Breaking Dawn characters

Also known as Bella Cullen

Appears from the start

Bella Swan, about to marry Edward Cullen and become a vampire at last. Still selfless and stubborn, she moves from her wedding into a honeymoon and then into an unexpected crisis that will test her more than anything before. Her love for Edward and her fierce protectiveness drive the choices she makes throughout.

Appears from the start

The vampire Bella is about to marry. Devoted and protective, he has agreed to change Bella into a vampire after their wedding, though he still fears for her humanity and safety. His love for Bella governs the desperate choices he comes to face.

Appears from the start

Bella's werewolf best friend, still in love with her and grieving her choice to marry a vampire. Bitter at the start, he is drawn back into Bella's life by the crisis that follows the wedding, and his loyalties are pulled between his pack, his tribe's laws, and his feelings for Bella.

Appears from the start

Bella's father, the Forks police chief, who gives his daughter away at her wedding. Kind and undemonstrative, he is unaware of the supernatural world his daughter is entering and of the dangers that follow.

First appears in chapter 8

The beautiful Cullen sister who long resented Bella's choice to give up her humanity. When Bella's life is endangered, Rosalie unexpectedly becomes her staunchest protector within the family, driven by her own deep, unfulfilled longing for a child.

Appears from the start

The future-seeing Cullen sister and Bella's close friend, who organizes Bella's wedding with characteristic zeal. Her ability to foresee events shapes the family's plans, though it has notable blind spots that become important later.

Appears from the start

The Cullens' physician father, whose medical skill and calm leadership become vital as the family faces first a perilous pregnancy and then a graver threat. Compassionate and principled, he anchors the family through danger.

Also known as Nessie

First appears in chapter 18

The daughter born to Bella and Edward, a half-human, half-vampire child. Warm-skinned and swiftly growing, she is intelligent far beyond her age from birth and able to share her thoughts by touch. Her existence is unprecedented, and it will draw the attention of the wider vampire world.

First appears in chapter 8

The stern leader of the main Quileute wolf pack. When the pack judges the Cullens to have broken the treaty and become a danger to people, Sam resolves to destroy them, setting his wolves against the family and forcing a painful split among the Quileute.

First appears in chapter 11

A young, good-hearted wolf who refuses to attack the Cullens and joins Jacob when the pack divides. Loyal and optimistic, he becomes a steadfast ally to the Cullen family and a close companion to Edward.

First appears in chapter 30

A member of the Denali coven, allied to the Cullens, who is grieving the loss of a relative destroyed with the wolves' help. Catching a distant glimpse of the Cullens' child, she mistakes her for a forbidden, illegally created immortal child and carries word to the Volturi, unwittingly setting the final crisis in motion.

First appears in chapter 36

The leading elder of the Volturi, the ancient coven that rules vampire kind and punishes those who break its laws. Courteous, learned, and able to read every thought a person has had with a touch, he covets the Cullens' gifted members and seizes on a report against them as a pretext to move against the family.

First appears in chapter 39

A half-human, half-vampire man, more than a century old, brought forward at the climax as living proof that such a child grows into a stable adult and poses no danger. His example undercuts the case against the Cullens' daughter.