News

'The Twilight Saga': Love, vampires and theological themes

Published: July 17, 2010   

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, and Sister Hosea Rupprecht, FSP
Special to Arkansas Catholic

CNS / Summit

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart star in a scene from the movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents.

CNS / Summit

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart star in a scene from the movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents.

"The Twilight Saga" is based on the hit series of four novels by Stephenie Meyer. The first three books have been interpreted for the screen by directors: Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight," 2008), Chris Weitz ("New Moon," 2009) and David Slade ("Eclipse," 2010).

The film version of the fourth novel, "Breaking Dawn," is being released in two parts, due out in 2011 and 2012. Bill Condon will direct. All the screenplays were written by Melissa Rosenberg and are mostly faithful to the books.

The stories

In Twilight" Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), returning to Forks, Wash., to live with her dad when her mom remarries, discovers her new boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), is not what he seems. He's strong, fast, cold and his eyes change color. But she's falling madly in love with him despite the warning of others. Putting all the pieces together, Bella realizes she's in love with a vampire who looks 17 but is a century old. When the "vegetarian" Cullen family members fight with a rival vampire group, Edward recognizes he cannot protect Bella.

In "New Moon," Edward decides it's too dangerous for Bella to be around him so he leaves, sending Bella into a depressed state. Missing her Edward, she spends time with a friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), trying to distract herself, even going so far as to engage in dangerous thrills to feel alive. One goes wrong and she almost dies, but Edward is misled into believing she did die. Devastated, Edward takes steps to get himself killed by the Volturi, a group of Italian vampires. Bella saves him just in time.

"Eclipse" sees the love triangle between Bella, Edward and Jacob intensify. She's still in danger so Jacob's pack of wolves, who are natural enemies of vampires, enter into an uneasy alliance with the Cullens in order to protect her. Bella wants Edward to change her into a vampire but he won't, not yet. He wants to marry her and when she pressures him for sex, he refuses, wanting to wait for their marriage. But Bella is still uneasy. Jacob confesses his love for her and forces her to admit that she has feelings for him, too. Yes, she loves both Edward and Jacob, but she has already made the decision to be with Edward.

Love, not lust

At its most basic, "The Twilight Saga" is a love story of the adolescent variety. The films are filled with highly emotive and heated longing expressed through close-ups, hungry gazes and beautiful people. The blogosphere expresses a variety of opinions on the abstinence aspect of the novels and films. Some bloggers are happy that there is no explicit sex (at least, so far) in the romance and that Edward's 100-year-old morals and virtue form a positive influence on readers and viewers. Others think that Bella is objectified because she is the one who wants sex and is denied. Also she is the one who has to change in the stories; Edward cannot and this limits the possibilities for an authentic relationship. The desire of the three main characters is very explicit. Still others, including older women, seem very engaged in Bella and Edward's journey, anticipating the future relationship between a human and vampire -- and the consummation of their marriage in "Breaking Dawn."

Author Stephenie Meyers has said that the books are about love, not lust. Audiences can make up their own minds about whether or not the story is about "holy longing" and if experiencing the films is an opportunity to exercise the moral imagination or something else.

Supernatural myths

Some religious educators have expressed concern about the vampire genre, similar to the apprehension over the "Harry Potter" series. The classic vampire myth is rooted in religion, however, (see Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film "Bram Stoker's Dracula") and the "Harry Potter" series used a school of wizardry or witchcraft for its landscape for adolescent themes of growth and maturity. On a pedagogical note, both series show benevolence by caring adults for their young characters, an indication that the stories, while dark, are not malevolent in the intention of the authors or filmmakers.

"The Twilight Saga" has elements of the supernatural, though not exactly religious, at least in any obvious or substantial way; the violence can engender fear but is a thoroughly modern drama (the Cullen clan is "moral" and chooses to drink only animal blood) and falls outside the Dracula-style vampire horror legend.

Spiritual flavors

Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon, that is, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. As such, she is writing from her reality and worldview, even if her books are not meant to be "message" novels that convey the Mormon creed. Mormons believe that marriage is eternal and the family is central to God's plan, but then, so do Christians (Mormons do not believe in the divinity of Jesus and therefore are not considered Christian).

Angela Aleiss, who teaches film and religion at the University of California, Los Angeles, writing for Religion News Service (June 25, 2010), believes that "Mormon imagery runs deep" in the Twilight films. She said Bella describes Edward as "an angel" and she cannot imagine anyone more "glorious" and thinks this is an allusion to the Mormon Angel Moroni. She said the saga's theme of free will, while evident in most religious beliefs, has a Mormon flavor in the way that Edward, and by extension Bella, talk about choosing their destinies. These seem to reflect the Mormon idea of "agency," that is the exercise of a radical free will that lets one determine his fate without succumbing to the influence of circumstance.

The influence of Native American spirituality is evident in Jacob's family's vision of nature and spirit. Although it could be a distraction to imbue either the films or books with too implicit or even intentional theological meaning, there are themes in the film that invite theological inquiry such as the struggle between temptation and choosing and doing the right thing, free will, the symbolism of blood, eternal life, sexuality, and the tension between the human and spiritual.

To the believer and thoughtful viewer, "The Twilight Saga" stories are expressions of popular culture that deserve critical analysis within the faith community. It is valid to ask what the story is about and why so many people are reading the books and seeing the films. It is probably more important, though, to talk together about what the movies mean, because everyone interprets these personally, i.e., according to age, education, stage of moral and faith development and life experience.

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, is the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City and the co-author of "Our Media World: Teaching Kids K-8 about Faith and Media." Sister Hosea Rupprecht, FSP, is an associate at the Pauline Center and is the author of the upcoming book "How to Watch Movies with Kids" due out in 2011.

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