Twilight Chapter 11 review: Bella killed puppies when she was five. It’s canon. Meyer let me imagine it.
You know how a whole bunch of dudes were really confused by how popular Twilight was with teenage girls and soccer moms in its heyday despite how obviously bad it is (including me)? And how the common answer to that question was something along the lines of “Bella is written like a blank slate so that any girl can self-insert into her shoes, and Edward’s description is vague enough for any girl’s dream guy to fit”?
Well… they’re right. The whole point of chapter 11 is to establish exactly that.
The bulk of the chapter is dedicated to Edward asking Bella questions. Lots of questions; about her likes, her dislikes, her life before coming to Forks… If you can think of it, Edward probably asked it.
But here’s the catch: we don’t get to hear most of the answers. The majority of the questions are glossed over by Bella’s narration. The important thing is that Bella told Edward these things and Edward was intrigued; what those answers actually were remain unknown to the reader.
This gives a fan the opportunity to fill in the blanks with answers of their own. Since Bella didn’t divulge her “profile” information, a reader can choose whatever they want to be a part of it. It is admittedly a genius move from the standpoint of establishing a character as self-insert fodder. Not even RPG’s with featureless protagonists are as effective most of the time, since all the choices you’re given in video games are limited to a handful of options pre-decided for you by the game’s programming. The way Meyer did it, though? The options are quite limitless.
There were a couple of scenes that do the same for Edward. The chapter opens with Bella and Edward watching a video in Biology class together, and they do it again the following day later in the chapter. Of course, both times Bella is too distracted by Edward being next to her to pay attention to the movie, and whole paragraphs are spent dwelling on what Edward looks and feels like. And again… we don’t get a lot of concrete details. Aside from what is typical of all vampires in this universe (white skin, yellow eyes, rock-hard texture and cold to the touch), Edward isn’t given any objective description. Just subjective terms like “perfect” and “mesmerizing”, which will mean different things for different people. It gives female readers a lot of flexibility to imagine their ideal-looking vampire boyfriend.
Again, credit where credit is due. Meyer knew what she was doing on at least this basic level.
That being said, there are a few concrete answers Bella gives to Edward’s questions, and they break the immersion. In particular, four of Bella’s answers are revealed to us. In order:
-When Edward asks Bella what her favourite colour is, she says it’s brown. But only because she happened to be wearing a brown sweater at the time and she thinks that her favourite colour changes from day to day and she dresses in response to her changing preferences.
-When Edward asks Bella what CD she’s listening to, Bella opens up her player and shows it to him… while thinking that she hadn’t changed it from the one Phil gave her before she came to Forks. Edward nonetheless happens to have the same CD in his collection and shows it to her.
-When Edward asks Bella what she liked about Phoenix’s scenery, Bella claims to have had a lot of difficulty describing it to Edward… while describing it to us no problem.
-When Edward asks Bella what her favourite gemstone is, she immediately blurts out topaz, and adds that in a couple weeks it might become onyx. And thinks that it used to be garnet, but since meeting Edward it changed.
That first answer can break the immersion because a lot of people have specific favourite colours that are their favourites for very personal reasons. Now, I’m sure there are also people like Bella who don’t think that hard about their favourite colour, but for the people who do, the answer can be off-putting. The answer could also be off-putting for those that don’t though, because Bella’s answer sounds wishy-washy and reactive, as opposed to the firmer “I don’t have a favourite colour”.
The second answer does manage to keep the immersion, albeit unintentionally (I think). The implication is, I imagine, that Bella’s favourite music is what was in the CD player, and Edward also having the same CD is meant to show that they have similar interests. Problem is, the scene can be interpreted to show Bella’s lack of interest in music altogether. She never once changed the CD Phil gave her. Is that because she likes that particular CD so much she didn’t want to change it? Or is it because she cares so little about music that she didn’t bother with the CD altogether? Or is her favourite something else and she simply forgot to change it with all the vampire goings-on distracting her? Her favourite music could still be anything.
The third answer… Eh. It doesn’t really break the immersion all that much, but it is yet again an example of Bella not being very coherent around Edward. And a further reminder of the toxicity of their relationship; sure, Bella’s easily self-insert-able, but why would you want to self-insert into a relationship like theirs anyway?
And the fourth? That Bella’s favourite gemstone used to be garnet doesn’t really matter. The point is that your favourite gemstone is going to be topaz too if you meet Edward! And that’s insulting to people who are really big into gemstones. Or Sonic the Hedgehog. Or Pokémon. Or Steven Universe. Or RWBY.
Not that the latter two existed when Twilight came out, but still.
Let’s talk about that second one a little more. The CD player. That one in particular rubs me the wrong way because it makes Edward’s intentions obvious and paints them in a very bad light. When Edward asks to see what’s in Bella’s CD player, Bella remarks that Edward looked “as if he were expecting a murder confession”. You know what that tells me?
It tells me that Edward already knew what was inside Bella’s CD player before she opened it. Because you don’t expect murder confessions unless you already know they committed the murder.
And from there, Edward would easily be capable of finding and buying another copy of that CD that he could show to Bella as “proof they have similar interests”. He has the money and the speed for that. And he had plenty of opportunity to see that CD before because of his… visits.
That gives Edward’s massive question dump on Bella a whole new meaning. He doesn’t just want get to know Bella more; he is fishing for ammunition he can use to manipulate her. Edward wants to know everything about Bella so he can impress her with stuff she likes and threaten her with stuff she doesn’t. That’s why he is pressing Bella so hard. Edward can’t stand not knowing Bella’s thoughts and because of that he’s doing everything he can to control Bella’s behaviour and make it a routine he can predict.
Edward may have stopped the physical abuse from chapter 5, but he’s doubled up on the mental abuse in compensation.
You can even see it play out toward the end of the chapter. Edward spends several hours after school questioning Bella, right up until just before Charlie comes home, and ends the discussion by saying that he’s not done and will continue asking Bella questions tomorrow. Bella asks him what happened to taking turns, and Edward just shrugs her objection off by more or less saying his turn isn’t done until he says it is and leaves before Bella can make a counter-argument.
Edward seems to have forgotten that the questioning was heavily skewed in his favour already. When Bella asked Edward questions in chapter 10, she only asked a couple during the ride to school in the morning and the rest were at lunch. Not only did Edward ask Bella questions during the ride before school and during lunch, he asked them during the ride after school and for several hours after that. Edward already asked Bella way more questions than Bella asked Edward, and Edward is still demanding a second day in a row. Their “relationship” is unfairly biased toward Edward, and given what happened with the CD player, I have a feeling that’s deliberate on Edward’s part.
Edward won’t just settle for eavesdropping on Bella’s conversations with his mind-reading and watching her sleep every night, oh no. He won’t be happy until he can micromanage every aspect of Bella’s life.
I’ll repeat what I said in chapter 5 about when Edward dragged Bella to his car:
Anyone who claims that Edward and Bella are not in an abusive relationship has not read the books.
Speaking of Edward eavesdropping on Bella’s conversations with his mind-reading, after the first Biology video, Edward walks Bella to Gym class and briefly touches her face before leaving (except not really. Remember the mind-reading?). Mike asks Bella to be his badminton partner, and since Bella’s more out of it than usual (almost getting raped the previous night and getting used to a romance with a vampire will do that to you), she accepts and lets him cover for her. Mike then proves he’s a badass in his own right; he can win doubles badminton matches while playing solo more often than not.
And Jessica chose this man. She has good tastes. On top of good everything else.
Bella doesn’t seem to agree with me. She, for some reason, thinks that it’s a miracle that Mike still has some chivalry left in him.
Excuse me?
Mike was nice to her on her first day of school (she liked him more than Edward back then!). He skipped school to make sure she was okay after Tyler’s accident (everyone did, but still). He took Mr. Banner sticking a needle in his finger without his consent like a champ and went on to escort two sick students to the infirmary during the same period, including Bella herself. And when Edward stole Bella away from him, Mike had the courtesy to not rat Edward out of playing Hooky. And he apologized to Jessica for asking Bella out in front of her by asking her out.
Mike has always been chivalrous. Aside from that one time during the trip to La Push, and Bella was an eyewitness to him redeeming himself for that.
What, does Bella hate Jessica so much that she assumes Jessica will ruin any man who dates her? Then why did Bella encourage Mike to go out with her? Did she really expect that Mike would turn to the dark side and that she’d be okay with it as long as Mike would stop bothering her?
Actually… yes. Yes she would be okay with it. She’d be okay with Edward being a human-eating monster, so Mike being an asshole is no trouble to swallow at all.
Also, after Gym class Mike confronts Bella about her seeing Edward and voices his disapproval. He makes it clear that he doesn’t like it and that Edward looks at Bella “as if she were something to eat”.
Bella is annoyed by this and blames Jessica for it, cursing her to “the fiery pits of Hades”.
Wait, so I’m supposed to dislike Jessica for telling her boyfriend that their mutual friend is dating a predator and said friend didn’t listen to her objections during Trig?
Ha ha, no. It just makes me like Jessica even more.
And knowing Jessica, if she were sent to Hades, she’d just march right out of it and take an endless supply of hellfire with her to kill Edward with if he so much as bruises Mike or Bella.
Jessica takes no shit from vampires, so she’d take no shit from Greek gods of Death either.
And I’m also supposed to dislike Mike for objecting to Bella being with Edward, and to be fair Mike does have a personal stake in the matter (he did have a crush on her and still might consider Jessica sloppy seconds… to his error, naturally) and Bella is right to say that who she sees is none of Mike’s business… but only if Mike’s only reason for objecting is that he wants Bella for himself.
That is by no means the only reason Mike is objecting. Mike caught Edward skipping and forcing himself on Bella while she was sick from the blood typing lab. That means that Mike saw Edward’s abusive behaviour first-hand and knows he’s dangerous. It’s only natural he’d disapprove of any of his friends dating him whether he was crushing on them or not. He’d make the same objections if it were Jessica, Angela, or even Lauren dating Edward. Just like with Jessica in chapter 10, what Meyer’s trying to sell as people sticking their noses where they don’t belong is actually two of Bella’s friends genuinely looking out for her.
Meanwhile, the guy that is genuinely invading Bella’s privacy gets no comeuppance or lasting disapproval for doing so; all the complaints Bella makes about Edward using his mind-reading to eavesdrop are swept under the rug and ignored in favour of gushing over his looks.
Damn… The hypocrisy in this novel is palpable.
The chapter ends with a surprise visit to Bella’s house by Jacob and Billy Black (Edward kept them coming a secret from Bella) with Charlie just behind them. We’ll see what that’s all about next time.
