What Happens After Edward Leaves Bella In Twilight?

As Edward disappears from Bella's life in Twilight, everything around her starts to deteriorate in an eerie, hollow way. In school, people treat her with kid gloves, and Charlie is worried about her. Even at home, her friends seem to be walking on tippy-toes around her, and it seems like the rain in Forks is even greyer than usual. Then Bella enters a reckless phase of her life where she tries to hear Edward's voice in her head by risking life and limb on a motorcycle, going cliff diving, etc. It's simultaneously heartbreaking and infuriating because you can tell she believes she's not worth saving. Eventually she finds solace in Jacob's warm and fuzzy presence, but it's not too long before she's returning to her near-death experiences in order to bring back the dead boyfriend. That reunion with Edward at the Volturi is so cinematic it's almost disgusting, too – in order to see this, we have to acknowledge just how codependent and toxic Edward and Bella's relationship is. Is it love or self-destruction? Who knows?

My major takeaway from Meyer’s handling of Bella’s grief after Edward’s departure is that her loss of him is not just a pain for her to get over, it’s the downfall of her identity. Her sense of self was wrapped up in her relationship with Edward and in his absence the world around her literally loses color as her senses dull. This is a truly sad read but an amazing book. And even though the central plot of the book is Bella’s first love, Meyer does an amazing job of conveying the true intensity of first love. And the rest of the world in the book is amazing too- especially the wolf pack and the politics of the Volturi.

I’ve written before about how amazing Bella is in the post-Edward portion of New Moon, but the amount of time Bella is catatonic in this section and wakes up after what seems to be hours (often from dreaming of falling off of cliffs or hearing voices) and stares at the wall for extended periods of time really is mastery of emotional devastation. After so long of her being obsessed with Edward, it’s interesting to see her slowly come back to life with Jacob, not least of which because of his werewolf lineage and for her to fall in love with him, but even more interesting because of how the two of them interact. scenes of them building bikes, of them playing in the water, of him bringing sunshine into her life and her slowly coming back to life are all really wonderful. But as always, it’s complicated. And in Italy, in the Palazzo dei Priori no less, Bella rushes off to save Edward from his own suicide-by-volturi. While this is of course peak teenage melodrama, it’s also really wonderful. And in the end, it’s Aro who forces Edward to admit that he made a huge mistake in leaving Bella. I also find it really interesting that this book quietly critiques Edward’s ‘protectiveness’. His attempt to keep her safe ended up nearly killing them both in opposite ways.

In ‘New Moon’ Edward leaves Bella heartbroken, in a situation that leads to her getting her life together little by little in a series of rather negative events and wolf-therapy. Most of these can be counteracted by the slow but positive development brought about by Jacob, even though his motives aren’t entirely altruistic, as is debated among fans about the imprinting process. The change comes for Bella when she sees Edward try to kill himself in ‘Eclipse’ Cliff diving, as foreseen by Alice in her respective vision. Bella rushes to save him in time and travels to Italy in what feels like an eternity. As it is resolved, however, Bella is left with the feeling that Edward has come back to her but that their trust has been irreparably broken. Furthermore the Jacob-like spot that Edward has occupied for so long is now filled with the boy himself and Bella is left wondering whether all this suffering is really worth it for her.