Breaking Dawn - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Breaking Dawn is divided into three separate parts. The first part details Bella's marriage and honeymoon with Edward, which they spend on a private island that Carlisle bought and gave to Esme, Isle Esme, off the coast of Brazil. Two weeks into their honeymoon, Bella realizes that she is pregnant with a half-vampire, half-human child and that her condition is progressing at an unnaturally accelerated rate. After contacting Carlisle, who confirms her pregnancy, she and Edward immediately return home to Forks, Washington, where the fetus continues to develop at an unnatural speed. After a chance remark by Jacob, it becomes apparent to Carlisle that the fetus only gains nutrition from Bella's blood, which is why her physical health was depleting. Edward is concerned for Bella's life, and convinced that the fetus will kill her, urges her to abort the pregnancy while offering her alternatives for children. However, Bella feels a strong connection with her unborn baby and refuses.

The novel's second part is written from the perspective of shape-shifter Jacob Black, and lasts throughout Bella's pregnancy and childbirth. Jacob's Quileute wolf pack is bound by their pact with the Cullens to not attack members of the Cullen family, as long as they don't feed on or change any humans, but if the terms are broken, the Quileute will protect humans and destroy the vampires. Not knowing what danger the unborn child may pose and faced with Bella's human life ending, the Quileute plan to destroy it and kill the vampire Bella. Jacob vehemently protests this decision and leaves, forming his own pack with Seth and Leah Clearwater. The fetus in Bella's body grows swiftly, with timing of the imminent birth unknown due to the lack of any related medical knowledge on human vampire births. Carlisle, the experienced doctor, is out of the house to replenish blood supplies from a hospital blood bank, when Bella falls, cracking her pelvis and inducing labor. The baby breaks many of her bones, including her spine, and she loses massive amounts of blood. In order to save her life, Edward changes her into a vampire by injecting his venom into her heart and biting her repeatedly. Jacob, thinking that Bella is dead, and blaming Bella's daughter Renesmee as the cause, tries to kill Renesmee. Instead, he "imprints"—an involuntary response in which a shape-shifter finds his soul mate—on her.

The third section shifts back to Bella's perspective, describing Bella's painful transformation and finding herself changed into a vampire and enjoying her new life and abilities. However, the vampire Irina misidentifies Renesmee as an "immortal child", a child who has been turned into a vampire. Because "immortal children" are uncontrollable, creating them has been outlawed by the Volturi. After Irina presents her allegation to the Volturi, they plan to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens. In an attempt to survive, the Cullens gather other vampire clans from around the world to stand as witnesses and prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child. Edward telepathically connects with Jacob and his Quileute pack, with the full realization of Jacob's imprint with Renesmee forging a new family connection of an unbreakable bond and mutual pact of protection between the Cullens and the Quileute, ending hatred between the races. As local and foreign vampires arrive, the Cullen house becomes the headquarters and training ground for the assorted vampires and the Quileute wolf packs. Information pieced together from the many visitors reveals the Volturi's ulterior motives for power through the acquisition of vampires with special abilities, turning the gathered vampire witnesses into self-aware rebels intent on defending their freedoms. Faced with the Volturi's ruthless killing of numerous vampires, many of the guest vampires reveal secret talents, which they know the Volturi will demand to control through them, or seek to destroy, in fear of it being used against them. The transformation of each person from human to vampire alters their characteristics, physically and mentally, with traits in human form enhanced in vampire form and particular skills heightened, sometimes into a supernatural power. Since no two minds think alike, although similar, no two powers are identical and some powers require time to develop or improve. The majority of special abilities are mind based, with exceptions occurring in powers that are physically related. At the Cullen home, various abilities and strategies are worked on individually and collectively, with exceptional talents displayed by notable vampires such as:

• The Cullen coven: Carlisle compassion, Esme love, Emmett strength, Rosalie beauty, Edward telepathy, Alice precognition, Jasper pathokinesis, Bella mental shield, Renesmee tactile thought projection and mental shield penetration.
• The Cullen Allies: Eleazar ability identification, Kate psychic electrokinesis, Renata physical attack diversion, Charles lie detection, Maggie lie detection, Siobhan outcome manipulation, Zafrina mental visual projection, Benjamin elemental manipulation.
• The Volturi coven: Aro tactile telepathy, Marcus relationship identification, Jane mental pain illusion, Alec sense deprivation, Chelsea relationship manipulation, Demetri tracking sense.

Bella's human ability shielded her from psychic powers, but as a vampire she learns she can project it to shield others in a wide radius, a secret weapon that neutralizes most of the Volturi's powers. Renesmee's hybrid human vampire gifts show that gifts can be hereditary, passed down genetically from Edward and Bella both. Upon confronting the gathered Cullen allies and witnesses, the Volturi discover that they have been misinformed and immediately execute Irina for her mistake, trying unsuccessfully to instigate a full battle. Additionally, the Volturi bring up the Cullens' pact with the Quileute as allying with the vampires' sworn enemy, the Lycans, but it turns out the Quileute are "shapeshifters" that chose the form of giant wolves, and not Lycans. The Volturi remain undecided on whether Renesmee should be viewed as a threat to vampires' secret existence. At that time, Alice and Jasper, who had left prior to the confrontation, return with a Mapuche called Nahuel, a 150-year-old vampire-human crossbreed like Renesmee. Nahuel demonstrates that the crossbreeds pose no threat, and the Volturi leave. The Cullens and their allies return to their homes in peace. When Edward and Bella are alone, she shows Edward a skill she has worked on, enabling him to read her mind for the first time, and sharing her feelings about him from her human and vampire memories.