Biography for Bella Swan (Character)

Isabella ''Bella'' Marie Swan is the daughter of Charlie Swan of Forks, Washington and Renee Dwyer of Phoenix, Arizona and later Jacksonville, Florida. Her parents were married right out of high school and had Bella at a very young age. Charlie and Renee later divorced and Renee moved to Phoenix, Arizona, due to not being able to stand living in dreary, constantly overcast Forks any longer, taking newborn Bella with her. Every summer Bella would come and visit her father for a few weeks in the little cloudy town of Forks where her parents had lived.

Bella stopped going to Forks when she was a young teen because she did not like it there. When Renee married Phil, Bella felt she was holding her mom back from being able to travel with her baseball playing husband so she decided to move to Forks to live with Charlie so her mom could be happy. This is just one of many selfless acts demonstrated by Bella, which is part of her character.

This is where she met and fell deeply in love with Edward Cullen. After discovering Edward's and his families secret, her life changed dramatically as they grow ever more attached to one another. Bella, being known to attract disasters, constantly keeps Edward busy saving her life from day to day events.

Bella is described as being very fair-skinned with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes and a heart-shaped face. She has a wide forehead, large, wide-spaced eyes, and prominent cheekbones. She is five foot four inches tall, but not muscular, and weighs 110 pounds. She does not think of herself as beautiful, but she is alone in this opinion.

Most of the guys at Forks High School are attracted to Bella. Mike, Tyler, and Eric all ask her to the spring dance. She rejects all of them due to her fear of dancing and being shy, social situations. She, instead, accepts an offer to travel with Edward to Seattle, Washington that weekend. Later, after surviving an attack by another vampire, James, she goes to the prom with a broken leg with Edward Cullen escorting her. She doesn't know that her new friend Jacob Black, and her new boyfriend Edward Cullen are mortal enemies. Jacob is a werewolf and Edward is a vampire. Many years ago, before Bella was in Forks, Edward's family hunted on Jacob's Quileute tribes' land. A treaty established between the tribe and the Cullens leaves an uneasy peace between the two groups, that continues to this day.

In New Moon, Bella turns 18 on September 13th. She receives a camera from Charlie (her father) and a scrapbook from Renee (her mother). She accepts these presents, despite her vehement resistance stated many times before her birthday, that she didn't want to celebrate turning older than Edward. That evening she goes to the Cullen's home with Edward where they throw a little party for her, though she continues to protest the celebration.

While Bella unwraps her presents, she gets a paper cut which releases a single drop of blood resulting in Jasper (the Cullen newest to the 'vegetarian' lifestyle) attempting to pounce on Bella to drink her blood, but Edward pushes her out of the way and saves her though she falls onto more glass which cuts her arm open and she bleeds even further. Carlisle stitches her wound up and Bella goes home without seeing Jasper again.

This event leads to Edward leaving Bella telling her that he doesn't love her anymore and to take care of herself, resulting in her going into a zombie-like state for months. She does the bare minimum to remain alive subsequent to Edward leaving with the rest of the Cullen family. However, in January she 'wakes up' after Charlie tries to send her home, back with Renee to Jacksonville. She then becomes good friends with Jacob Black, partially to appease Charlie, at least at first. Jacob helps Bella gradually recover from her depression over Edward leaving. Jacob starts to fall in love with Bella, but she continues to love Edward and won't let herself love Jacob as more than a friend.

Bella becomes very interested in extreme sports and does some very dangerous things like riding motorcycles and cliff diving, when she discovers these dangerous actions cause her to hear Edward's voice in her head cautioning her to be more careful. The sound of his voice is so alluring to Bella she continues to make unsafe choices over and over again just to hear Edward's voice.

Ultimately, these life-threatening decisions lead to a misunderstanding causing Edward to believe Bella is now dead and Alice (who arrives to comfort the grieving Charlie), and Bella end up racing to Volterra, Italy to attempt to save Edward's life since he is about to expose the secret of the existence of vampires, knowing the vampire royalty, the Volturi, will kill him for this action. Essentially, Edward believes this suicidal action will allow him to join Bella in the after life, or so he hopes, but either way he has no intention of remaining alive if Bella is dead.