Charlie is such a dad. Pretty cool, but still, you know, he’s dad-style. He doesn’t really bug Bella much when she first moves in and litters the bathroom with her hair care products and whatnot. He seems positively unconcerned about her massive injury on the night of her eighteenth birthday after Jasper attacks her. He wants her to go to college but doesn’t shove it down her throat or get all bummed out when it isn’t NYU. On the other hand, he does meddle a lot in her dating and social life, clearly showing a preference for Jacob over Edward and pushing her to hang with other friends. And he puts her on a rough curfew after she jets off to Europe for the weekend without telling him. (Actually that may be an example of Charlie being pretty cool. Harry Clearwater had just died and Bella completely blows off the funeral and everything and all she really gets is a slap on the wrist. My dad would have been pissed!) Charlie is a nice mix of easy going and protective.
But how does Edward compare?
three generations; two dads
He’s got a lot of this Charlie-stuff going on, too. Nobody could accuse Edward of being easygoing (I love it that Alice describes him as “melodramatic”). Edward does have an intense generosity; that reminds me of an easygoing, live-and-let-live kind of person….on speed. He refrains from murdering Bella for one. That’s pretty significant I think. Plus he gets her nice stuff. Just that diamond heart charm must have cost a fortune! He doesn’t wish her “happy birthday” when she’s pouting about being “so old.” He prevents his brother and James and the Volturi and Victoria from killing her; also, pretty important. He takes a more serious interest in her education than even Charlie, sitting through endless videos of Romeo and Juliet and forging college applications for her. I’d be stoked in her place.
He does kind of meddle a lot though. He’s constantly getting Bella protective gear: motorcycle helmets and leather bike jackets, nuclear bomb proof cars, bandages and doctor visits. He dictates to her who she can see (or not). This is not just about Jacob either. Edward makes his whole family leave and refuses Bella any contact. He is perversely preoccupied with the lame idea that Mike Newton is somehow still in the picture. He nags about things that she “should” do: go to prom, Bella; go to college, Bella; don’t become a vampire, Bella. Really, Edward seems pretty dad-style to me, just with more intensity. The fact that he also makes out with Bella a fair bit just sends the comparison over the edge into the psychoanalyst’s office.
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I agree that Edward can be very Dad-like in telling her to go to college not become a vamp etc. I think that them making out every now and then does make for an interesting analyst visit. Bella seems like she needs and likes the protection of a father like figure because it validates her needs for support.
What are you talking about? Charlie completely looks the other way when it comes to Bella. In the first book, she’s such a cluts/dunce that her father really believes that she falls down a set of stairs and falls threw a window. She also leaves him by saying the same thing that her mother said! He never goes after her! Come on, he has no control and no self-esteem.
Edward, however, is “Dad-like” because Bella never had a father figure,,,not to mention that her mom is following a dream of a “never known” baseball player! Edward is perfect for Bella because she needs his parental instincts, but at the same time, her eternal desires.
I think Deb has you on this one…Charlie is a poor excuse for a father…but he is a teenagers dream Dad. All that freedom, none of the demands. If Bella didn’t have everyone else looking after her, her reckless streak would have killed her ages ago. I don’t really think Edward stands in for the role very well though.
While I would like to think that his obsessive care for Bella is based on his century of “life” and lessons learned, it seems much more about Bella as a possession and the challenge she presents by his lack of ability to know what she is thinking. If he did know what she was thinking, there would be no basis for any sexual tension other than the chemical attraction. Have you spoken with a 17 year old lately?
I think the main reason he doesn’t want her to be a vampire has nothing to do with her life as a human, but has to do with the fact that she will then be on a more equal footing as a being.
I think the most fascinating of relationships is Esme and Carlisle…that is a back story I would love to know. Just imagine as she came out of her transformation. Her last and strongest desire in life was to die…now she wakes up after her emotional and now physical torture to an everlasting life…never able to truly fufill her overwhelming passion to be a mother. How could that not have engendered an abiding and unforgiving hatred for Carlisle, who by the way is the most engaged and rational of all the father figures.
It could be that Ed doesn’t want Bella to be a vamp because then she would be equally powerful as him. It’s sort of like the idea that certain men don’t want women to make more or the same amount of money as them because then they would be equals. It’s almost as if Edward likes having the upper hand and all the control in the relationship. It’s so not fair! Bella wants to be level with him right away and he simply forbids it unless she marry’s him. It’s so old fashioned and tit for tat!
Yah these novels are not exactly feminist but they do glorify motherhood as Bella decides she likes being a mom and Rosalie would have liked it, but Alice has superpowers that are sort of responsible for all the Cullen’s financial sucess! So Alice is sort of like a powerwoman to be reveled by feminists perhaps! She’s smart and takes care of her family!
Mary Ann
You’ve made some good points here. The novels always describe Bella’s relationship with her mother as one in which B is the caretaker of Renee. Perhaps to an extent that’s also true about Bella and Charlie? She sort of pulls him together and makes his life a bit more interesting. I do think that Charlie isn’t a total failure, at least with a daughter like Bella, who is able to act in fairly adult ways much of the time. Perhaps if Emmet had been his son, things would have been different.
I’ve been thinking about the Carlisle and Esme angle lately. Esme is always sort of in the background in the novels yet Carlisle has a significant role not just in the creation of the vampire “family” but also in the diet constraint issue as well as the fact that the group is aware of the Volturi at all. He’s always depicted as this kind Father Knows Best sort of guy, but I’m not so sure about that. He did vote for Bella to become a vampire right away.
Your suggestion that Edward doesn’t want Bella as a vampire because of the power issue is worth taking note of. I’m working out a rant about Bella and Rosalie that is somewhat along those lines. To me these not exactly a feminist novels.
Dear Jasper,
I’m afraid that I cannot comment on “Twilight.” But I enjoyed the picture of three generations of dads. Very much indeed. It’s been a while.
Yours,
Mrs Joe Orton
Thanks for your kind remarks about the photo Lady Orton. It’s hard to come up with appropriate pics for some of these stories. I’m glad that you noticed this one.
Senior Billy has recently been moved to a nursing home. He’s 91 and struggling at home with is elderly wife. Thanks for your comments.