The covers of the Twilight series might seem unrelated to the novels’ story and themes, but they do have a meaning – and here’s what it is. Vampires are an often used creature in literature, and in 2005, Stephenie Meyer introduced readers around the world to a different type of vampires in the novel Twilight, the first entry in a series of four books. Twilight tells the story of the romance between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen, who over the course of the series come across with different obstacles – from werewolf Jacob Black, to a clan of vampires known as the Volturi.
The Twilight series became widely popular, and the fanbase only grew when the books made the jump to the big screen. The Twilight Saga was released between 2008 and 2012, with the final novel, Breaking Dawn, being split into two films. As it happens with many other books that expand to film, the covers were changed to target the audience brought by the movies, adding the faces of the actors and the films’ posters as covers. However, the original designs can still be found (and might be more popular than the other versions), but not many are aware of the meaning behind such peculiar covers, as they don’t explicitly reflect what the novels are about.
The book covers of the Twilight series have a red, black, and white color palette, and each has a different object that doesn’t hold any direct connection with Edward, Bella, Jacob, and the rest, but they do have a meaning. Stephenie Meyer didn’t go with the obvious for the covers of her books, so over the years she has had to offer some explanations, which along with the interpretations of fans, make the meaning behind them a bit more interesting. Here’s what the book covers of the Twilight series mean, including that of Midnight Sun.
Twilight
The cover of the Twilight book is, perhaps, the best known of all the series. It features two hands holding a red apple, which according to Meyer is the representation of the forbidden fruit from the Book of Genesis, and thus a symbol of Bella and Edward’s “forbidden love”. Meyer actually used a quote from Genesis at the beginning of the book, as the apple also symbolizes Bella’s knowledge of good and evil and the choices she makes. On her official website, Meyer expanded on this saying that the apple has a lot of symbolic roots, and used the examples of Snow White and Paris and the golden apple in Greek mythology, as the fruit in both stories was the trigger of conflict. The Twilight movie made a reference to the cover, in the cafeteria scene where Bella drops an apple and Edward catches it.
New Moon
While Meyer chose the cover design for Twilight, she didn’t get to do so when New Moon’s time arrived. The cover of the second book in the Twilight series features a flower – a ruffled tulip – with the same color palette as its predecessor. Meyer has expressed that, as she didn’t have anything to do with the idea of the cover for New Moon, she doesn’t know what the tulip stands for, and she originally suggested a clock as she saw “time” as one of the main themes of the story. The artwork team behind the ruffled tulip cover, however, explained that the tulip losing one of its petals represents Bella losing a drop of blood, which is a triggering event at the beginning of the story, with Jasper not able to control his instincts and Edward realizing he was putting Bella in danger. Some fans have interpreted the falling petal as a symbol of Bella losing Edward when he leaves, and even representing her tears.
Eclipse
The cover of Eclipse features a torn red ribbon, which according to Meyer is a symbol of choice – specifically Bella’s choice between Edward and Jacob. In addition to that, it represents the idea of Bella being unable to fully break away from her human life, no matter how much she desired to become a vampire. Eclipse features and often debated moment among Twilight fans, in which Jacob overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement, and threatens to join the fight against the army of newborn vampires and be killed. Bella stops him and kisses him, realizing that she loves him, yet she chooses to remain with Edward as her love for him is greater. By the end of the book, Bella tells Chalie she plans on marrying Edward, and Jacob runs away from the pack.
Breaking Dawn
Breaking Dawn’s cover features a chessboard with a white queen in the foreground and a red pawn in the background, semi-hidden in the shadow. Meyer explained that it’s a representation of Bella’s progression through the series: she began as the weakest player on the board, compared to the vampires and werewolves, thus being the pawn, and ended as the strongest one, which is the queen. Breaking Dawn sees the final confrontation between the Cullens (and their allies, among those the werewolves) and the Volturi, so the chessboard also hints at this battle being “one of wits and strategy, not physical violence”. Ultimately, the battle wasn’t even a real one, with the Volturi simply leaving once they realized that hybrids (like Renesmee) are no threat.
Midnight Sun
After years with no updates on it, Meyer finally announced that Midnight Sun was going to see the light in August 2020. What’s special about Midnight Sun is that it’s a retelling of the events of Twilight but now through Edward’s eyes, thus offering a deeper look at what he was going through when he met Bella, as well as the dynamics with his family, humans, and other vampire clans. The cover of Midnight Sun features a pomegranate cut in half and dripping, which according to Hachette Book Group (via CBR), is a reference to the seven pomegranate seeds from the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. The story is all about how Hades, the god of the dead, fell in love with Persephone, the goddess of spring, who ate pomegranate seeds while she was underground, thus tying herself to Hades. The pomegranate represents life, regeneration, and marriage, symbolizing the indissolubility of the latter. It’s basically a more intense version of the apple in the cover of Twilight, which fits the equally intense point of view of Edward, who spends the whole story in a constant battle between the humanity left in him and his monster/animal side.
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