Midnight Sun

Blood, and particularly human blood, is an unsurprisingly important motif in a vampire novel. Within the world of the Twilight Saga, the Cullens are notable for the fact that they abstain from human blood. Instead, as Edward explains to Bella, they subsist on the unsatisfactory substitution of animal blood. Edward tells Bella, “I’d compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke. It doesn’t completely satiate our hunger—or rather thirst. But it keeps us strong enough to resist. Most of the time” (205). The idea of satiety is important—human blood is how vampires fulfil their primary need, and animal blood never leaves them quite full enough. As Edward was turned by Carlisle, the prototype of the moral vampire, he only realized that he could be missing full satisfaction when he met other, more traditional vampires. Such an encounter left Edward curious, and soon he left Carlisle’s family in a brief period of rebellion. Remembering that time, he thinks, “the first time I tasted human blood, my body was overwhelmed. It felt totally filled and totally well. More alive than before” (327). This description is more reminiscent of the feeling an addict would experience after a high, rather than the feeling of simply being well-fed. In that sense, blood is more than vampire food, it is vampire life.

Bella’s blood holds a special attraction for Edward. In the meadow during a moment of peak temptation, Edward thinks, “her blood had so much more pull for me than any other human’s I’d encountered before—I could only assume that the relief and pleasure would be that much more intense” (370). Bella’s blood therefore represents, to Edward, a kind of super-drug. It would fill him with more satiety and sweetness than he has ever experienced before, including even his experiences with human blood, and thus Edward’s ability to ultimately restrain himself from harming Bella is even more noteworthy.