Elena Gilbert Profile

Characteristics:

Elena is seventeen, athletic and slender. Her complexion is olive with brown eyes and long, straight, dark brown hair.

Personality:

During the pilot episode, we see Elena as a melancholy, withdrawn and quiet individual. Later you learn that this is because of her parent’s death that occurred a few months earlier. Through her friends, it is revealed that before her parents died she was popular, active and cheerful. The change in behavior is due to her loss. Throughout the season she starts to regain, some of her earlier ‘pep’ and part of this is because of meeting Stefan.

Elena is also seen as being protective of her family. She is astute and has a high moral standard. When it comes to her friends, she has a deep affection and often worries about those who don’t expect or welcome her worry. However, Elena can also be feisty and stubborn at times. She prefers to deal with people directly and confront them head-on rather than keeping her anger inside. She appears to trust Stefan, Damon and others no matter what their past or recent transgressions.

Family:

Adoptive Mother – Miranda Sommers-Gilbert
Adoptive Father – Grayson Gilbert
Brother – Jeremy Gilbert
Aunt – Jenna Sommers
Grandmother – Beth Sommers
Ancestor – Johnathan Gilbert
Birth Mother – Isobel Saltzman
Birth Father – John Gilbert

Character History: Season 1:

Elena’s adoptive parents seem to come from old Mystic Falls families. Her mother is involved greatly in the Founders Council. On May 23, 2009, her parents died in a car accident, just a few months before the start date of the television show. Elena and Jeremy’s legal guardian in their aunt, Jenna Sommers, who was their mother’s younger sister. In the episode ‘Bloodlines’ Stefan tells Elena that she was adopted. This opens the door to the fact that Elena is related to Katherine in some way. This is further made clear as Isobel Saltzman shows up in Mystic Falls.

Character Relationships:

Stefan Salvatore:

In the Pilot episode, Elena meets with Stefan. In an instant, they first clicked and their relationship has developed from a crush into a passionate romance during the season. Elena doesn’t know that Stefan originally met her on the night that her parents died and she woke up in the hospital as if a miracle happened. However, they still have relationship problems because Elena is upset with Stefan secretive nature. Stefan was initially drawn to Elena because of her similar appearance to Katherine and after realizing she wasn’t Katherine he fell in love with her. In the episode ‘The Turning Point’ they made love and then in ‘Bloodlines’ he assured her that he loves her and not Katherine before telling her she was adopted.

Damon Salvatore:

Elena has a mutual, but uneasy friendship with Damon because they’ve saved each other’s lives and Damon wants to be close. After Elena discovers what Damon is and his past actions, she becomes cold yet civil towards him, except during extreme circumstances. Elena realizes that is something between them, but neither is sure what it is. Elena realizes that Damon is damaged emotionally and isn’t as cold as he acts, but she also doesn’t try to excuse he past actions. Elena realizes that while Stefan’s sorrows are mostly caused by Damon, she also sees that they are very important to each other.

In the episode, ‘A Few Good Men’ the friendship between Elena and Damon hits a rough patch. Damon tells Alaric and everyone during the Bachelor Fundraiser at the Mystic Grill that he was in North Caroline with Isobel just before she disappeared. This causes Elena to believe that Damon was the vampire that killed Isobel. However, in ‘Let the Right One In’ they are able to set aside their differences in order to save Stefan’s life after he is kidnapped by Frederick and the other vampires from the tomb. In ‘Miss Mystic Falls’, Damon prevents Elena’s day from being ruined by dancing with her after Stefan disappears.

Caroline Forbes:

Since the first grade, Caroline and Elena have been good friends. For the most part, they have a good relationship, but it can become strained on occasion. This is because Caroline views Elena as the main competition for attention. Caroline also admits that Bonnie is her best friend, which means Elena may be second. Elena is fond of Caroline, but it is also clear they don’t see eye-to-eye on everything.

Matt Donovan:

At one time Elena and Matt were in a relationship. However, the stress of her parents deaths caused them to split up since she needed to work things out. Matt tells Bonnie that he would like to still have a relationship with Elena, but thinks it is too late. Elena describes her relationship with Matt as “that friend since childhood that you start dating because you owe it to yourselves to see if you can be more”. Elena tells Stefan that Matt and she didn’t have a passionate relationship.

While Matt may no longer have a relationship with Elena and may even realize that they won’t get back together, he still tells Stefan that he would do anything for her. It seems that the two have known each other all their lives and was the ‘firsts’ for a lot of things together. Matt also says that were best friends at one time.

Bonnie Bennett:

Bonnie is Elena’s oldest friend and they often tell each other everything. Elena is the first person to learn that Bonnie is a witch. Bonnie says she told Elena this information because they are so close to each other.

Jeremy Gilbert:

Jeremy is Elena’s younger brother who uses drugs in order to cope with the loss of their parents. Elena tells him off and he doesn’t like this, but he knows that she is only doing it to look out for him.

Random Facts:

In the Pilot the house number is 935, but after it is 2104.
There is a picture on her bedroom wall of her in a baseball uniform.
Her car is a Ford Escape with the Virginia license plate EFG 3J85.
She has been keeping a diary since her mom first gave her one at the age of ten.
At one time, she was a cheerleader, but quit at the start of the new school year.
Her school locker contains a dragonfly picture.
She tries to continue any project that was important to her mom such as loaning family heirlooms for the Founders Council heritage project that her mom was working on before she died.
Elena was adopted by the Gilbert’s and is not their biological daughter.