New+Moon

=New Moon - Stephenie Meyer =  Bella Swan is thrown an eighteenth birthday party by Edward and his family; a group of vampires. While unwrapping a gift, she cuts her finger on the wrapping paper and starts to bleed. Edward's brother, Jasper, is overwhelmed by the scent of her blood and tries to attack Bella. Edward stops him but after the party is over he decides to leave as to keep her safe from vampires. He breaks up with Bella and he and his family leave Forks along with everything that reminds Bella of them.
 * Summary: **

Bella becomes severely depressed and befriends Jacob Black an old friend. He helps ease her pain over losing Edward and the two develop a close friendship. Bella later realizes that thrill-seeking activities, that are dangerous and reckless, help her to hear Edward's voice in her mind and remembers him clearly. Once discovering this she jumps off a cliff in an attempt to ‘cliff dive’ to hear Edward again. When she falls into the water she almost drowns but is saved when Jacob dives into rescue her.

Alice, Edward's sister who can see into the future, has a vision of Bella jumping off the cliff and tells Rosalie his other sister. When Alice hurries back to Forks to see if what she saw was true and as she does so Rosalie tells Edward that Bella has committed suicide. Edward calls Bella’s house to confirm what Rosalie has told him. Through coincidence a close friend of Bella and her father had died around the same time. When Edward called, Charlie was at the funeral and it was Jacob who answered the phone. When Edward asks to talk to Charlie, Jacob tells him he is at a funeral. Edward assumes it was Bella's funeral he was talking about and what Rosalie told him was true. Distraught over her supposed death, Edward goes to Italy to provoke the Volturi, peace-keeping vampires, who would be able to kill him so that he may join Bella in death.

Alice realised what has happened and she and Bella go to Italy to save Edward before it’s too late. Once in Italy, just before Edward is about to go to the Volturi, Bella runs in to prove she is still alive. They all fly back to America where Edward vows not to leave her after discovering what she had been through in his absence.

Although the first book of the Twilight series has nothing to do with Romeo and Juliet the author has greatly incorporated Shakespeare’s themes into the second book New Moon. Although the means in which events happen in New Moon are different to how they occur in Romeo and Juliet they both end with the same results. Stephenie Meyer has managed to update the themes in Shakespeare’s classic play and convert them to modern times. Similar to Romeo and Juliet, the ‘star crossed lovers’ in New moon, Edward and Bella, were not advised to be together but over came their adversities in Twilight to be together in New Moon. At the beginning of New Moon Edward ‘exiles’ himself and his family from where they are living after his brother tires to kill Bella. This is similar to Romeo and Juliet when Romeo is banished from Verona after being accused of killing Mecurio. Both damsels are stricken with grief at their loss and each had their own way of coping. Later through the novel the stories link up together again. Through circumstances of the story Bella is later soon standing at the top of a cliff and jumps into the water below. Although she is saved from drowning Edward is put under the impression she has died after calling her home asking to talk with her father who is coincidentally at a funeral at the time. This is similar to Romeo and Juliet using the same ideas of not getting the whole story and presuming knowledge and taking action out of grief before fully understanding. Edward goes to Rome to kill himself to be with Bella again so it becomes a race against time for Bella to reach Edward and prove she is still alive. This is where the story moves away from the themes of Romeo and Juliet as Bella makes it in time to save Edward.
 * Similarities and Differences:**

New Moon shows a wide variety of values throughout the story. During the introduction while Edward and Bella are still together they display a great deal of love and commitment to each other. In turn that high level of love and commitment as well as Edwards values of protection are the reason he leaves her. When he does leave this opens up new values for Bella such as the strength and resilience to keep on living without him as well as highlighting the value of family as she lives for Charlie her father. Friendship is also another important value that comes into play as she meets and spends time with Jacob. However that friendship is slowly replaced with love which makes things very difficult for Bella who still loves and is committed to Edward. Edward’s values of love are once again displayed when he finds out Bella is supposably dead and goes to end his own life just to be with her again. There is also the value of trust that Edward won’t leave Bella again that she believes him. Another important value that comes up in this story as well as the rest of the series is chastity or remaining pure. Edward often mentions that he will not engage in premarital sex and wants to wait till they are married. This is also shown in Romeo and Juliet who wait till they get married till moving onto psychical things. This value, although far more common in the 1600's is still important and valued by certain religions and people.
 * Values: **