Twilight (novel)/Characters

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Bella Swan-Cullen

Isabella Swan is the main character of Twilight. She moved from Arizona to Forks to live with her father when her flaky mother got remarried, and was very unhappy staying away from her new husband. She is described by herself as being klutzy, easily bruised and of weak constitution, and being quite plain in appearance. She is also very well read, quiet, introspective, perceptive, observant, stubborn, is obsessed with cooking for her father, doesn't connect with humans. This part is explained by the fact that she is essentially a mature woman in a teenage body, with a mix of occasionnal No Social Skills and perpetual Mr. Imagination. She strives to get deeper connection with others, and only does so easily with vampires and werewolves, she is capable to love with all her heart, body and soul no matter what her brain might say, and she is deeply concerned with the safety of all her loved ones, like Charlie and Jacob, but mostly Edward and the Cullens.

Edward Cullen

A 108 year old vampire. He was turned when he was 17 and dying of Spanish flu. He believes very firmly in remaining pure until marriage, among other Christian ideals, and the idea that he is a sinner and can never rectify this weighs heavily on his soul. Bella's blood smells particularly good to him, and he finds it difficult to be around her without succumbing to the urge to bite her, but he falls for her and cannot keep away from her.

Renesmee Cullen

She is Edward and Bella's daughter as of Breaking Dawn.

Jacob Black

Jacob first knew Bella when they were just children, and they lost contact for years while she was away. He tried to push for a more romantic relationship, but by the time he made his intentions clear, she only had eyes for Edward. He became a werewolf in New Moon.

Charlie Swan

Charlie is Bella's father and the police chief of Forks. He is quiet and a bit of a loner, who enjoys watching sports and drinking beer. He mostly leaves Bella up to her own devices. He will occasionally try to interact with Bella, but she usually is too busy protecting him from the horrors he is not aware of to actually spend time with him as well.

  • Adults Are Useless: Bella's going through all of this, and Charlie barely steps in. When she becomes a vampire, he ends up keeping his knowledge of what has happened on a need-to-know basis. It has to be said, though, that this is only partly due to his discomfort with the strange goings-on; Bella and the Cullens know that if the Volturi find out he knows about vampires, they will either kill him or force the Cullens to turn him.
  • Butt Monkey: Bella seems to insist on referring to him as "Charlie" instead of "Dad".
  • Parental Obliviousness
  • Locked Out of the Loop
  • Police Are Useless: Justified. There really isn't a practical way for the police to respond to vampire activity and apparently there's no other kind of crime in Meyer's version of Forks.

Carlisle Cullen

The patriarch of the Cullen clan, Carlisle's been around for centuries. The son of an Anglican pastor in the 1600s, Carlisle was turned after a fateful encounter while hunting vampires. Initially horrified, he tries many times to kill himself before succumbing to his thirst by drinking animal's blood. After being revived, he goes on to live out his immortal lifespan as a doctor and helper and eventually decides to create a companion for his growing loneliness. The rest is history.

Esme Cullen

The matriarch of the Cullen clan and Carlisle's wife, Esme's beauty is matched only by her gentle nature and great capacity for love. After meeting Carlisle as a young girl, she later married another man who turned out to be an abusive jerk. She managed to escape, while pregnant, but her child died shortly afterwards, robbing her of the will to live. After a near successful suicide attempt, Carlisle, who recognized her, transformed her. She fell in love all over again, and has since found solace in her big family of immortal adopted kids.

Alice Cullen

One of Edward's many adopted siblings, Alice used to be in a mental institution because she claimed to see the future. After being transformed into a vampire to save her from a sadistic hunter, she's managed to find Jasper and the Cullens and has lived with them since. She is funny, happy in nature and well adapted to living as a vampire and aside from Emmet is Edward's closest relative and ally. She adores Bella even before she meet her, just because she knew she will love her.

Emmett Cullen

Adopted into the Cullen family after Rosalie, Emmett is a fairly jolly guy. Found by Rosalie after getting mauled by a bear, he was transformed and has been inseparable from her and the Cullens since then.

Rosalie Hale

The second kid to be adopted into the family. Rosalie is stunningly beautiful, even for a vampire, but she's really had a hard life. She grew up during the Great Depression, but managed well, and was even poised to marry a man who still had his money in those tough times, even though she didn't love him. She was then beaten and raped by her fiancé and his friends while they were drunk off their rockers, and was left for dead in an alley. Taking pity on her, Carlisle transformed her and being with Emmett gave her a reason to keep going on. She's not really nice to Bella, but grew to accept her later.

Jasper Hale

Born in the Deep South, Jasper participated in the Civil War before being transformed. He lived out his early days training an army of vampires, but after the stress proved too much for him, he left, and later met the love of his existence, Alice, and has lived a peaceful existence with the Cullens since then.

  • Badass: One of the most Badass characters in the series, as we learn from his past history, if not the biggest one, although we never get to directly see his sheer Badass in the book. The movies made sure to remedy this, especially the 3rd one. In the final battle we see all the Cullens and the Werewolves brutally fighting against the Newborns, giving it their all. Jasper, however, is tossing them aside and ripping them to shred like wet paper and not one of the Newborns is capable of stopping him from cutting them like fishes. It's a shame that the 4th book was what it was, as everyone would have loved to see Jasper in action and being the Badass we know he has to be.
  • Blood Knight: Struggled with this.
  • Break the Cutie: His whole past qualifies as this.
  • Brown Eyes: Human life.
  • The Empath
  • Fan Nickname: BAD EVIL HARPO!
  • Rescue Romance: Of sorts with Alice.
  • Super Soldier: To some extent.

The Volturi

An ancient coven of vampires living in Volterra, Italy. They consider themselves the rulemakers of the vampire world and purveyors of the arts. They are a large group, headed by the Big Three: Aro, Caius and Marcus, and have many scouts and guards. They are considered the antithesis of the Cullens.

James' Coven

The first adversary encountered in the first book. They first started out as a small group of hunters and nomads who just lived to drink good blood. Things went from bad to worse when Bella and her rich blood came into the picture. James was offed in Twilight, followed by Laurent in New Moon, and then Victoria and her giant army of newborns in Eclipse.

The Wolf Pack

Werewolves Wolf-like changelings of the series. They are members of the Quileute tribe and are trained to protect humans from vampires. Members include Sam Uley (alpha), Paul Lahote, Jared Cameron, Embry Call, Quil Ateara V, Seth and Leah Clearwater, and Jacob.

  • Broken Bird: Leah
  • Cheerful Child: Seth is a teenager, but definitely fits this trope.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Leah
  • Double Standard: Leah is a bitch who is ruining the lives of everyone because she can't get over being dumped by her fiance and having to mentally listen to him hate her, with no way to escape. When Jacob is the same because Bella married her boyfriend instead of him, Sam tells Leah to be nice to Jacob, because he's had a much rougher time than she has.
  • Hot-Blooded: Paul, though he settles down in Breaking Dawn after imprinting on Jacob's sister offscreen.
  • The Lancer: Seth plays this role for Jacob after they split from Sam's group. Leah too, once she joins them.
  • Nice Guy / Keet: Seth. Edward even mentions that his mind is one of the purest and kindest he's ever read.
    • Becomes less nice in Breaking Dawn for a little while, due to jumping on the Double Standard bandwagon against his sister, but thankfully, he (unlike most other characters) gets over it fairly quickly.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Seth and Leah.
  • Team Mom: Emily
  • Theme Naming: Most of them have Old Testament names (Jacob, Seth, Leah, Sam, Paul, Rachel and Rebecca). 4 of them (Jacob, Seth, Emily and Paul) are named after Meyer's siblings.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Jacob and Leah, Type 2.
  • Wife Husbandry: A bad side effect of imprinting, as Quil and Jacob learn.

Bella's Classmates

The human students at Forks High School. The most prominent ones are Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, Angela Weber, Eric Yorkie, Tyler Crowley, and Lauren Mallory.

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