The Twilight Saga - Miller Tree Inn ( Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times ) The Miller Tree

Inn bed and breakfast in Forks, Wash., advertises itself as home of the Cullens -- the vampire family in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" and its sequels, which are set in the town. Forks has embraced its starring role, and tourism has taken off.

The Twilight Saga - Fans ( Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times ) Twilight fans Rebekah Hamilton (from right), Sydney Conway and Alexis Miller, all from Redmond, Wash., gather for a photo in front of Forks high School.

The Twilight Saga - Beach at La Push ( Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times ) The beach at La Push, shown at low tide, is a must-visit spot for Twilight fans: The Indian reservation in La Push is home to Jacob the werewolf.

The Twilight Saga - City hall ( Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times ) Forks City Hall houses the police station where heroine Bella's father works. It's a stop on the town's monthly "Twilight" bus tour. "We've had people from all over the world," says one store owner. The Twilight Saga - Police chief Mike Powell ( Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times ) Forks Police Chief Mike Powell has gotten used to answering to "Charlie" -- Charlie Swan is the Forks police chief in the Twilight books. He signs autographs as Charlie Swan and poses for pictures with his squad car.

Twilight Setting
Where It All Goes Down

Present-day Forks, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona;

As far as time period is concerned, all of Twilight goes down in modern-time (technically around 2005, since that's when Meyer originally published it). The location of the action jumps around a bit, though. Read on for our Tour de Twilight!

Forks and Phoenix

Most of the story takes place in Forks, Washington, and its surrounding areas. According to Bella, Forks claims the highest rainfall per year in the United States. To put it bluntly, it's dreary and gray 99% of the time. The cloudy, rainy climate is one of the reasons the Cullens have chosen to live in Forks because it's rarely sunny, they can go out in the daylight without having the sun sparkling off their glittery skin and exposing them. The dreary weather allows vampires to live relatively normal lives. Another factor that distinguishes Forks is that it's surrounded by forests and wildlife. The woods are especially important to the novel, since the Cullens rely on wildlife for their diet. Not to mention, the damp greenery adds a "dark" element to Forks's location. You could say that Forks is the land of the dark. If Forks is the land of the dark, Phoenix is the land of the light. When Bella hops on her plane to depart from Phoenix, it's 75 degrees and sunny. Bella, therefore, is a child of the light; she readily admits she prefers dry, warm climates. When Bella first moves to Forks, she hates it. She tells us, "It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old"(1.2). Later, Bella describes her feelings of confinement in Forks: "Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning, and I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up on me. You could never see the sky here; it was like a cage" (1.65.1-2). Over time, however, as Bella's relationship with Edward becomes more intense, Bella comes to like Forks. In fact, when she returns to Phoenix and is about to confront James, she says, The sun was hot on my skin, too bright as it bounced off the white concrete and blinded me. I felt dangerously exposed. More fiercely than I would have dreamed I was capable of, I wished for the green, protective forests of Forksof home.(22.81.4-6) By the end of the novel, Bella has experienced a complete reversal in her feelings about the two locations.

The Forest

The forest is an interesting setting for a number of scenes. Commonly in literature, the forest represents a wilderness where evil and/or mystery may reside. If you've read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter or Arthur Miller's The Crucible, you'll know what we're talking about. This may be the case in Twilight to some extent. But in this novel (and in much of literature, including Shakespeare's As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others), the forest also represents safety from the confinement of society. The Cullens' home is nestled in the woods, away from the human world, and as Bella tries to sort out whether or not Edward is a vampire, she runs to the forest: Here in the trees it was much easier to believe the absurdities that embarrassed me indoors. Nothing had changed in this forest for thousands of years, and all the myths and legends of a hundred different lands seemed much more likely in this green haze than they had in my clear-cut bedroom. (7.48.1-2)

Bella and Edward's Meadow

A secluded meadow in the middle of the forest hosts Bella's first sight of Edward's skin when exposed to the sun. Bella describes the meadow almost like we'd imagine the Garden of Eden: The meadow was small, perfectly round, and filled with wildflowers violet, yellow and soft white. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the bubbling music of a stream. The sun was directly overhead, filling the circle with a haze of buttery sunshine. (12.257.2-3) In this private setting, Edward can be himself in front of Bella for the first time. He shows her his super-speed and strength in addition to his sparkling skin. The meadow is also where Edward and Bella take their love affair to the next emotional level.

La Push
Lastly, La Push serves as the place of Bella's epiphany over Edward's "kind." Jacob Black, the son of one of Charlie's friends, fills in Bella on the local lore and informs Bella that the Cullens aren't allowed on La Push reservation. This new setting clues us into the competition between Jacob and Edward each guy has his own territory on which neither can trespass, yet Bella is free to move between them.

Major Themes
Based on one of its genre traditions, Love and Romance is the first major theme of Twilight:that is, the way two people become attracted to each other and become mates. While the main characters Bella and Edward are the pairing readers focus on, there are others that serve as a striking contrast to further develop the idea. Change and Risk is the next theme: the way people make choices that places them in danger, what those choices mean, and why they do it. Stemming from another of the novel's genre traditions, horror and the supernatural, Humanity and Mortality: it is by looking to monstrous creatures that readers determine what qualities make humans unique and even redemptive. Family is the last of the major themes, providing another important way for people to bond: the traditional familial structure is practically non-existent in this book, and yet it is that sense of obligation and belonging which leads to many conflicts.

SETTING The story is set primarily in the small town of Forks in northwest Washington State, as well as nearby communities such as La Push and Port Angeles. The very beginning and the climax take place in Phoenix, Arizona.

CONFLICT Protagonist
Bella Swan, a human teenager who moves to Forks, Washington.

Antagonist
For most of the novel, Edward Cullen is the antagonist, as they both come to terms with the powerful attraction they feel for each other. However, the tracker vampire James becomes the antagonist in the last third of the novel, as he hunts down Bella to kill her and provoke Edward.

Climax
James tricks Bella into coming to him in order to save her mother.

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

The theme of Love and Romance Love and Romance is the first major theme of the book, as the main action hinges on Bella and Edward uniting and the adventures resulting from this union. Bella and Edward are the ideal couple in some ways - thematically, they represent a balance between vampiric passion and human intellect --but also fatally flawed in that they can also be predator and prey, which would happen if the balance is lost. The vampire-human bond brings out an image of the victim being ravished - that is, being taken in hungrily by the predatory nature of the vampire. However, that ravishing is also balanced in order to preserve the love, as Edward reins in his instinct constantly and Bella - in her kisses and forward behavior - gives in to her own instinct and becomes quite passionate and even aggressive with Edward.

The ideal of Bella and Edward isn't the only example of love and romance, of course. There are other pairings which also work well - Carlisle and Esme, Emmett and Rosalie, Jessica and Mike - though little is shown about them. Further, there are several examples of romance that has gone awry - from the beginning, we are told that Charlie Swan and Renee Dwyer did not work out, and she left him when Bella was just a baby. There is also Bella and all the other potential mates presented to her: Mike, Eric, Tyler, and finally Jacob Black. None of them suit here, though she is clearly charmed by Jacob and even uses her feminine wiles on him - the first time she has done such a thing, apparently - and this factors into future volumes of the Twilight series. Thus, we come to a thematic development of the ideal versus the reality, there are imperfect fits between potential couples that are often discarded before the right match has a chance of occurring. Love and romance actually takes hard work, trial and error - which is why Bella takes on the role of matchmaker for her human friends, and why Renee finally finds happiness with Phil Dwyer.

Further, romance can be exploited by others, as well: Bella flirting with Jacob is the most obvious example, as this helps lead her to the truth about her true love - and further, Jacob falls for her more as a result of her manipulative attention. However, Edward can also dazzle women, as seen by the workers at the Port Angeles restaurant. And perhaps most damaging of all, Bella repeated to Charlie the words Renee used when she left, in effect breaking his heart again by abandoning him in the same manner - even though it was for his own good. The desire for the right match can be so overpowering, has as much seductive allure as the actual loved one, that people can be led astray. What finally emerges in this romance novel, then, is a complicated, nuanced understanding of what love entails and the cost it has on people.

The theme of Change and Risk

Change and Risk is related to the theme of Love and Romance, as falling in love is often a case of seizing an opportunity and hoping it works out for the best. However, there are many other choices that involved change - and in change, the plentiful risks that accompany a different situation, a new set of circumstances. The book starts with a major change, as Bella moves to Forks from Phoenix. At the end of the novel, she is ready for another major change, as she wants to become a vampire out of love for Edward. So in this sense, change begets further change - major decisions change the situation enough that new opportunities can be seized.

For his part, Edward changes his attitude towards humans, bringing Bella closer than any before, and in doing so places himself and his family at risk. However, the opportunity this affords him - the chance of true love, even with someone who could just as easily be his meal - is too great a reward for him to resist. Carlisle is changed into a vampire in the 1600s, but uses that as an opportunity to study medicine and eventually tame his vampiric impulses. In contrast, the refusal to change results in stultification, in following a single path which limits opportunity: Charlie stays in Forks and becomes police chief, but is alienated from his daughter until the novel; Billy Black has fixed opinions on the Cullens based on past interactions between the vampires and the Quileute werewolves; Mike is so focused on Bella that she must force him to consider Jessica before he can find some dating happiness.

The novel ends with a change still pending for Edward and Bella. They had surmounted the difficulties of being an unusual - even fatal - couple, but must now contend with another change Bella wants: to become a vampire so that she may stay with Edward forever, something a human cannot do. Edward does not welcome this change and refuses it: Edward believes the risk here is greater than Bella can understand, that she will become a monster and that the reward - himself - is not worth it, or rather that the happiness Bella will retain by staying human weighs more heavily on him than their love. It is a selfless choice, but one Bella does not agree with. These differing perspectives on what change is good is a realistic view of how risks - like beauty - are in the eye beholder.

The theme of Humanity and Mortality Humanity and Mortality is the next major theme of the novel, which encompasses the motif of vampirism since vampires as a species are traditionally positioned as being both "above" and "against" humans by being immortal and preying on human blood. In Twilight humans in general represent intellect and reason, but also a limited perspective on the world due to both limited senses and a limited lifespan. Vampires defy mortality, and in doing so they are gifted with a wider perspective - much sharper senses, heightened physical abilities, and a very different sense of time. However, the price they pay for this is the inhuman desire - the taste for human blood based on instincts. Thus, vampires preying on humans is not only fatal in the literal sense of taking a life, but is also a draining of the vampire's humanity by performing an act of murder and cannibalism.

As stated before, Bella is ready to give up her mortality and humanity out of love for Edward; her ideal of romantic love is a very human impulse, and a highly passionate one, but it is also balanced by the intellectual concern of being able to always be with Edward and to save herself from the future problems that come with being a human in a vampire's world. For his part, Edward is also acting out of love by denying Bella her desire to become a vampire: he sees her human experiences as being too precious to give up (as seen by the Epilogue's prom surprise) and that mortality is an acceptable price to pay. So in the same way Change and Risk is left open thematically in terms of what is acceptable change and what isn't, the value of Humanity and Mortality is left in dispute between the two couples. Is it worth more than eternal love, as Bella feels - or is love in the here-andnow sufficient as long as one's humanity is preserved? The book leaves this for future volumes to resolve.

The theme of Family Family is the last major theme of the book. It's worth noting right off the bat the three major families in the novel - the Swans / Dwyers, the Blacks, and the Cullens - are not typical "nuclear" families. Bella's parents divorced and her mother remarried; Billy Black is a widower; and the Cullen children are "adopted" through vampirism. Thus, thematically we already see that the definition of family is expanded to include non-traditional models, but all are based on love and commonly-shared obligations for each member of that family. Rifts threaten each family: Bella has the secret about the Cullens that she holds back from her parents; Renee in turn has her long-ago break from Charlie; Jacob doesn't believe the legends that his father Billy knows are truths; and Edward wants to bring a human, Bella, into the Cullen household. None of these are fully resolved by the end of the novel: Charlie remains uninformed, Jacob remains willfully ignorant, and Rosalie continues to feel hostile towards Bella.

However, the strength of family ties remains clear throughout the book, but the positive aspect is not always clear. Bella is willing to sacrifice herself twice for her mother at the

beginning and end of the novel: first by moving to Forks for the sake of Renee's marriage to Phil Dwyer; then at the climax when she actually offers her life to James when she thought her mother was endangered. While these are noble deeds, Carlisle Cullen's obligation to family is not: as a human in 1630s London, he becomes a vampire out of a desire to please his father, pursuing a crusade which he does not personally believe in. Thematically, the most important development is when Bella is welcomed to the Cullen family as one of their own - with the exception of Rosalie, who dislikes Bella but nevertheless complies with the general family decision. When James threatens Bella, Carlisle makes the declaration that "She's with us." At the end of the novel, Bella says she'd side with the vampires if they attack the prom attendees - as well as affirms her desire to become a vampire. In this sense, she is like a bride waiting to be accepted by her new family - another rite of passage that many adults face. Whether or not she will be welcomed in this manner is not determined by novel's end.

The theme of Popularity Popularity is a minor theme in the book, explored through intertwining subplots: Bella is the new girl at Forks High School, earning the attention of several boys who wish to date her; meanwhile, the Cullen children are a clique unto themselves, beautiful but aloof from the rest of the school. Bella does not like the popularity she experiences, not having stood out in Forks, and manages to even out her popularity by becoming a part of the Cullen clique. At the end of the novel, she attends the prom with the Cullen clique, but feels herself perfectly at home among the humans as well. Popularity is thus developed as something not worth pursuing - that it is actually a source of weakness in bringing undue attention to oneself.

The theme of Beauty Beauty is another minor theme, and actually tied intimately with the theme of Popularity. There are two aspects that the novel develops. First, beauty is fatal: that is, the beauty that vampires posses is part of how they lure in their prey. This is a biological beauty, based on what attracts creatures to a predator, and Alice even makes the comparison to a carnivorous flower. Further, there is an attraction between Edward and Bella because her essence is the most enticing that Edward has ever faced as a vampire; here, beauty works against the couple, it would force Edward to give in to instinct and kill Bella. Second, beauty can have a spiritual component: Edward is able to resist his vampiric instinct to attack his perfect meal, Bella, because he learns to love her. He also compares Bella to the beautiful Rosalie, admitting to an objective beauty in Rosalie but not feeling the same attraction for her that he feels for Bella. In this manner, Edward shows he still has some human impulses, and so beauty becomes a form of redemption for him.

There are two regional settings in Twilight, and a number of domestic or institutional settings within each of those regions. The first region, and the major setting for the novel, is Forks, Washington and the surrounding area. Meyer evokes the perpetual rain of the Olympic Peninsula, using the mist, fog, and wet for several purposes. The first purpose for the reader is to drive home how different Forks is from Phoenix, which had been Bella's home. The second purpose is closely linked: it creates a sense of alienation and weirdness in itself, with the perpetual rain and the almost alien amounts of greenery. The third purpose relates to the novel's supernatural elements: the perpetually overcast skies make it easier for the vampires to hide their true nature. The proximity to truly raw nature enables them to hunt the wild animals they need to keep their thirst for human blood under control, and so maintain connection with their human selves. The fourth purpose is to incorporate the greater understanding of the Northwest Indian tribes beliefs in supernatural beings. In the Forks area, there are several key settings. One is the high school. The physical layout of the school is sketched out in the first chapter. After that, the layout is taken largely for granted. What matters is the timeless feeling of a high school in a small town, and Meyer captures the gossip, the intrigue, and the shifting social framework well. The town itself is a related setting. Little attention is given to things like what buildings look like, but a lot of attention is given to the town's small scale and how well everyone knows one another. The wilderness gets a lot more specific attention. The actual wildness of the woods is important. It is essential that the vampires can hunt bear without drawing attention to themselves, that they can escape the eternal temptation of being around humans, and that they can have open spaces to play their vampire baseball,...

The story is set primarily in the town of Forks, Washington, where Bella and her father, Charlie Swan, live. Other cities in Washington briefly appear in the series or are mentioned, such as Port Angeles, Olympia, Seattle and La Push. Some events in Twilight take place in Phoenix, Arizona, where Bella was raised. Volterra, Italy, is featured in New Moon, when Edward travels there to commit suicide and Bella rushes to save him. Jacksonville, Florida, is mentioned first in Twilight and second in Eclipse, when Edward and Bella visit Bella's mother, who has moved there with her new husband. Seattle, Washington, is featured in Breaking Dawn when Jacob tries to escape his love for Bella, and when Bella tries to locate a man named J. Jenks. It is also the location of a series of murders committed by newborn vampires in Eclipse. In Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward spend their honeymoon on a fictional "Isle Esme", purportedly off the coast of Brazil.