Bella Swan

Isabella "Bella" Marie Cullen (née Swan) is the protagonist character of the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. She is initially an ordinary teenage girl, but during the series, Bella falls in love and marries a vampire Edward Cullen, with whom she has a human-vampire hybrid daughter, Renesmee Cullen. The Twilight series, consisting of the novels Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, is primarily narrated from Bella's point of view. In The Twilight Saga film series, Bella is portrayed by actress Kristen Stewart.

She is the daughter of Charlie Swan and Renée Swan and the daughter-in-law of Edward Masen Sr. and Elizabeth Masen (Edward's deceased biological parents). Bella is the stepdaughter of Phil Dwyer (Renée's second husband) and the daughter-in-law of Esme Cullen and Carlisle Cullen (Edward's adoptive parents). Bella is the sister-in-law of Alice Cullen and Emmett Cullen as well as Rosalie Hale and Jasper Hale, the granddaughter of Geoffrey and Helen Swan (Charlie's deceased parents) and Marie Higginbotham (Renée's deceased mother).

In Twilight, 17-year-old Bella moves to her father's home in Forks, Washington, meets the mysterious Cullen family, and falls in love with seemingly teenage Edward Cullen. However, she soon discovers that the Cullen family is a coven of "good" "vegetarian" animal-, not human-eating vampires. Bella expresses a desire to become a vampire herself, but Edward refuses to turn her. In the second novel, New Moon, Edward and the other Cullens leave Forks in an effort to keep now-18-year-old human Bella safe from the vampire world. Jacob Black, a member of the Quileute tribe who is also a shape-shifter taking a werewolf form, comforts the distraught and severely depressed Bella. She comes to care deeply for Jacob, though less than she loves Edward. At the end of Eclipse, she becomes engaged to Edward, and they marry in Breaking Dawn, one month prior to her 19th birthday. On their honeymoon, she becomes pregnant after having sex with Edward, and, due to the peculiar nature of her half-vampire baby, Bella nearly dies giving birth to their daughter, Renesmee. Afraid of losing her again, Edward turns Bella into a vampire to save her.

The premise for both Bella and the Twilight series originated in a dream Stephenie Meyer had in which an "average girl" and a "fantastically beautiful, sparkly... vampire... were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods." In this dream, the pair "were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that... they were falling in love with each other while... the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her."

Meyer's original characters were unnamed; she took to calling the characters, who would later become Edward and Bella, "he" and "she" for the purpose of convenience as she "didn't want to lose the dream." Meyer explained that the name "Isabella" was decided upon because "after spending so much time with [the character], I loved her like a daughter. ... Inspired by that love, I gave her the name I was saving for my daughter,... Isabella."

Bella's positive reception at her new school in Forks, particularly her popularity with male characters, was modelled after Meyer's real life move from high school to college. Meyer has said that there are similarities between Bella and the title character of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, a novel which she has cited as an influence on the Twilight series.

Bella, who first appears in Twilight, is a 17-year-old human girl who moves from her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona, to live with her father, Charlie Swan, a police chief, in her birthplace of Forks, Washington. There, she is enrolled at Forks High School, where she becomes intrigued by a 17-year-old vampire student, Edward Cullen, and his siblings. When Edward saves her life, she is determined to find out what Edward Cullen is and how he saved her with his super-human qualities. Later, Bella learns from Jacob Black that Quileute legends say the Cullen family are Cold Ones, or vampires. Edward eventually admits that he is a vampire, though his family has what they call a "vegetarian" diet, only hunting animals. Edward constantly warns Bella against being with him, perceiving her life to be at constant risk because her blood's scent is more seductive to him than any other human he has ever met, due to her being his 'singer'. Cantante is the Italian expression that the Volturi use to describe a human whose blood particularly appeals to a certain vampire in an extreme sense. "Cantante" is the Italian word for "singer", denoting when the blood of the human sings for the vampire. Bella's love and confidence in Edward's restraint are such that his warnings go unheeded. While playing baseball with the Cullen family, she becomes the target of a sadistic vampire, James. Edward saves Bella from James' predation, though Edward is still unwilling to change Bella into a vampire himself.

New Moon begins on Bella's 18th birthday. She has a dream where she looks like her late grandmother while her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, is still young. During a birthday celebration at the Cullen residence, Bella gets a small paper cut while unwrapping a present. Edward's brother, Jasper, instinctively thirsting for her blood, lunges for Bella, but Edward and Emmett restrain him. In a misguided attempt to protect Bella, Edward moves away with his family. Edward's departure results in Bella falling into a deep depression and isolation lasting months.