Alice Cullen

"You truly are one frightening little monster."

- Jasper Hale to Alice Cullen

Alice Cullen, born in 1901 as Mary Alice Brandon, is a vampire with the ability of precognition and is a member of the Olympic Coven. She is the wife of Jasper Hale and the adopted daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Alice is the adoptive sister of Emmett and Edward Cullen, as well as the adoptive sister of Rosalie Hale. Alice is the adoptive sister-in-law of Bella Cullen and the adoptive aunt of Renesmee Cullen. She also has a sister, Cynthia Brandon, and has a niece (Cynthia's daughter) living in Biloxi.

In 1920, after having been institutionalized by her family, an unknown vampire transformed Alice into a vampire to save her from the relentless tracker, James. Later, she was led to the love of her life, Jasper, after receiving a vision of him, and the pair subsequently began a life with the peaceful coven of the Cullen family.

Early life
Alice's early history is very vague, as she remembers nothing of her human life and woke up alone as a vampire. It is eventually revealed that she was born around 1901 in Biloxi, Mississippi and was kept in an asylum because she had premonitions, which intensified into her "special ability" when she was changed into a vampire. While at the asylum she was always kept in a dark cell, which is another reason why she remembered so little. Alice was changed by an unknown vampire who worked at the asylum, in order to protect her from James, a tracker vampire who was hunting her. She and Bella are the only two people to ever escape James. Unlike most of her adoptive family members, she developed a conscience on her own, which kept her from feeding on humans. She later had a vision of her and Jasper in the Cullen family. In pursuit of this vision, she found Jasper at an empty diner, and the two moved themselves into the Cullens' house. After doing some research, (with help from Bella when James was torturing her) Alice found her grave and discovered that the date on her tombstone matched the date of her admission to the asylum (she had stolen her file from their records), perhaps implying that she was "dead" to her family when they confined her there. Through her research she additionally discovered that she had a little sister named Cynthia Brandon, and that Cynthia's daughter, Alice's niece, is still alive in Biloxi.



Twilight
At the beginning of Twilight, when Edward first states his attraction towards Bella, Alice is interested. Alice had a vision about her and Bella becoming friends and knew there was a distinct possibility that it would one day happen. Therefore, she is very supportive of the relationship between Edward and Bella. When Bella comes to visit the Cullens' house, Alice is polite and friendly, acting as if Bella is already a member of her family.

Later that year, the Cullens decide to play baseball, with Alice as the pitcher. Edward invites Bella along to watch and the entire family has a good time until three nomadic vampires, James, Laurent, and Victoria, arrive and would like to play. The Cullens were going to let them play because a few of them were leaving. Everything was going well until Edward and Bella were leaving and James caught Bella's scent and threatened to kill her. Alice did not see that they were coming until shortly before the event because the decision was made extremely quickly.

Bella thinks of a plan for her to go to hide in Phoenix, Arizona, accompanied by Alice and Jasper. Alice and Jasper work together when Bella is being hunted. They stay in a hotel, and Alice receives a vision of a ballet studio, not understanding what it means. Alice then sees Bella's mother Renee's living room in Phoenix. They realize James had changed his plans and calls Edward. Just before Alice, Jasper and Bella go to the airport to meet Edward, she sees something else. She sees Bella in the ballet studio, and although it is not known exactly what she saw, we know that it is something horrific. Alice does not tell Bella what she saw. When Alice, Jasper, and Bella go to the airport to meet the rest of their family, Bella slips away from the girls room, causing Alice great worry.

The Cullens realize immediately that Bella has gone to the place in Alice's vision, and they rush to the studio. They arrive in time to help fight off James and kill him. When it becomes apparent that Bella was injured very badly and had been bitten by James, Edward acts quickly and sucks the venom out of her blood. Alice doesn't leave the site and assists Carlisle and Edward with Bella's treatment, although Alice likely was tempted to kill Bella due to all the blood. Alice presumably returns to Forks after she knows Bella is alright.

After the accident, Edward mentioned to Bella that Alice went a little too far fabricating evidence. This is to cover up Bella's vampire attack.

A few weeks later, Alice attends the high school prom with the rest of her family, helping Bella get ready. At the prom, Alice is one of the people in the center of attention as she captivates everyone with her looks, dress, and dancing.

New Moon


When the Cullens leave in New Moon, Alice did not say Good-bye to Bella because it would make it harder, and in order to make a clean break. During her absence, Alice takes her time researching her human family and realizes that she had a sister and a niece, the latter of whom is still alive in Biloxi. She later comes back because she had a vision of Bella jumping off a cliff, and since, it is discovered later, that Alice cannot see the Quileute Shapeshifters, she could not see Jacob Black rescuing Bella. Thinking that Bella has committed suicide, she travels to Forks as soon as she can, driving Carlisle's car. She sees Bella alive and is confused. After some explanation about the cliff diving episode, she is more relaxed and goes hunting because Bella had asked her to stay for a while. She tells Bella what the Cullens have been up to and finds out how hard it was for Bella when they all left her. Rosalie Hale soons tells Edward over a phone call (because he does not live with the Cullens at the curent time) why Alice has gone to Bella. When Jacob Black tells Edward (thinking that he was Carlisle talking to him on the phone) that Charlie is "at the funeral", Edward thinks he meant Bella's funeral, though he was actually referring to Harry Clearwater's. Alice sees this and she helps Bella get to Volterra, Italy to stop Edward from exposing himself to the world and being killed by the Volturi. While there, Alice steals a yellow Porsche 911 Turbo in order to make it in time and due to her newfound love of the car later asks Edward for one as a gift. After Bella's return to Forks, Alice is one of the Cullens that votes in favor of changing Bella into a vampire.

Eclipse
Alice mainly plays a supporting role in Eclipse. She is bribed by Edward with a canary yellow Porsche 911 Turbo (like the one she stole in New Moon) to kidnap Bella so she won't go to La Push to visit Jacob. Eventually Bella escapes with Jacob while they are at school, but Alice still gets to keep the Porsche. She doesn't seem to think that a treaty with the La Push werewolves is bad. Victoria creates an army of newborn vampires and manages to evade Alice's vision, but Bella manages to figure out her plan and tells Alice this on graduation day. That night, she receives a vision of the army's coming and the family prepares a battle strategy led by Jasper, while forming allegiance with the wolves. It is revealed she can use her power to predict the movements of her opponent in battle. She fights the newborn army created by Victoria with the majority of the Cullens and the werewolves, although Jasper doesn't let her do anything out of fear for her safety. You can see her relationships with Bella and Edward grow throughout this book. Alice is one of Bella's best friends and thinks of her as a sister, and during Bella's punishment for leaving to go to Italy, Alice is liked by Charlie and has no limitations for visiting, unlike Edward.

Alice is highly upset when she has a vision of Bella and Edward getting married in Las Vegas and confronts Bella about this, trying to convince her to let her arrange an ordinary wedding for them. After a while Bella decides to have an official wedding, Alice is visibly thrilled to be her maid of honor and gets to arrange everything for the wedding.

Breaking Dawn
At the beginning of Breaking Dawn, Alice helps Bella get ready for her wedding to Edward by helping Bella with her dress and make up and giving Bella her garter. Everyone keeps the secret of where the honeymoon is from Bella; since they don't want her to have any idea where they are going, Alice packs Bella's bag for her. When Bella first looks in her suitcase she is surprised to find that Alice packed a lot of lingerie. In Book Two, Alice has a minor part mainly because she cannot see Bella's future when she is pregnant with the hybrid, whom she also cannot see. It gives her headaches to try, and she can only see a few minutes into Bella's future. She is greatly relieved when the shape-shifters come, because then she can't see anything, and it numbs the pain. After Bella has turned into a vampire, Alice presents her gift for her 19th birthday (even though Bella started her change when she was 18) - a cottage from all the Cullens. There is also a great wardrobe area in the small cottage that Alice convinced Esme to add in. Later, when she has a vision that the Volturi are coming, she leaves the Cullens with Jasper. She leaves without saying goodbye but gives Bella clues about what to do in case she doesn't come back in time. She gives Bella a piece of paper from Bella's book with the name J. Jenks. This man goes on to help Bella make fake birth certificates, passports, and a driver's license for Renesmee and Jacob to escape. While looking for the hybrid, she sends any vampires she can find to the Cullen house. Right before a fight emerges between the Cullens and their allies against the Volturi, Alice arrives with a hybrid named Nahuel, his aunt, Huilen, and Kachiri, an Amazonian vampire. After the Volturi leave, the Cullens welcome Alice back and question her about why she left them without a goodbye, but Alice just smiles and explains she had to find Nahuel without Aro's knowledge of it or Aro would never have committed to withdrawing.

Physical description
Alice is a very friendly person, and she shares the physical traits associated with Twilight vampires, such as inhuman beauty, pale skin, golden eyes (which darken as thirst increases) and deep purple shadows under her eyes (when she is thirsty). She is described as being petite, the shortest of the Cullens at 4'10", "thin in the extreme", with small, "pixie-like" features. She is also described to have large eyes and long, delicate eyebrows. Her hair is cropped short, spiky, and inky black. Like all vampires, when in sunlight, she sparkles as if thousands of diamonds were embedded to her skin. She moves gracefully, continually cited as dancing, with a carriage that would "break any ballerina's heart", as described by Bella in Twilight. Also in Twilight, James states, while human, Alice's blood smelled much better than Bella's.

Personality
Alice is portrayed as being optimistic, and she loves and cares for Bella like a sister. She often ignores other people's advice and does things her own way, which usually results in the outcome being better than predicted. She loves to sing with music 3 octaves higher than the song really is with her silvery bell-like voice. She has vicarious fun dressing up Bella "like a three-dimensional paper doll" and decorating for and throwing parties. She also loves shopping at expensive shops in large malls as well as makeovers. Alice seems to think that Bella should do everything a normal teenager should do (i.e. love to shop, party whenever possible, etc.). Alice is also described as being a very fashionable person, going on massive shopping sprees with the money she helps her family make by predicting the stock markets. Alice enjoys buying clothes for Bella. In Twilight, Bella complains to Edward that Alice was treating her like 'guinea pig barbie'. In Breaking Dawn, Esme furnishes a cottage for Edward and Bella, and Alice stocks the closet with an overflowing amount of clothing. Alice is often disappointed when Bella doesn't dress as she wishes. When Bella turns up wearing jeans and a t-shirt Alice says "Look at you, you need me to show you how to use your closet!" Her adoptive sister, Rosalie Hale shares her intense love for fashion. Although Alice and Edward are very close, Edward often playfully calls her annoying, as he says in Eclipse when she is telling Bella about the graduation party. Edward and Alice have learned how to have a sort of mental conversation, and the family rarely notices. However, when they do notice, they will often complain about not knowing what the information is.

Powers and abilities
Like all vampires, Alice has enhanced strength, grace and speed. Though petite, she is a capable fighter because of her incredible agility and marble skin; Alice has the best agility in her family.

Clairvoyance
Alice has the ability to see the future. The premonitions that she experienced as a human are intensified in her vampire life, and she uses this ability to her advantage in order to keep her family safe. However, Alice's sight is limited: she can only see the outcome of a decision once it is made - meaning it can change all too quickly. It mainly works by Alice focusing on a certain object and keep track of its decision. She can also focus on several objects at the same time, but only for as many as her mind would allow. Also, the future is subjective and Alice cannot see it once shapeshifters become involved. This is a mystery that Carlisle has theorized is due to the unpredictability of the shapeshifters, who, in the split second while they phase, don't technically "exist" once they let their instincts take over. She also cannot "see" Renesmee, Bella's half-vampire half-human daughter in Breaking Dawn. Carlisle also believes that there may be a link between the fact that werewolves and Renesmee have 24 chromosome pairs. (see Breaking Dawn.) Alice has theorized that she cannot see Renesmee and the "shapeshifters" or anything connected to them because she has no experience as being one of them; she sees vampires best because she is one, and can see humans "okay" because she was one. Alice, while talking about her talent, describes herself as being "far from infallible" overall. Alice also has the ability to draw a scene that she sees in her visions without looking, and also rather quickly, as seen in the Twilight movie. Edward's power of mind reading allows him to know what Alice sees at the time. Alice's gift makes her greatly prized by the leader of the Volturi, Aro, who wishes to take her and incorporate her into his guard, thinking she'll be very useful.

Family
Alice is the wife of Jasper Hale, the sister of Cynthia Brandon, and the aunt of Cynthia's daughter (who is alive and lives in Biloxi), as well as the adoptive daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. She is the adoptive sister of Emmett and Edward Cullen, as well as the adoptive sister of Rosalie Hale. Alice is the adoptive sister-in-law of Bella Cullen and the aunt of Renesmee Cullen, Edward and Bella's daughter.

Jasper Hale
"Overprotective fool."

- Alice Cullen

Alice foresaw Jasper Hale finding her in a vision before he even knew he was looking for her. They met face-to-face in a diner located in Philadelphia, when Jasper was not a "vegetarian" vampire, where she told him that she had been waiting a long time for his arrival. A little bewildered but intrigued with her knowing him, Jasper "bowed his head like a good southern gentleman" and answered, "I'm sorry, ma'am." She offered him her hand, a non-verbal question of whether or not he would like to go with her. He did indeed take her hand, as the sight of it brought him hope "for the first time in almost a century". During their companionship and travels, Alice and Jasper fell in love. By 1950, they found Carlisle with more assistance from her visions and have been part of his coven (Olympic) ever since.

Alice and Jasper have been together since the 1950s, but are not as flamboyant about their relationship as Rosalie and Emmett are. They are stated to be soul mates and have been married legally once. Their distinctly understanding love is what separates them from other couples, and they are both very protective of each other. They have special silent conversations.

Jasper is a new 'vegetarian' and Alice helps him through it. Alice helps to calm Jasper when he is around humans, as said in New Moon.



Carlisle Cullen
Alice foresaw meeting Carlisle and his coven long before their encounter. Together with Jasper, Alice sought them out with her visions and eventually found them in the 1950's. Carlisle welcomed them into their family. Ever since then, they formed a true family bond. She respects Carlisle's compassion and discipline to the family, and loves him as a father and gets along with him just fine.



Esme Cullen
Esme and Alice treat each other as mother and daughter. Not much is known about their relationship, but it is known that they care for each other very much. In Eclipse, when Alice is informed that she can be Bella's maid of honor, the first person to whom she rushes is Esme. This displays the closeness of their relationship.



Edward Cullen
Edward shares the closest bond to Alice as siblings, as she has an understanding attitude, although Edward sometimes finds her annoying. They would also work together to keep Jasper, Alice's husband, in control. While Bella and Alice become closer to each other, Alice and Edward also become closer. They enjoy each other's company and treat each other like blood siblings. Alice would sometimes communicate with Edward through his telepathy to keep their conversation a secret from the others.

When Edward is in range, he is able to experience Alice's visions through his power.

When Alice and Jasper left in Breaking Dawn after they find out the Volturi are coming to destroy them for a misunderstanding, Edward is one of the most devastated. Others included Esme, and Bella.



Rosalie Hale
Alice and Rosalie are extremely close as sisters as they share a love of fashion; both of them love to shop. In Eclipse, when Alice holds Bella hostage, Rosalie accompanies them at the slumber party.



Emmett Cullen
Not much is known about their relationship, but it is known that Alice and Emmett like each other very much as siblings.



Bella Swan
Alice foresaw Bella's arrival since before she came into their lives. She already considers Bella a sister before Bella married Edward and became part of their family. Aside from Jasper and Edward, Alice is closest to Bella and vice versa, though she tends to annoy her with her sense of fashion, spirit, and love of celebrations and gifts. When Bella decides to marry Edward, Alice continuously pleads her to let her arrange a perfect wedding, until she finally gets her wish.

During a family meeting, Alice is the first to vote in Bella's favor to join their family as a vampire.

When she saw the Volturi coming to end the Cullen family because of a misunderstanding, Alice takes off with Jasper to find witnesses, but not before leaving few clues for Bella to forge passports and ID's for Renesmee to escape.

Renesmee Cullen
Being the daughter of Edward and Bella, Alice grows to love Renesmee after she was born, though she is still annoyed over the fact that she is still unable to see any visions that involve her. Renesmee is also known to love Alice as her aunt. Like everyone else, she refers to her niece as "Nessie".

When Irina mistakes Renesmee to be an immortal child and goes to the Volturi, Alice catches a vision of their coming to end their family and departs with Jasper to look for more of Nessie's kind in South America. She leaves a note to her family and clues for Bella to forge fake ID's and passports for Nessie and Jacob in case they need to escape.



Jacob Black
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Alice did not have a good start in their relationship, mostly because Jacob is a "werewolf" (later revealed to be a "shapeshifter"), and the fact that vampires and werewolves are natural enemies. Also, Alice dislikes the smell of them and her inability to see them in her vision. However, when the vampire Victoria prepares an army to kill Bella, they decide to come together to destroy the army. Since then, they have begun to form a weak friendship, which gets friendlier when Jacob arrives to protect the Cullens from the wolf pack.

Although Alice dislikes "werewolves", she doesn't think a treaty with them is a bad thing.

Before Renesmee was born, Alice feels disgruntled about her inability to see Bella's future because she was "blocked", and is relieved when Jacob spends time at their place, because she can't see them as well. She and Jacob slowly develop a friendship through the fact that they both disliked Renesmee at first because she was killing Bella, then through the fact that he numbs her headache. Their friendship even continued to the point where she preferred to have him hang around than his other pack mates.

Etymology
Alice is from the Old French name Aalis, a short form of Adelais, itself a short form of the Germanic name Adalheidis meaning "noble and kind". This might resemble her kindness and sweet nature toward Bella.

Film portrayal
On February 12, 2008 it was announced that Ashley Greene would be playing the role of Alice Cullen in the Twilight film. She reprised her role in New Moon and will be returning for the upcoming Eclipse. Greene wears a wig when playing the role, as her hair is longer than the character's is said to be. Author Stephenie Meyer said that Ashley Greene was the actress who came closest to her vision for their character. Meyer said, "I saw a picture of her and just thought, 'You found Alice! Oh my gosh!" It has been confirmed that Greene will be returning for the upcoming 2011 Breaking Dawn.

Appearances

 * Twilight (First appearance)
 * Twilight (film)
 * New Moon
 * The Twilight Saga: New Moon
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse (film)
 * Breaking Dawn
 * The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner