Discussion Questions for Breaking Dawn

Ice-Breakers

1. What predictions had you made for this book? Which ones turned out to be accurate?

2. Did the title give you any clues as to what would happen in the fourth book?

3. How does the cover art (featuring a white queen and a red pawn on a chessboard) relate to the plot?

4. Which character is your favorite? Did this person significantly change or surprise you in Breaking Dawn?

5. Are there any characters you didn’t like before reading Breaking Dawn? Did the book change your mind about them at all?


Breaking Dawn and the Twilight Saga

6. How does Stephenie Meyer change the familiar legends of vampires (and werewolves) in the Twilight Saga? Do you like these changes or do you feel she is “sanitizing” the vampire to make this creature more acceptable?

7. Bella describes herself as ordinary-looking, clumsy, and accident-prone, but the name Bella (which means “beautiful”) and Swan (recalling the story of the ugly duckling) suggest that she will transform (or perhaps that she’s selling herself short from the beginning). Do you think her metamorphosis takes place entirely in Breaking Dawn or does she begin to transform earlier in the series? What changes do you see in Bella over the course of the series? How does Bella Cullen compare to the Bella Swan we meet in Twilight?

8. Bella is unique in that she has the choice of remaining human or becoming something other. This isn’t the case for the vampires, many of whom were attacked and violated, or for the werewolves, who are bound to the change by tribal tradition. Even those Carlisle “saved” were in no shape to make a decision about whether they’d rather live as vampires or die as humans. How does Bella’s freedom of choice affect the kind of vampire she becomes? Do you support the other decisions Bella makes in the series?

9. A lot of romances depend on the frustrated desire of the hero and heroine to build suspense. Once the characters marry and/or make love, the anticipation is over and it’s difficult to keep the reader interested. Does Meyer keep your interest after Bella and Edward overcome the barriers keeping them apart? How does she do this?

10. Did you like the switch to Jacob’s point of view in Breaking Dawn? What is Jake able to tell us that Bella (or Edward) couldn’t? Did hearing his side of the story change your view of him?

11. Meyer suggests that Jacob imprinted on Nessie even before she was born (possibly before she was even conceived), which might explain why the bond between Jacob and Bella has always been so strong. Do you find this explanation satisfying? Does this mean that the choice Bella made between Edward and Jacob was unnecessary on some level because Jacob’s love for her wasn’t “real”?

12. What do you like/dislike about the final showdown between the united vampire clans and the Volturis? Were the Volturis defeated or did they just make a tactical retreat, which means they might still be a threat?

13. A Mormon acquaintance explained that the Cullen family is trying to “overcome the natural vampire,” which is related to the Mormon belief that people must "overcome the natural man," rising above the normal tendencies toward sin. How are the issues of self-control, discipline, and sin important to this series?

14. Think about the Cullens, the Quileute tribe, Bella’s relationship with her parents, and the gathering of vampires in Breaking Dawn. How does Meyer change the traditional idea of “family” in the Twilight series? Would you call any of these families dysfunctional?


Intertextual Connections

15. Meyer says that one of her inspirations for Breaking Dawn was William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, a young man named Demetrius is trying to break up the lovers Lysander and Hermia; he doesn’t care that Helena is dying for love of him. Oberon, the fairy king, wants to punish his wife, so he instructs Puck to make her fall in love with something disgusting (a man with the head of a donkey). Oberon also tells Puck to make Demetrius love Helena, but Puck accidentally casts the spell on Lysander as well, so both men now love Helena while Hermia is left out in the cold.

Because this is a comedy, Puck is able to reverse the spells on everyone but Demetrius so that all the characters end up with the right partner. However, Breaking Dawn is not a comedy and the imprinting process is not reversible. What problems are caused by the imprinting? Do you see the imprinting as romantic or as a kind of curse, robbing people of their ability to choose a partner? How would you respond if you were the object of the imprinting?

16. Breaking Dawn also contains several references to another Shakespeare play, The Merchant of Venice. The wily Shylock tries to enforce a contract which entitles him to a pound of the merchant Antonio’s flesh; essentially, Shylock has found a way to commit a legal murder. However, a clever young woman named Portia, masquerading as a lawyer, argues that Shylock may claim the pound of flesh but he’s not entitled to any blood; if Shylock spills even a drop of Antonio’s blood, he will be arrested for murder. Of course, Shylock backs down.

How does this play relate to Breaking Dawn? Who plays the role of Portia in Meyer’s version?

17. In writing the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer has made a number of references to other literary works. She claims that Twilight is based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; New Moon reworks Romeo and Juliet; Eclipse is her homage to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn references A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice. How do these literary allusions affect your understanding or enjoyment of the Twilight Saga? Has Meyer inspired you to read (or reread) any of the texts she mentions? Does Meyer’s series remind you of any other stories?

18. What other vampire books/series have you read? How do they compare to the Twilight Saga?


Wrap Up

20. Overall, did you find Breaking Dawn a satisfying conclusion to the Twilight Saga? Why or why not?

21. Does Breaking Dawn create any opportunities for a new series featuring some of the Twilight characters?

22. As you probably know, Meyer has promised to write Edward’s version of Twilight in a book called Midnight Sun. What predictions do you have for this book? What questions do you hope it will answer?

23. Until Meyer publishes again, what book(s) would you recommend to Twilight fans?

Stephenie Meyer interview

Hey, check out this video of Stephenie Meyer talking about Breaking Dawn and the Twilight saga at Barnes and Noble's website.

Meyer says that each of the books in the Twilight series has paid tribute to a favorite literary work:

Twilight - Pride and Prejudice

New Moon - Romeo and Juliet

Eclipse - Wuthering Heights

Breaking Dawn - A Midsummer Night's Dream AND something else Meyer won't identify

Hmm, given the cover art of Breaking Dawn, which features a chessboard, I'm going to guess Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll's follow-up to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In this book, Alice finds herself in a world that is laid out like a giant chessboard. She begins as a pawn, but if she can make it to the final square without being captured, she will become a queen.

Anybody want to suggest how this might apply to Bella?

C. S. Lewis and Shakespeare

Contains some spoilers for Prince Caspian

Conventional wisdom holds that C. S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory, so the main source for the series must be the Holy Bible. This is certainly an important influence, but we shouldn't neglect the other sources Lewis used. In my most recent reading of Prince Caspian, I was surprised to see a number of allusions to the plays of William Shakespeare.

The backstory about Caspian's wicked Uncle Miraz, who kills the king and takes his place while Caspian is still too young to rule, is very similar to rhe plot of Hamlet, in which the title character's Uncle Claudius kills King Hamlet, marries Queen Gertrude, and becomes the new monarch of Denmark, preventing Hamlet from succeeding his father to the throne.

Miraz's wily counselors Sopespian and Glozelle, who manipulate the king into entering combat by pretending that they want him to avoid battle, recall a number of Shakespearean villains, such as Iago, the treacherous advisor in Othello, and Sebastian and Antonio, the fratricidal conspirators in The Tempest.

Another reference to The Tempest appears in the chapter "Aslan Makes a Door in the Air," in which Aslan informs the Telmarines of their true origins. Like the Pevensie children, the Telmarines are Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve (humans from the "real world"). They are descendents of pirates who shipwrecked on a South Sea island, and Aslan proposes to send them back to this island to begin a new life. The Tempest, which also begins with a shipwreck on a beautiful tropical island, presents a story of punishment and redemption: the banished Prospero forgives the brother who tried to kill him, and Prospero's daughter, Miranda, sees the newcomers to the island as the beginning of a "brave new world."

Prince Caspian's final Shakespearean allusion is to the famous prophecy in Macbeth that the title character shall be defeated when "Birnan Wood do come to Dunsinane." Since woods can't move, Macbeth believes this is a colorful way of saying he will never be defeated, but he is tricked by the opposing army, who approach under camouflage of branches and leaves. Lewis makes the trick even better by including Dryads, Hamadryads, and Silvans (tree-spirits) in the Old Narnian forces, so that the actual woods advance on Miraz's army and terrify them into thinking that the world is ending.

In a previous posting, I explained why Prince Caspian was my least favorite book in the Chronicles of Narnia when I was a young reader. I stand by the critique I offered yesterday, but I must admit that even the weaker books in the series include some gems. Lewis's use of Shakespearean allusions confirms what I have often argued in this blog: children's fantasy is literature worthy of careful examination and should not be dismissed as cheap entertainment. Even after more than fifty years, the sophistication of the Chronicles of Narnia has the power to surprise and delight us.