Facts

NAME: Jasper Whitlock Hale
DATE OF BIRTH: 1844
DATE OF TRANSFORMATION: 1863, at age 19
SOURCE OF TRANSFORMATION: Maria
PLACE OF ORIGIN: Houston, Texas
HAIR COLOR: Honey blond
EYE COLOR: Brown (human); gold/black (vampire)
HEIGHT: 6’3
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Jasper is tall with a medium build, and his hair falls to just above his collar. He has many scars from years of dealing with newborn vampires, but these scars are easily visible only to others with supernaturally good eyesight.
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Jasper has the ability to both feel and manipulate the emotions of those around him.
EDUCATION/OCCUPATION: He has attended high school and college several times. He has degrees in philosophy and history.
HOBBIES: He is a natural scholar and an avid reader. He has a shrewd mind for both business and battle tactics.
VEHICLE: Jasper has the silver Ducati motorcycle given to him by Edward.
FAMILY/COVEN RELATIONSHIPS: He is married to Alice Cullen. He considers Carlisle and Esme Cullen to be his parents; Edward Cullen, Rosalie Hale, and Emmett Cullen to be his siblings; Bella Cullen to be his sister-in-law; and Renesmee Cullen to be his niece. He also feels brotherly affection for nomadic vampires Peter and Charlotte.

Personal History: Pre-Bella

Jasper Hale, formally known as Jasper Whitlock, was born in 1844 and grew up in Houston, Texas. When he was almost seventeen, he lied about his age, stating he was 20, and joined the Confederate States Army to serve in the Civil War. He quickly rose through the ranks, and became the youngest Major in the Confederate Army by the time the Battle of Galveston began. People thought of Jasper as charismatic. This was likely due in part to early traces of the psychic ability Jasper would develop after his transformation. Even as a human, Jasper had a gift for empathizing with and influencing the emotions of those around him.

After leading a group of refugees from Galveston to Houston, he encountered three extraordinarily beautiful women—Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. Maria — a vampire and head of her coven — decided to transform Jasper into a vampire for the newborn army she was creating. Maria was fighting a territorial war for claim on the big cities in the south, such as Mexico City, since larger cities allow for more feeding without being noticed by humans or the Volturi. She’d chosen Jasper first because of his rank—which meant he’d had success in a military system—and second because of that charismatic quality that had always drawn other humans to him. Jasper was naturally gifted as a warrior and a leader. His ability to control the emotional environment around him, although not yet fully developed, made Maria’s army more effective.

A bond formed between Jasper and Maria. She came to depend on him more and more and grew quite fond of him. For Jasper, Maria’s army was the only vampire life he had known, and he had no idea anything else was possible for him.

Jasper’s responsibility was to execute members of the coven who had outlived their newborn strength and developed no other skills that made them valuable to the army. Eventually he had help in this task from Peter, another former newborn who had proved himself worthy of being kept around. Jasper liked Peter for his oddly civilized nature. They became friends.

One night as he and Peter were carrying out the grim task of dispatching age-weakened newborns, Jasper could feel the unusually difficult emotional toll it was taking on his friend. When Jasper called out a newborn named Charlotte, Peter suddenly erupted in fear and fury. He yelled for Charlotte to run, then bolted after her. Jasper could easily have caught them, but he chose not to.

As the years passed, Jasper became depressed, tired of always being surrounded by the devastating emotions of those he killed. Maria was not pleased with this alteration. He began to notice a change in her emotions around him; sometimes she was fearful, sometimes malicious. He knew Maria was thinking about getting rid of him, and Jasper began planning how he would destroy her first.

At this critical moment, Peter came back to find Jasper. He told Jasper of an alternative he had never imagined: Peter and Charlotte had been living peacefully in the North for the last five years, meeting several other covens that coexisted amicably. Jasper left with Peter immediately.

He traveled with Peter and Charlotte for a few years, but even in the more peaceful North, his depression didn’t lift. Though he was killing only humans now, he was still subject to their emotions as they died. Jasper’s misery stayed with him, and eventually he left Peter and Charlotte. He tried to kill less often, but the thirst always grew overwhelming.

In 1948, Jasper encountered Alice in a half-empty diner in Philadelphia, where he was sheltering from the rain. She approached Jasper as if they were close friends and told him he‘d kept her waiting a long time. Jasper was puzzled and wary, but Alice‘s joyful emotions impacted him greatly. When Alice held out her hand, he took it. And he felt an unfamiliar emotion: hope.

Alice explained her vision of the Cullens, and she described the lifestyle of Carlisle and his family. Jasper found it all hard to believe, but he and Alice set off to find them. Once they did, Alice and Jasper were quickly welcomed into the family. At Carlisle‘s suggestion, Alice and Jasper were married shortly after joining the Cullens.

The Cullens tell humans that Jasper is Rosalie’s twin brother; for this purpose, they both use Rosalie’s surname of “Hale”. Out of the whole coven, Jasper has the hardest time being around humans, due to his untrained upbringing as a young vampire in an army environment. He was not taught control or how to regulate his blood lust. Edward states that all human blood is equally tempting to Jasper, unlike the rest of the family, who can notice the variations in blood scent in different humans. Jasper is tired of being the “weakest link,” and has taken a bet with his brother, Emmett, that in the year after Edward’s girlfriend Bella Swan is turned into a vampire she will kill a great number of humans because of her temper and impatience.

Personal History: Post-Bella

Coming soon.

Famous Quotes

“I can feel what you’re feeling now—and you are worth it.” Twilight, Chapter 19

“You held out your hand, and I took it without stopping to make sense of what I was doing. For the first time in almost a century, I felt hope.” Eclipse, Chapter 13

“I’ve never seen a newborn do that—stop an emotion in its tracks that way. You were upset, but when you saw our concern, you reined it in, regained power over yourself.” Breaking Dawn, Chapter 20

The DUCATI 848

COLOR: Silver
ENGINE: 849-cc V-twin
HORSEPOWER: 134 hp at 10000 rpm
TORQUE: 72 ft.-lbs. at 8400 rpm
0–60: 4.5 seconds

Edward‘s motorcycle of choice, which he gave to Jasper, is a stark contrast to those belonging to Bella and Jacob. The Ducati 848 is a lightweight, high-powered street bike designed to out-accelerate and outmaneuver all things automotive. This sport bike is the lighter Ducati, offering increased agility compared to its heavier, higher-powered siblings.

Easily going beyond most drivers’ capabilities, this bike is ideally suited for a vampire’s quickened reflexes, as it requires constant attention to minute angles and positions. This is one of the very few vehicles in the novels that can perform to the level vampires demand, acting as an extension of their natural faculties.

Stephenie Meyer on Jasper

“I liked that Jasper had a hard time with that. His personal struggle was that it wasn’t inevitable.” (On Jasper’s feelings toward Bella choosing to be a “vegetarian” vampire.)

“As a vampire, if you are a vampire looking at Jasper, the first thing you would notice about him is that he is covered in scars and you’d be afraid because you would look at him and think, “he’s been in a fight with a thousand different vampires, and he’s walked away from every one.”

“Alice and Jasper’s is the most…mystical. They just ARE together, and have been from before they even met. They are not complete without each other–and never were. That’s what makes them different from the other couples, the “never were.” They were already not-whole before they met, waiting for each other.”

“Secondly, he’s really mostly doing this for Alice. Alice is Jasper’s entire life. She is the most important thing in the universe to him, and he would do absolutely anything for her. For Jasper, there would be no limit to who or what he would destroy for Alice. Not that she wants him destroying anything. She’s the light side of their relationship–she makes him laugh (and he wasn’t much of a laugher before Alice)…”

“Alice and Jasper aren’t into show, but they have the deeper relationship. They are married, but once was enough for them.”

“She saw Jasper and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself.”

“Jasper is the most “vampire-y” of the Cullens, and, while he’s fond of them all, he’s not bonded to them the way the rest of them are. The way Alice most definitely is. The whole high school thing really freaks him out. He’s trying to get better at being around humans, but it’s an uphill struggle.”