How Did Each Cullen in 'Twilight' Become a Vampire?

The Big Picture

• The backstories of each member of the Cullen family are fascinating and add depth to the Twilight saga.
• Carlisle, the leader of the Cullens, had a traumatic history but eventually adopted a "vegetarian" lifestyle as a vampire.
• The other Cullen members, including Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, and Alice, all have unique and dark pasts that shaped them into who they are.

The Twilight films have a pretty divisive reputation. People either love them or hate them, and then there are those who love to hate them. But despite some cringey parts, there are some great things to be said about the saga. One of the most fascinating parts of Twilight lore is the backstories of each member of the Cullen family and how they became vampires. It may seem pretty straightforward — they get bit, they turn into a vampire, they become pro baseball players, etc…

We all know Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) story. She returned to Forks, met Edward (Robert Pattinson), became completely enamored with him, and after just mere months of dating, practically begged him to turn her. She eventually got her wish after the traumatic birth of her and Edward’s daughter, and he bit her in order to save her life. But what about the rest of the Cullens, including Edward — how did they become vampires? The books are where you really get to sink your teeth into the lore, whereas the films only give backstories for Rosalie (Nikki Reed), Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), and Edward. But even those get more in-depth in the books, and the stories are fascinating. Let's bite into it.

The Twilight Saga

When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire.

Carlisle Cullen

The leader and founder of the Cullen clan is Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), who was born in 1640, making him the oldest of the Cullens. His father was a monster hunter who hunted witches, werewolves, and vampires. As his father grew older, Carlisle took over, but was less inclined to kill due to a strong sense of empathy and compassion for people. After discovering a coven of vampires that lived in the London sewers, Carlisle led the hunt for them, during which he was attacked and left bleeding in the street. Ashamed by becoming the very thing he and his father tried to rid the world of, he tried to kill himself in many different ways. He was, of course, unsuccessful, and when the thirst for blood got unbearable he eventually fed off a herd of deer. This led him to realize he could survive off of animals instead of humans, thus adopting a “vegetarian” lifestyle that would become the backbone of the Cullen clan.

However, it wasn’t always easy for him to live this way, as he was once a part of the Volturi — a high-power coven in Italy. He was drawn to their poised and refined ways, and stayed with them for two decades. During this time, the Volturi tried in vain to turn Carlisle towards their “natural” food source of human blood. Carlisle resisted though, and after he left the coven, he spent the next few centuries perfecting his ability to resist the scent of human blood. This, and his compassion for people, allowed him to eventually become a doctor.

Edward Cullen

Born in 1901, Edward was the next member of the Cullen clan. He, along with his mother and father, contracted the Spanish Influenza in 1918. His father died in the first wave of the illness, and his mother succumbed later on. Before passing, she begged for Carlisle to do whatever he can to save Edward, saying: “What others cannot do, that is what you must do for my Edward," insinuating that she knows he is a vampire. After Edward’s mother died, and Edward himself grew worse, Carlisle snuck him out of the hospital back to his home, where he turned him.

A little while into his early vampire years, Edward separated himself from Carlisle and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) and used his mind-reading power as fuel to seek out horrible people. One of his victims was Charles Evenson, who was Esme’s abusive ex-husband. He eventually returned to Carlisle and Esme, having regretted his choice of feeding on lesser humans. Esme and Carlisle soon became parent figures to Edward, and the rest is history.

Esme Cullen

Born in 1895, Esme is the matriarch of the Cullen family, having married Carlisle. Her journey to becoming a Cullen started when she was 16 years old when she fell out of a tree and broke her leg. She was treated by none other than Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Nothing came of it, of course, and Carlisle left town shortly after treating her. At the age of 22, in an attempt to please her parents, she married Charles Evenson, unfortunately learning he was a mean and abusive man. He was eventually drafted into World War I, but shortly after he returned Esme discovered she was pregnant and ran off so as not to raise her child in an abusive home. Her baby unfortunately passed just two days after it was born due to lung fever, and Esme, devastated by the loss, jumped off a cliff in an attempt to end her life. By the time she was found, she was in such bad condition that she was taken straight to the morgue. Carlisle, however, noticed that her heart was still beating just the faintest bit, and recognized her as the girl he treated all those years ago. Not able to just let her die, Carlisle turned her then and there. Esme accepted her new life much easier than Edward did, and immediately fell for Carlisle, marrying him shortly thereafter.

Rosalie Hale

As mentioned, Rosalie’s backstory is given in Eclipse, but it somehow feels even darker in the novel. Rosalie was born in 1915, and from the very beginning she was beautiful. Her beauty earned her many compliments and praise throughout her life, and she eventually caught the attention of Royce King II (Jack Huston), the wealthy son of a bank owner. Due to Royce’s busy schedule at work, he and Rosalie had hardly any time to get to know one another and their relationship was built solely on attraction. Still, they became engaged.

A week before the wedding, Rosalie was visiting a friend, whom she envied due to her having a baby. During this visit, her friend’s husband kissed her, which made Rosalie realize just how loveless and passionless her relationship with Royce was. As she walked home, she stumbled across her husband and his friends, all extremely drunk. Royce began to brag about Rosalie’s beauty to his friends, which led to Rosalie being brutally assaulted by Royce and his friends. She was left for dead in the street, and the scent of her blood led Carlisle to her. He turned her into a vampire with the intent of her becoming Edward’s mate, but Edward turned this idea down immediately.

Rosalie sought revenge on those who harmed her and robbed her of her life, picking them off one by one and saving Royce for last. She amped up the theatrics and donned a wedding dress when she showed up to kill him. Though notably, she made sure not to spill even a drop of the men’s blood, as she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist and refused to have any part of them with her.

Emmett Cullen

Emmett’s (Kellan Lutz) storyline is rather short in comparison to the rest of the Cullen clan, but his addition to the family was all thanks to his eventual mate, Rosalie. In 1935, Emmett was mauled by a bear. He was found by Rosalie who carried him for miles back home, where she begged Carlisle to turn him into a vampire, since she didn’t trust herself to do so without killing him. He accepted his new life with ease, having fallen in love with Rosalie pretty much immediately, and since then the pair have been inseparable (as the books and the films prove.)

Jasper Hale

Born in 1844, Jasper is the second-oldest Cullen aside from Carlisle. However, he did not join the Cullen family until many years later. Jasper joined the Confederate Army at the age of 17 and became the youngest major in Texas after being promoted just two years later. He was turned by a beautiful vampire named Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno), who recognized him as a soldier and had him join her newborn army in an attempt to reclaim her coven’s territory. Together, Jasper and Maria reclaimed her territory and later claimed dominance over others, building up an army of newborn vampires to help do so. But Maria refused to keep any of the newborns after their first year since their transformation, since they were no longer as blood-hungry and rabid, and so Jasper was tasked with killing them. Since he has the power to feel emotions, he eventually parted ways from this lifestyle, unable to stomach killing other people when he could feel their pain and emotions.

However, starting a new life in the North didn’t help much either, given that he could still feel the emotions of his victims. He tried to feed less but the thirst was unbearable, and he’d eventually have to find someone to feed off. That is, until he met Alice (Ashley Greene), who led them both to the Cullen family.

Alice Cullen

Alice was born in 1901 and began having premonitions from an early age. She even had a vision of her mother being murdered and begged her not to stray from home. While her mother believed her, her father did not, and after months of nothing happening, her mother finally relaxed. However, she was murdered shortly after, just like Alice’s visions had predicted. Her father soon remarried, and Alice had a vision of her father paying off her mother’s murderer, revealing that her father was the one behind her death. She tried to tell the town marshal, but her father beat her to the punch and claimed that she had gone mad. He admitted her to a mental asylum, which is where she was eventually turned.

In the asylum, she endured electroshock therapy, which gave her amnesia but reverted her back to her happy and perky self that we know her character to be. She was befriended by a vampire who worked at the asylum, who acted as a parent figure to her and helped protect her from painful and traumatic treatments. One day, she had a vision of a tracker named James (Cam Gigandet), the villain of the first Twilight film and novel. He was coming after her, and the only way she was able to escape was for her vampire friend to turn her, and thus remove James’ motivation for tracking her down to feed on her. As she escaped, her friend distracted James, sacrificing himself in the process but allowing Alice to escape.

Her first vision after her transformation was of Jasper becoming her mate and the pair joining the Cullens. Knowing this, she began practicing a “vegetarian” lifestyle ahead of time as she awaited Jasper’s arrival into her life. They met in 1948 at a diner in Philadelphia. Alice explained her visions to Jasper, who never thought a lifestyle such as the Cullens could exist. They soon joined the Cullen family, completing it once and for all.

The Twilight Saga is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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