In New Moon, the second movie of the Twilight Series, Edward leaves Bella for her own good. As a result Bella 'shuts down' . In the book it states, "I walked forward without thinking. I could not do anything else. I had to keep moving. If I stopped looking for him, it was over. Love, life, meaning… over." Over the next few months Bella stops enjoying life and can not seem to continue forward with her life. This youtube video is a clip showing Bella during these months. I think this a great example of ‘the romantic in action’, since Bella let's her emotions of heartbreak and pain triumph over reason. Bella gives up all rational thought and spends all of her time wasting away, pouting about her situation, instead of listening to reason and getting on with her life. Throughout the books, Bella and Edward's love sounds perfect and wonderful, to the point that Bella's existence without him has no meaning. This is of course a romanticism of the idea of love. Even though we grew up reading fairy tales where everyone lives happily ever after, we all know it is not like that in real life. Love has its ups and downs and is never perfect. The love between Bella and Edward is clearly romantic since it values emotion over reason, as shown by Bella in this clip. I also think this youtube video does a great job of tying nature, which is a huge part of romantic ideas, into the clip by showing the different seasons, through Bella's window, as they pass by her. Romanticism appeared as a reaction to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order and instead valued imagination and emotion. As a result the romantic ideas of love have become a popular part of culture and appear in all different types around us, such as song lyrics, advertisements, movies, and book. Although the idea that love is always perfect and wonderful is not realistic, some movie watchers almost always feel moved by the love portrayed in romantic comedies. This idea of love that is portrayed romantically all around us is a part of it’s 'cultural construction' and forms our feelings about love. Regardless of how love is in real life, the emotion portrayed by a romanticized view of love still causes many people to be moved to tears. The culture of love surrounding us today is still romanticized and is used as a play on emotion to affect how we feel towards certain products, stories, or songs.
I really appreciate how closely this clip in the movie follows the book; the passing of time is symbolized by pages with nothing printed but the name of the month. It goes to romanticize Bella's depression because obviously there are no words to explain her blank depression, only emotion, or lack thereof.
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