knight in shining armour. The distressing part about this is some young ones cannot differentiate fantasy and reality. They go through great lengths to obtain a love like Romeo and Juliet or Bella and Edward, only to find it’s essentially impossible. Love within itself is not impossible, but there are real life obstacles that have to be faced in order to reach this level of affection and admiration for another person. The fairytales are misleading when they depict the quality of undying love that these young people have for each other virtually overnight. The struggles they do face throughout the movie are ones that are no match for the young love the two characters exert. Twilight feeds the idea of taming the “bad guy” or the guy out of reach, girls will attempt to swoon guys because they like the idea of them, instead of the individual himself. Girls don’t realize that this trend has its own repercussions because it’s continuing to kill what they really crave, chivalry. They date the guys they know will break their hearts, in hopes they’ll be the one that makes them change their ways.

These fantasies do nothing but provide young girls with unrealistic expectations of what a boy should do and how he should act, eliminating the real life struggles a relationship involves. Men are stuck in love purgatory while woman continue to merge realities of love and fantasy.