New Moon explores different kinds of love. Apart from Bella’s one true romantic love for Edward, there’s her loving friendship for Jacob who healed her pain after Edward left. Jacob, on the other hand, has romantic feelings for Bella, but accepts her friendship, hoping that Bella might be ready for something more in the future. But Bella thinks that she’ll never be able to love Jacob the way she loves Edward, and feels that she’s betraying her love for both of them by encouraging Jacob’s hopes at all. Bella also loves her soon-to-be vampire family, the Cullens, as much as she loves her human dad, Charlie. Despite the different kinds of love she feels for them, she’s willing to make sacrifices for all of them.
Questions About Love
- Bella says she loves both Jacob and Edward and can’t be without either of them. How does her love for Edward differ from her love for Jacob? Is one stronger than the other or are they just different kinds of love?
- Bella says that she’d love Edward even if he killed humans, because love is irrational. Is that a valid argument?
- Do you think Bella is cruel, as Mike says, to keep Jacob around as a friend when she knows that he has romantic feelings for her?
- Comparing her own story to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Bella thinks that "Juliet gets dumped and ends up with Paris" would not have been a hit. Do you agree and why?