In the Twilight Zone
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she fits in to certain social aspects such as gossip and fashion, as she still
remains awkward and shy, she quickly develops friendships and is well accepted
by most of the teens of Forks.
However, these friendships quickly become a distant memory, and a
common characteristic of unstable social relationships seems to be established
(NIMH par. 3) as, in turn, her romantic relationship with Edward Cullen
develops and becomes very intense. Edward and Bella, literally, spend night and
day together; he even sleeps at her house (with lack of sexual contact). Her
father, without knowledge of their nocturnal activities, recognizes that the
couple spends too much time together and warns his daughter: “I don’t think
you should dump all your other friends for your boyfriend, Bella . . . I think your
life would be better balanced if you kept some other people in it” (Meyer,
Eclipse 12). Yet Bella idealizes Edward to the point that he, and his family of
vampires, eventually becomes the only people, aside from a few exceptions,
with whom she closely associates. In other words, he becomes her “life” and the
outside identity source for which she had been searching. This idea follows in
that BPDs often glorify another person in the early stages of a relationship and
develop an insecure attachment and fear of abandonment (Siever par. 3). The
audience sees examples of this particular feature since, on many occasions,
Bella cannot become separated from Edward without a great deal of anxiety and
depression, even for a short amount of time. In fact, very early on in the
relationship, she cannot think of anything worse than being apart from him:
“. . . there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the
thought of running away from him. It was an impossibility.” (Meyer, Twilight
248). Furthermore, displaying the most extreme levels of emotion and
attachment, Bella would rather “. . . die than stay away from [Edward]” (274).
As Bella becomes perpetually attached to Edward, not only does contact
with other friends suffer, but her grades drop, and her long-term goals for
college change, as well. For adolescents suffering from BPD, a common
characteristic involves changes in long-term goals, grades, and/or career plans
(NIMH par. 2) With respect to her academics, initially, the audience knows that
before Bella moved to Forks, she was an honors student—in an advanced
placement program—in Phoenix (Meyer, Twilight 47). Yet, although the
curriculum in Forks does not offer advanced courses and she is placed in non
honors courses, her grades slide when she begins to spend so much time with
her boyfriend, and her academic performance fluctuates. In addition, in Twilight,
her choice of colleges suddenly revolves around his attendance, as well—she
even considers a university in Alaska based solely on the fact that the weather is
never sunny. As a result, a vampire could attend during the day. Ultimately,
though, by the end of the series, the idea of going to college becomes
unimportant since Bella’s life as a vampire and her role as Edward’s mate and
mother to their daughter becomes the only priority.
Although Bella displays certain BPD characteristics that revolve around
identity and attachment, several of the more particularly signifying features of