Midnight Sun

Midnight Sun is full of allusions, or references, to religion and mythology. For example, Meyer uses the stories of the harpy and guardian angels to explain Edward’s concept of fate. It quicky seems to Edward as if Bella is plagued by death, always under the threat of her fate. He compares this to a harpy, thinking, “I imagined the fate personified, a grisly, jealous hag, a vengeful harpy” (191). Since Edward idealizes Bella, he can only imagine that a fate out to kill her would be terrible and physically disgusting. The comparison is surface level, however. In the most famous story of the harpies from the Greek epic the Argonautica, the gods send the harpies to King Phineus as punishment, although they were not in any danger of killing him. Meyer alludes to Christian stories when Edward, somewhat jokingly, decides that he needs to be Bella’s “guardian vampire” (218). As a guardian vampire, he will fill the absence of a guardian angel in Bella’s life, protecting her against her dangerous fate.

One story that Meyer alludes to particularly frequently is that of Persephone and Hades. Even the cover of Midnight Sun, with its dripping, exposed pomegranate, is an