Romeo and Juliet

The story of Romeo and Juliet plays a key role in New Moon. It is introduced at the beginning of the book when Bella and Edward are watching and analyzing the play. Throughout the book, scenes from Romeo and Juliet are integrated into the plot. The main plot itself is not entirely a tragic love story, but the Bella/Edward portion is strongly suggestive of Shakespeare.

A very strong comparison to the play would be: After Bella plunges recklessly off a cliff and Edward's sister, Alice, who can see portions of the future, sees Bella jump. Alice does not understand that Bella jumped for recreation, do Alicetells her sister Rosalie, that Bella committed suicide. Rosalie tells Edward, who then seeks to take his own life. Both the suicide-for-love and the grave misunderstanding themes of Romeo and Juliet are played out here, although not quite as simplistic...