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Mood in Stephanie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn"

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Mood in Stephanie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn"
The book Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers is a story about the obstacles that Bella, a human, and Edward, a vampire, must overcome to finally reach their “forever”. In the beginning of the story, Bella and Edward get married and have their honeymoon on a private island. After about two weeks there, Bella discovers that she is pregnant. The half vampire, half human baby weakens Bella greatly in just a mater of weeks. When the time comes for Bella to give it birth, it will have already left her close to dead. The only way for Bella to survive would be transforming her into a vampire, and that is what Edward does. Bella gives birth to a baby girl, Renesmee, and Jacob imprints on her. All seems well until Irina, another vampire, sees Renesmee from a distance and mistakes her for an “immortal child”, a baby changed into a vampire, which was illegal in the vampire world. Irina goes and informs the Volturi, the “rulers” of all vampires. Because of the severe crime the Volturi think the Cullens have committed, they plan to go kill them without a trial. This, along with other along with the other unexpected events that occur throughout the story makes the reader anxious about what will happen next. Thus, Meyers uses various elements of literature to create a suspenseful mood in her story.

One way Meyers reveals the mood of suspense is through the story’s plot. One main conflict of the book is Bella becoming pregnant. The baby inside of her is half vampire and because of that, it is unusually strong just like any other vampire. The baby also grows inside of her at an abnormally quick rate. “The baby [was] kicking my ribs apart, breaking her way through me, piece by piece..”(376). The baby is literally ripping Bella apart because of its rapid growth rate combined with its strength. It is becoming very big and it has no room inside of her. Bella is only human and too weak to carry such a strong baby. Soon, it will have chewed its way out of her, leaving her dead. The only


Cited: Meyers, Stephanie. Breaking Dawn. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2008
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