In the Twilight Zone
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performing these activities, the once-cautious Bella abandons her more
conservative nature and no longer seems to care as much for her own health and
safety. She even comments: “Who cares if I was reckless and stupid? There was
no reason to avoid recklessness, no reason why I shouldn’t get to be stupid”
(125). According to Larry J. Siever, in The Dana Guide to Brain Health, risk
taking, self-destructive behaviors attempt to reestablish a sense of wellbeing for
a BPD (par. 2), so along this line of reasoning, perhaps Bella is simply
attempting to use desperate measures to reestablish a sense of security, peace,
and happiness.
Bella engages in the ultimate impulsive, risk-taking behavior when she
decides to cliff-dive by herself (Meyer, New Moon 358). Although she denies
that she possesses suicidal tendencies, the logic behind the act suggests
otherwise. For example, knowing that she is a poor swimmer, the waters are
rough, and the current is strong, and that she determines to dive alone, in an
isolated location, suggests that her chances of survival would be slim. However,
regardless of whether this particular act would be one of extreme high-risk and
poor judgment or a suicide attempt, suicide attempts are a characteristic of
extreme cases of BPD (NIMH par. 1). When logic is applied, the cliff-diving
incident could more than likely be viewed as a suicide attempt, although one
important factor to note is that she engages in this desperate behavior, and in
other high-risk-taking activities, in order to hear Edward’s “voice” in her mind.
Bella also experiences auditory hallucinations, a more severe and
sometimes secondary symptom of BPD (BPD Today par. 8). Bella learns that
she hears Edward’s voice of warning when she pursues reckless behavior.
Although the audience, at first, is left to wonder whether the voice is real—with
regard to psychic communications—or imagined, we later discover that
Edward’s admonitions against danger are only Bella’s psychosomatic, wishful
thinking hallucinations—Edward never communicates with her psychically. Yet,
Bella goes to great lengths just to “hear” Edward’s voice—incidentally, she
almost drowns during the cliff-diving incident: My ears were flooded with the
freezing water, but his voice was clearer than ever. .. Why would I fight [to
live] when I was so happy where I was? Even as my lungs burned for more air
and my legs cramped in the icy cold, I was content. I’d forgotten what real
happiness felt like. Happiness. It made the whole dying thing pretty bearable”
(Meyer, New Moon 361). Bella, wishing for Edward’s presence, even in an
imaginary sense, goes so far as to welcome death, as long as she can “be” with
him again.
Clearly, the combination of auditory hallucinations that spur on the
desperate, extreme, hazardous acts, along with Bella urgently clinging to a
replacement male in order to fill her sense of emptiness reflect upon both
extreme and more common characteristics found in BPD. Bella, in a sense,
uproots herself and puts her humanity at risk in Twilight and the first part of
New Moon in order to coexist with her beloved vampire. Codependency is
definitely an apparent issue here; however, the codependency works both ways.