As it happens, I've only read (skimmed) the first book of the series so most of these points are not my own. At the end of this post I'll give you a link to my sources. I've read some pretty interesting articles about whether Edward Cullen is an abusive boyfriend or the perfect boyfriend. Without further ado, here are the arguments for both sides:
True Love:
- Even though Bella is his personal "brand of heroin" Edward loves her too much to kill her
- Edward wants her to go to college and have a normal life
- Outside of the vampire thing Bella has a fairly typical life. She graduates, holds a job, reads, emails her mom, etc. and has friendships with Angela and Jacob. She does not let Edward interfere with her life.
- Though Edward teases her (which some see as putting her down), he teases her about things she is confident about such as her intelligence. This way she knows he is only kidding.
- He constantly tells her how beautiful she is
http://www.fanpop.com/external/7741173
http://pyroclastic.blogspot.com/2008/12/question-is-edward-cullen-abusiv...
Abuse:
- Edward tries to control who Bella is friends with (messing with her engine so she can't see Jacob)
- He breaks into her house and watches her when she sleeps without her knowing or her consent. This is illegal.
- He invades her privacy by listening in on her conversations with friends and encourages his family to spy on her
- Bella justifies his actions by claiming Edward is overprotective and only acts this way because he "loves her" Sorry but that's the number 1 abusive relationship cliche ever.
- HE WANTS TO EAT HER. Look we all want to kill our partner now and then, but when this becomes the overriding theme of your relationship, you're in trouble
http://community.feministing.com/2008/07/misgonmy-in-popular-teen-liter....
http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/nikkigassley/2009/8/13/Feminism-Doesnt...
http://psa.blastmagazine.com/2008/08/16/twilight-sucks-and-not-in-a-good...
So there you go, complete with links to original articles. Probably could have cited thousands of references, but they would have gotten redundant after a while. Hope this was fair and balanced, tried to make an equal number of points for each side. Tell me what you think!
Angie Gooderham
first when one is not sure abt love and insecure these feelings happen - and it is understandable - so it can grow better - best
1Here's how I feel about it. If Edward were a human boy his actions would be over the top and incredibly controlling. But he's not. He's a vampire and knows how incredibly fragile Bella is, even more so than other humans. She's completely accident prone and danger and death seek her out at every turn. Everything he does is done to protect the woman he loves. Now the sneaking into her bedroom is a little much even for a vampire, but perhaps he does it not to be controlling but because he's so in awe of her and has never hung around a human since becoming a vampire. It's all new to him and everything about her fascinates him even something as simple as watching her sleep. When it comes to holding her back from seeing Jacob, yes that is controlling, but he still does it out of love. He thinks being around werewolves is dangerous. The only thing he can compare it to is his experiences with them. When he finally realizes she is ok with them he loosens up. In my opinion everything he does is done out of love and fear of losing her to death. If he was really abusive he would have either just bled her dry or made her a vampire well before he did. That's my take on it. Didn't mean for it to be so long...lol.
2Appreciate the explanation, bsprague. Can't really say where I stand on this because, as I've said I haven't read all the books or seen the movie. Just seen this debate popping up all over the internet and wanted to see what all the other sugars thought
3i voted undecided, because with a vampire lover, who knows what his motives are:euil:
4Or is it just an obsession a common trait in Vampires
http://www.vampirehigh.org
5I said it was love because everyone should love their food.
6well, that's an interesting spin on things.
7I said love. This is an unrealstic vampire/human love and he loved her enough to control himself around her- to leave her when he thought she was in danger, and as for being controlling of who she can be friends with- he encouraged her to have friend just not Jacob because he was a werewolf- aka a enemy to any vampire. In the end he grew to accept Bella and didn't make her feel guilty for their time spent together.
8One last thing- if you could read minds wouldn't you want to know what your spouse or partner was thinking?
I totally agree with bsp #2!
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