“Love is love, even if it is illicit; like light remains light even in the darkness.” This quote by Munia Khan is significant to both the romantic story The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and the New York Times Bestseller, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer because both stories involve a forbidden love with conflict. Spontaneously, both stories seem completely unalienable, but a deeper examination can connect the numerous similarities. These two stories are similar because both authors create a forbidden love between the characters that fighting for love is precarious; however, the differences between the forbidden love that the characters go through have a completely different conflict they deal with. To begin with, a similitude …show more content…
Bella Swan is shown as a typical human being in Twilight’s depiction of her life in both Washington and Arizona. Edward Cullen has always been thought of differently as mysterious and dangerous. Upon research and observations, Bella has been able to classify Edward as a vampire in which she uses this knowledge to immediately question Edward about the truth of his identity. As Edward admits to being a vampire, instead of letting the truth overcome her, she refuses to let the information control her and declares her love for him, regardless of him being a vampire. Throughout the story, both Edward and Bella discuss their love for each other soon to learn that although they have fallen deeply in love, the most important conflict between them is the status of Bella being the prey and Edward. being the vampire, “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..., he murmured” (Meyer 274). Edward uses this specific phrase to describe their forbidden relationship through the eyes of prey and predator. In contrast, Romeo and Juliet are unable to be together due to their lack of assertiveness towards the feuds their families created between being a Capulet or a Montague. On the night of meeting Romeo, Juliet stands on her balcony and wishes for Romeo to change his name so they can be together, “Retain that dear perfection which owes/ Without that title, Romeo, Duffy thy name,/And for that name, Which is no part of thee/ Take all myself” (2.2.46-49). Juliet had decided to plead to the sky in the hope that Romeo would change his name and become a Capulet, allowing them to truly be together. Instead of taking the opportunity to voice their desires, Romeo and Juliet continue their forbidden love in secret. Their decision to keep their love a secret resulted in the tragic deaths of them both. Sadly, their deaths could have been