Arts Culture
Twilight’s Underlying Chastity Message
Given that much of the literature targeted to teen and pre-teen girls is more lurid than a supermarket tabloid headline, the current buzz about the underlying chastity theme in the blockbuster Twilight series should come as no surprise.
To catch up anyone still unfamiliar with the basic plotline of this popular phenomenon, the novels’ principal characters are Edward Cullen, a hundred-year-old vampire “trapped” in the body of a seventeen-year-old boy, and Bella Swan, his mortal love interest.
Edward is afraid that his emotions will overwhelm him and his super-human strength will injure his beloved if they exchange anything more passionate than a quick kiss. For her part, thoroughly modern Bella is more than willing to accept that risk, but is terribly afraid of the commitment of marriage. This dichotomy opens the door to a deeper discussion about the nature of sin and a different sort of immortality.
Edward and his adopted family of vampires have forsaken their natural inclination to prey on human beings, satisfying their blood lust instead by hunting wild animals. The father figure of this group has even become a medical doctor and dedicated himself to protecting his human neighbors from physical harm.
Dr. Cullen was born the son of a Puritan minister, and entered into this strange existence as the result of a botched attempt to exterminate a predatory vampire wrecking havoc on his seventeenth-century London home. The Doctor believes that by exercising their free will to avoid the sins to which their accidental condition predisposes them, he and his family are able to preserve their immortal souls.
Edward is horrified by the monstrosity of his condition, and cynical about Doctor Cullen’s theory, but nevertheless lives by his father’s rules. He further confides to Bella that an additional reason for his reticence is his fear of endangering his immortal soul by committing the sin of premarital sex, just in case the Doctor’s theory is correct.
Of course, it is unlikely that either theology or a pure horror story could inspire such a following as the Twilight books and movies command. It is interesting to see Ms. Meyer’s inversion of the conventional paradigm of a coy damsel fending off her persistent suitor. Anyone under thirty, though, educated in a contraceptive culture which encourages aggressive sexuality as healthy for young women, is unlikely to find this a real novelty.
What holds readers’ interest is the old-fashioned romance of the story; Stephanie Meyer has introduced a generation of young women to the sexiness of deferred gratification. While this theme is treated lightly, it is nonetheless integral to the story. To the extent that we decry the influence of unhealthy ambient messages about relationships and sexuality, this mainstreaming of the chastity message is something worth celebrating.
To catch up anyone still unfamiliar with the basic plotline of this popular phenomenon, the novels’ principal characters are Edward Cullen, a hundred-year-old vampire “trapped” in the body of a seventeen-year-old boy, and Bella Swan, his mortal love interest.
Edward is afraid that his emotions will overwhelm him and his super-human strength will injure his beloved if they exchange anything more passionate than a quick kiss. For her part, thoroughly modern Bella is more than willing to accept that risk, but is terribly afraid of the commitment of marriage. This dichotomy opens the door to a deeper discussion about the nature of sin and a different sort of immortality.
Edward and his adopted family of vampires have forsaken their natural inclination to prey on human beings, satisfying their blood lust instead by hunting wild animals. The father figure of this group has even become a medical doctor and dedicated himself to protecting his human neighbors from physical harm.
Dr. Cullen was born the son of a Puritan minister, and entered into this strange existence as the result of a botched attempt to exterminate a predatory vampire wrecking havoc on his seventeenth-century London home. The Doctor believes that by exercising their free will to avoid the sins to which their accidental condition predisposes them, he and his family are able to preserve their immortal souls.
Edward is horrified by the monstrosity of his condition, and cynical about Doctor Cullen’s theory, but nevertheless lives by his father’s rules. He further confides to Bella that an additional reason for his reticence is his fear of endangering his immortal soul by committing the sin of premarital sex, just in case the Doctor’s theory is correct.
Of course, it is unlikely that either theology or a pure horror story could inspire such a following as the Twilight books and movies command. It is interesting to see Ms. Meyer’s inversion of the conventional paradigm of a coy damsel fending off her persistent suitor. Anyone under thirty, though, educated in a contraceptive culture which encourages aggressive sexuality as healthy for young women, is unlikely to find this a real novelty.
What holds readers’ interest is the old-fashioned romance of the story; Stephanie Meyer has introduced a generation of young women to the sexiness of deferred gratification. While this theme is treated lightly, it is nonetheless integral to the story. To the extent that we decry the influence of unhealthy ambient messages about relationships and sexuality, this mainstreaming of the chastity message is something worth celebrating.
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