Bella Swan Cullen

[pubesy]

guh, suicide pacts are so, completely and utterly wrong.

but bella never says that she will kill herself if edward leaves. she only does wreckless things in NM to
a) break the promise she gave to edward about doing nothing stupid and wreckless
b) Hear auditory hallucinations of edward
but suicide is never mentioned.

but yes, as far as edward is concerned - i see suicide as the ULTIMATE form of selfishness. (but then again he is ALREADY dead, so... i dont know if that counts?)

ok, back on topic.

I'm not sure that she could have aborted even if she wanted to...at least without changing to a vampire in the process. If Carlisle couldn't get any access to Nessie just examine her, I don't think he would've been able to kill her. Well...now that I think about it...maybe he could have, but it would have been an extremely extreme abortion

ok, sure. i agree with you. it probably WAS impossible to abort. But then how can ANYONE use bella's decision to continue the pregnancy as selfish? she had no other option....so she had every right to expect her husband's support for their unborn child.

[fiish3]

Bella is some what selfish, but this only stood out to me during New Moon and Eclipse because of what she was doing to jacob. She was young and ignorant during this part of her life. She didnt realize that she was falling in love with jacob in new moon because she had only fallen in love once- with edward, and that was so strong and sudden that she didnt notice this more subtle relationship forming. Therefore she couldn't possibly know why she was hurting jacob or why she still needed him. But still even though she knew she was hurting him, she still asked forhim to be with her. This really annoyed me.

However reading breaking dawn change my perspective of bella dramatically. She was selfless, she was willing to give her life for this un-known kid. The pregnacy was very dramatic and graphic. I was horrified when jacob described her as having bruises on her stomach. It was heartbreaking to see her falling apart and I too started to hate this kid. Every one hated the thing inside her except herself. It was sad to read that the cullens were under so much stress just to keep bella and the child alive. i was angry at her then but it was hard not to admire how much courage she had and how emotionally strong she was. A normal person would have gone insane but bella was optimistic and this point was proven when she got her power after becoming a vampire. She was never going to be physically strong but mentally her mind was developed far beyond all the cullens. anyway, i still can't see how bella is self=centered in BD, but i have to say reading Bella and Edwards relationship progress from a little bit more than a highschool crush to having this kid and sacrificing everything for it was extremely enjoyable.

As for bella being immature and melodramatic when she becomes a vampire i thinks its more that she feels now that she has a sense of power and she sometimes over does it. And the immaturity was fun to read about especially when shes smashing up the bolder and when shes screaming at jacob about calling renesmee "nessie"

Ohh, and about bella going to collage i think she didnt want to go because of the bribe edward had made to get her into an ivy league college. This just shows that shes independant. That she didnt except being babied and looked after.

sorry for the long post but yeah, bella is a great character and i loved reading her mature.

[Twilightlover101]

Meh, I found Bella to be more immature in Breaking Dawn, particularly after she became a vampire. Even though she had a newborn child she only seemed to take care of Nessie when it suited her. Once she felt like doing something else she would always just give her to Rosalie or Jacob to take care of instead. Bella didn't neglect her, but from what I read she didn't appear to be all that committed to looking after her child. Aside from that, after her transformation Bella becomes quite overly sensitive and melodramatic. She gets all upset and cries because Leah yelled at her for her treatment of Jacob and when Irina tells her that she isn't trying hard enough when training her ability she becomes so angry just because she stated her opinion (she wasn't insulting her or anything). It left me with the impression that Bella can't accept any comment that is less than praise without getting viciously angry or upset. To me Bella was much more mature in previous novels.

I do agree though that I was happy to see Bella become a vampire too. I was incredibly curious to see what being a newborn would be like.

bella had always, to me, been overly sensitive she takes everything out of proportion and can't be reasoned with.

[Amivera]

Ohh, and about bella going to collage i think she didnt want to go because of the bribe edward had made to get her into an ivy league college. This just shows that shes independant. That she didnt except being babied and looked after.

I agree with... a lot of stuff, except not this.
Yes, she didn't want to go because of Edward bribing them to take her, but she *wasn't* being independent in that sense. She only sat there and pouted, stomped her foot, protested, whined, but didn't do anything to stop him.

She had already accepted that she would go to whatever college he signed her up for. She didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

I found the baby-bruises thing disturbing, too. I was actually cringing when I read about the broken ribs and what-not.

[holdingoutforjacob]

there are a lot of things that bella does that i find selfish or immature, but her decision to go through with her pregnancy was NOT one of them. the actual act of her deciding to possibly sacrifice herself for her baby was NOT in any way selfish. however sometimes the way she treated people and expected to be treated was a bit selfish.

[pubesy]

HOFJ, how did she expect to be treated?

Yes, i agree, bella at times was immature. All 17 and 18 year old people are! The frontal lobes are not yet completely developed, hence we are prone to making rash decisions, ego centrism, and having unstable mood. These things come across as immaturity.

lol, like the jacob quote "did you just stamp your foot? i though girls only did that on TV!"

however, FOR HER AGE Bella, on the whole was mature. Sure, she had her moments of immaturity, but to raise her mother and look after her father, as well as successfully keep many secrets, successfully graduate, etc, makes her a responsible, mature 17-18 year old.

and sure, she had her moments of selfishness, but that does not make her a selfish person. She had moments of immaturity, but that does not make her immature for her age. WE ALL have moments of selfishness and immaturity. but that does not mean WE ARE ALL selfish and immature!

bella is "only human." hence she has human qualities!

and LOL i dont blame her for a bit of self pity here and there!

I mean, she HATES being the weak damsel. HATES IT! she HATES being the flimsy weak helpless human in a world full of strong immortal beings and super strong warewolves! She HATES being the target of every single attack, and having to be held "hostage" to be kept safe and alive. She hates how unequal her relationship is, and how she is constantly swaddled in cotton wool. she hates how she can't actually "be" with edward until she is immortal. she hates how she has to give up everything around her in order to be with Edward. She hates how she is the only one aging, while everyone else gets to live forever.

I dont blame her for being annoyed. If i were in her shoes, i would be quite peeved too! I mean, it is not like she is self pitying over unimportant superficial things like "why doesn't person X like me."

[SethisMine]

There are a few things that bug me about bella. I'm not sure if that is because I'm jealous of her getting the vamp, but it was very refreshing to get jacob's pov in BD.

[Auctorita]

HOFJ, how did she expect to be treated?

......and LOL i dont blame her for a bit of self pity here and there!

I mean, she HATES being the weak damsel. HATES IT! she HATES being the flimsy weak helpless human in a world full of strong immortal beings and super strong warewolves! She HATES being the target of every single attack, and having to be held "hostage" to be kept safe and alive. She hates how unequal her relationship is, and how she is constantly swaddled in cotton wool. she hates how she can't actually "be" with edward until she is immortal. she hates how she has to give up everything around her in order to be with Edward. She hates how she is the only one aging, while everyone else gets to live forever.

I dont blame her for being annoyed. If i were in her shoes, i would be quite peeved too! I mean, it is not like she is self pitying over unimportant superficial things like "why doesn't person X like me."

She expected everyone to be sympathetic and supportive to her without freaking out at her or telling her that her behaviour is wrong (in the case of Jacob). She can't handle critisism and expects to be told that she can do no wrong.

A little self pity is fine, we all have it from time to time, but Bella spends so much time wallowing in self-pity. In Twilight she complains about everything and is quite miserable about it, feeling sorry for herself is pretty much all she does in New Moon, and she has periods of self-pity in Eclipse and Breaking Dawn as well. I think she does this a bit more than every once in a while.

Bella may hate being the damsel in distress being told what to do and her unequal relationship, but she never does anything to fix it and lets it happen except for a few random incidents. There are certain things she can't help, but their relationship doesn't have to be unequal and she doesn't have to always follow what people tell her to do. If she actually tried to tackle these problems I would feel more sympathetic to her self-pity

[holdingoutforjacob]

bella, ESPECIALLY during her pregnancy, insists upon being treated like a princess. people have to walk on eggshells around her. she demanded that her view of people be the only one. she saw the way people acted to HER and demanded that everyone else base their actions towards that person off of her perspective, so she wouldn't have to feel bad.

if she HATES being the damsel in distress, as you said, why doesn't she do anything about it??

[moon sidhe]

I've noticed a lot of talk about Bella demanding this, that and the other way she should be treated. I'm not sure I understand the wording there. Does anyone have examples of when Bella demanded that she should be treated a certain way?