Character Connection: Jasper Hale

This is a wonderful meme hosted by Jen at The Introverted Reader. Every week, you share one literary character that you love with your fellow bloggers. You talk about the character, say why you love them and hope that everyone else will love them too.;) Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.

MY CHARACTER THIS WEEK: Jasper Hale
Jasper Hale is a character that is present in all four novels of The Twilight Saga. First, I must point out that I am NOT a fan of The Twilight Saga, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate parts of it and I definitely appreciate the character of Jasper Hale, one of the vampires. In fact, I think he was one of the main reasons why I read the entire saga at all. Needless to say, I really like this character.

I really like Jasper because he actually has a pretty good reason to be distant and brooding, as he has been through a lot, and really, he doesn’t brood that much. He is a really good, kind and friendly guy, but he is also reserved, so on the outside, he might appear a little cold or unpleasant, but he’s not. It’s just his 19th century upbringing, as Jasper was a young major in the Confederate Army when he was turned into a vampire. His first few decades as a vampire were spent in violence and bloodlust, and Jasper went through quite a lot. He got tired of that kind of life, so he went away, but he was very miserable and empty, which is understandable, since violence and bloodlust were all he knew for a long time. Eventually, he met the love of his life, Alice, who helped him find a way in the world. She is his pillar. Jasper still has problems with being a vegetarian vampire (only feeding from the blood of animals), as his maker never taught him how to control his thirst, but with Alice by his side, and the Cullens, his coven, he is pretty fine. With occasional slip-ups.

He has the ability to feel and change the moods of those around him. His neat ability also assisted in damaging him emotionally, as he could feel the pain of those he killed. However, when he met Alice and they fell in love, things changed for Jasper and he basically found himself, re-invented himself, even.

To me, Jasper is a pretty romantic character and that’s why I like him. He’s not a brooding emo type, but he has his wounds and he tries to cope with them daily. I really love his story and he is my favourite character in the entire Twilight Saga.