Ellen Gilbert Profile

Characteristic:

Elena is seventeen years old, 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 brooding, depressed, and quiet individual. She later finds out that this is due to the death of her parents 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 the loss of her. Throughout the season, she begins to regain some of her former ‘energy’ and part of it is due to her meeting Stefan.

Elena is also seen as protective of her family. She is cunning and has a high moral standard. When it comes to her friends, she has a deep affection and often cares for those who don’t expect or appreciate her concern. However, Elena can also be feisty and stubborn at times. She prefers to deal with people directly and confront them head-on rather than keep her anger to herself. She seems to trust Stefan, Damon and others regardless of her past or recent transgressions.

Family:

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

Character history: Season 1:

Elena’s adoptive parents appear to come from old Mystic Falls families. Her mother is very involved in the Founders Council. On May 23, 2009, her parents were killed in a car accident, just a few months before the TV show was scheduled to start. Elena and Jeremy’s legal guardian is her aunt, Jenna Sommers, who was her 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 made even clearer when Isobel Saltzman shows up in Mystic Falls.

Character relationships:

Stefan Salvatore:

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

Damon Salvatore:

Elena has a mutual, but awkward, friendship with Damon because they have saved each other’s lives and Damon wants to be close. After Elena finds out who Damon is and his past actions, she becomes cold but civil with him, except in extreme circumstances. Elena realizes that there is something between them, but neither is sure what he is. Elena realizes that Damon is emotionally damaged and isn’t as cold as he acts, but she doesn’t try to excuse his past actions either. Elena realizes that while Stefan’s sorrows are primarily caused by Damon, she also sees that they are very important to each other.

In the episode, ‘A Few Good Men’, Elena and Damon’s friendship hits a rough patch. Damon tells Alaric and everyone during the singles fundraiser at Mystic Grill that he was in North Carolina with Isobel just before she disappeared. This causes Elena to believe that Damon was the vampire who killed Isobel. However, in ‘Let the Right One In’ they are able to put their differences aside to save Stefan’s life after Frederick and the other vampires kidnap him from the tomb. In ‘Miss Mystic Falls,’ Damon saves Elena’s day from being ruined by dancing with her after Stefan goes missing.

Caroline Forbes:

Since first grade, Caroline and Elena have been good friends. For the most part, they have a good relationship, but she can become tense at times. This is because Caroline sees Elena as the main competition for attention. Caroline also admits that Bonnie is her best friend, which means that Elena may be her second best friend. Elena loves Caroline, but it’s also clear that they don’t agree on everything.

Matt Donovan:

There was a time when Elena and Matt were in a relationship. However, the stress of her parents’ death caused them to break up because she needed to work things out. Matt tells Bonnie that he would like to continue having a relationship with Elena, but he thinks it’s too late. Elena describes her relationship with Matt as “that childhood friend you start dating because you owe it to yourself to see if you can be more.” Elena tells Stefan that she and Matt did not have a passionate relationship.

While Matt may no longer be in a relationship with Elena and may even realize 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 for a lifetime and were the ‘firsts’ in many things together. Matt also says that they were best friends at one point.

Bonnie Bennet:

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

Jeremy Gilbert:

Jeremy is Elena’s younger brother who uses drugs to cope with the loss of their parents. Elena scolds him and she doesn’t like this, but she knows that she only does it to take care of him.

Random facts:

• On the Pilot the house number is 935, but later it’s 2104.
• There’s a picture on her bedroom wall of her in a baseball uniform.
• His car is a Ford Escape with Virginia license plate EFG 3J85.
• She has kept a diary since her mother first gave her one at the age of ten.
• At one point, she was a cheerleader, but quit at the start of the new school year.
• Her locker at school contains a picture of a dragonfly.
• She tries to carry on with any projects that were important to her mother, like lending family heirlooms to the Founders Council heritage project her mother was working on before she died.
• Elena was adopted by the Gilberts and is not their biological daughter.