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Bella and the Beast : When Vampires Fall in Love, or the Twilight of a Genre

Contrary to the general belief that the sensational popularity of Twilight, both as fiction and films, seems to signify the revival of the Gothic literary tradition, the paper proposes the idea that Twilight represents the genre’s decline. Vampires have mutated from metaphorically potent monsters into teenage idols who promote the idea of premarital sexual abstinence, the notion of a traditional nuclear family and the myth of romantic soul mates. The monster, now stripped of its metaphorical potential to question burning political, social, sexual, or any other controversial issue of the time, becomes a means of reinforcing the status quo and its values. Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are the epitome of the perfect teenage couple: a virginal beauty and an ideal son-in-law – respectful, humane and ascetic – brought together by fate. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, the archetype they wish to emulate, Bella and Edward do not defy their parents or the dominant order, and so they are rewarded with a happy ending in the form of a functional nuclear family.

vampire ; family ; Gothic literature ; Twilight

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