by Katie Hinderer

Created on: January 08, 2009

Twilight, the movie and the book series, is all about old fashioned values, seen in a new light. Written by a Mormon, mother of four the Twilight series espouses the values she holds true and teaches readers that living with a moral standard is possible, and even more importantly is worthwhile. What values are we looking at here? Read on...

Edward, the perfect vampire boyfriend, lives temperance - a word not even understood by many today. Temperance is the virtue by which we moderate the things we indulge in, it is resisting the urges that surround us daily. He naturally is inclined to suck human's blood, but refrains out of a desire not to be a monster. He instead goes after animals and their blood. And still he does not over indulge in animals either. He eats when necessary and not more often.

Likewise Edward is a gentleman. He holds doors open for Bella, races to open her car door for her and makes sure she is buckled into the car before driving off. He also makes sure Bella's needs are met, making sure she is eating and sleeping enough. He thinks of her and her safety at all times.

Edward and Bella live chastely. They fight urges to sleep together throughout the series. Understanding the importance of waiting and that love like theirs does not come around often. Edward pushes for marriage, claiming his old fashioned values require the wedding ceremony before the two of them sleep together. And yet the book is not unrealistic about the desires that come with any relationship. As Time Magazine put it last month, Stephenie Meyer taught us that resistance is as attractive as excess.

The book also teaches the value of family. Bella comes from a broken home, with a scatter-brained mother and a semi-distant father and yet she values both of them. Edward has both a father' and mother' that are dedicated to each other and to their children'. They welcome Bella into their family and throw her a birthday party, and later plan her wedding.

The Twilight series and all its characters teach, subtly at most times, that values, virtues and upstanding living can be aspired to and struggled for by everyone. If we had the time and space each character could be analized like Edward and Bella, and we'd find similar virtue in many of them. Likewise it shows that upstanding men and women can exist in this day and age, and don't need to be uncool and stupid-looking when they are doing it.

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