Twilight: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

When Bella gets home, she tells Charlie that she has a lot of homework, locks herself in her room, and puts in headphones. She turns on music loud enough to hurt her ears and listens to it on repeat until she falls asleep. Bella can tell she’s dreaming when she wakes up somewhere in the forest near the ocean. Jacob is trying to pull her into the forest and tells her to run, but he falls and turns into a wolf. Mike’s voice tells Bella to run too, but Bella sees Edward beckon to her. He has sharp teeth and looks evil. Before Bella can move, the wolf flies at Edward, and the two fight. Then, Bella wakes up. It’s 5:30 am.

It’s no use trying to go back to sleep, so Bella gets ready for her day and boots up her computer. She searches “vampire” and peruses a website called “Vampires A-Z.” Bella reads through world legends about vampires, looking for anything familiar or plausible. Many of them seem like stories meant to explain high rates of child mortality or to excuse male infidelity. But three stand out: one that looks like pale humans, one that is fast enough to massacre towns in minutes, and an Italian kind that’s supposed to be good. That last one is a relief, but none of the legends line up with Jacob’s story. Furthermore, Bella knows that vampires can’t come out during the day.

Annoyed and embarrassed by her internet search, Bella decides she has to get out of the house. She hikes into the forest from the backyard, carefully following the trail. When she comes to a fallen tree, she sits down amongst the ferns and logs. The forest looks eerily like it did in her dream last night; here, it’s easier to believe that vampires might exist.

Bella knows she has two questions to answer. First, was anything Jacob said true? It seems ridiculous, but Edward is also gorgeous, has saved Bella with his impossible strength, and he never eats. He speaks like he’s from a different era, and he says he’s dangerous. If the Cullens aren’t vampires, they’re at least not human. The second question is what Bella is going to do if it’s true. She can’t tell anyone. She can avoid Edward, but this makes Bella feel like she’s in pain. Or she can do nothing—after all, even if Edward is evil, he still saved her. Bella also realizes that Edward in real life is nothing like the Edward in her dream last night—and when the wolf attacked Edward in her dream, she was afraid for Edward.

Bella knows she has her answer. It doesn’t feel like a choice at all; no matter what’s true, she only wants to be near Edward. Shivering, Bella gets up and hurries home. She spends the afternoon writing a paper on Macbeth. She’s at peace—making decisions is always hard for her, but it’s a relief to have made a choice. Charlie gets home late in the evening with fish he caught, and Bella decides to get a fish cookbook in Seattle. She feels chills as the thought of going to Seattle with Edward.

It’s sunny again the next morning. Bella shocks Charlie at breakfast with her upbeat demeanor and leaves for school early. She settles on the benches by the cafeteria and sketches on her homework. Mike calls to Bella and comes to join her. He tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, and then the subject turns to their Macbeth essay, which is due on Wednesday. Deflated, Mike says he’ll have to get started on it instead of going on a date with Bella. Bella tells Mike that Jessica’s feelings would be hurt if they dated. 

Later, Jessica invites Bella to accompany her, Angela, and Lauren to shop for dresses in Port Angeles. Bella’s anxiety climbs throughout the morning; she wants to study the Cullens to see if anything matches up with her research. But they’re not in the cafeteria at lunch. Suddenly miserable, Bella agrees to go to Port Angeles. The rest of the day passes slowly, and Bella is thrilled to be able to go home after school and mope before going to Port Angeles. But Jessica calls to postpone until tomorrow—Mike asked her out. To distract herself, Bella emails Mom and then takes her collected works of Jane Austen outside to read. When she realizes that the Austen books are full of characters named Edward or Edmund, she stops reading and lies back in the sunshine.

When Charlie gets home, Bella jerks awake and follows him into the house. She watches TV with him after dinner and, during a commercial, she asks if she can go with Jessica to Port Angeles tomorrow. He doesn’t understand why she’s going dress shopping if she’s not going to the dance, but he agrees. Bella offers to leave sandwich ingredients in the fridge for him.

The next day is almost exactly the same: the Cullens aren’t at school, and Bella is miserable despite the nice weather. She’s anxious to get out of Forks so she can stop looking for Edward everywhere. After school, Bella hops into Jessica’s car. They pick up Angela and head out of Forks.