Main characters
Elena Gilbert: repeated references as to her looking like an angel. She is beautiful, slender and pale, with long blonde hair "a few shades lighter then the sun" and blue eyes "the color of lapis lazuli's". Over the course of the series, Elena transforms from an 'ice queen' to a more open-minded person. Bonnie comments in Elena's diary when she first died that Elena was far from perfect and while she was never an angel, she died a good person. Elena breaks up with Matt Honeycutt around when school starts, feeling he has become more to her than one of her disposable boyfriends; she loves him like a friend or brother. Elena is good at leading and initiating action but can be overly aggressive. Elena is madly in love with Stefan Salvatore though she does recognize that she also has feelings for Damon, his brother. Stefan initially attempts to ignore Elena. He makes comparisons between her and former vampire girlfriend Katherine, though he realizes that beneath the looks they are very different people. Her school reputation is important to her, so she makes up a fake boyfriend to hide the fact Stefan has rejected her advances. She dies several times, changing from human to vampire (after she gets enough blood from one of the brothers) to spirit (after an unknown power brings her back). In The Return: Nightfall she comes back perfectly normal albeit with supernatural powers intact, making her blood irresistible to all beings. In the television show, Elena is portrayed with brown hair and brown eyes and is adopted into the Gilbert family. She also is shown to have a more congenial personality to that of Elena in the books.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stefan Salvatore: is portrayed as very handsome and pale, with wavy, dark, brown hair, fine features, and deep oak green eyes. He is not imposingly tall, but he is taller than his brother Damon. However, Stefan is the weaker brother due to the fact that he chooses not to drink human blood. He lives off animal blood, which lessens his Powers. His powers include being able to read and influence minds and increased speed and strength. He is in love with Elena and is willing to do anything he can to protect her, even if it means killing his own brother.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Damon Salvatore: Stefan's amoral vampire brother. Events in The Fury and Dark Reunion show that Damon is also capable of fierce loyalty and affection, though he is often misunderstood. He is very handsome, with black hair, pitch black eyes, pale skin and has a small, compact body. Throughout the series he is also portrayed as a very dark seductive figure. His history dates back to Renaissance Italy. He shows feelings towards both Elena and Bonnie, though Elena receives more attention. Damon's morality is always in question—and he is constantly suspected of mischief. In The Fury, Katherine offers to let Damon live and for him to reign in the shadows, an offer both Elena and Stefan believe he will accept, though in the end he tells her, "Go to hell." Damon is described as extremely relentless. He never takes danger too seriously and possesses a dark sense of humor, as well as very little regard for human life in contrast with his brother Stefan. He has deep feelings for Elena, especially in The Fury, that is not understood by others. On the show, Damon is the source of most of the show's comic-relief.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonnie McCullough: One of Elena's best friends, a small girl with deep brown eyes, a round face, curly red hair and pinkish, peachy skin. Bonnie, a witch, is overwhelmed by her powers, and attempts to repress the true extent of them without much success. She begins to develop feelings for Damon, though she feels an attraction to Matt Honeycutt, although Matt is still in love with Elena. Bonnie is often said to resemble a kitten—cute, small, and relatively harmless, though she has strong psychic powers. Damon thinks of her as 'his little bird' often during The Return: Nightfall. Bonnie can be expansive and visionary but can be damsel-in-distress like. Her name is changed to Bonnie Bennett and her looks are extremely different in the television Series.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meredith Sulez: Elena's other friend; she is tall with olive skin, greenish-brown eyes and long black hair. Meredith is beautiful and somewhat cautious, sticks to her decisions, and is often the voice of reason throughout the series. She is perceived to be mentally stronger than Bonnie, saving her life on numerous occasions. She falls in love with Alaric Saltzman and has a long distance relationship with him. She does not appear in the television series.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Honeycutt: Elena's ex-boyfriend. He's a typical All-American high school quarterback with white-blond hair, light blue eyes and sun-burned, tan skin. While Matt is heartbroken at losing Elena to Stefan, he accepts it. He continues to be very protective of Elena. Matt is extremely jealous of Stefan and still pines for Elena, though he helps Stefan escape the Haunted House on the night of the attack, but afterward begins to think that Stefan might have killed Mr. Tanner. Later in the series the relationship between Stefan and Matt is closer to that of best friends. He is forgiving, loyal and is described as the friendly boy-next-door type.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caroline Forbes: A former friend and current rival of Elena's. She is very beautiful, tall and thin with dark green eyes, bronze skin and glossy auburn hair. Caroline is manipulative, vengeful and desperate for attention from any boy she can find during much of the series. She steals Elena's diary and plans to read it to the town on Founder's Day, revealing that Stefan is a vampire, though this is unsuccessful. She has a brief relationship with Tyler Smallwood, working together to plan revenge on Elena and Stefan. Later she is kidnapped by Klaus and Tyler, and held hostage, but saved by Stefan and his friends. At the end of 'The Return : Nightfall, Caroline reveals that she is pregnant and blames it on Matt, forcing him to flee with Elena and Damon. In the television series, Caroline is portrayed as a best friend to Elena and Bonnie.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine Von Swartzchild: The young vampire whom Damon and Stefan both fell in love with when they were humans during the Italian Renaissance. Katherine turned the two brothers into vampires in an attempt to be happy with both brothers, instead of having to choose between them. When this didn't work she staged her 'suicide' by going into the sunlight without her ring, leaving behind a pile of ashes in one of her dresses. The two brothers fought to the 'death' because of her loss. She physically resembles Elena which caused Stefan's initial attraction to Elena, though he later realized that Elena was emotionally stronger than Katherine, who was docile and gentle as was the standard in Renaissance Italy. She is revealed to be the Other Power that is damaging the town and is killed by Elena. In the television series, her name is Katherine Pierce.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alaric Saltzman: The new young History teacher that was in suspicion of being a vampire hunter when he was in fact studying vampires ever since he discovered that they were real. He has dirty blond hair, soulful hazel eyes and pale skin. He falls in love with Meredith later on, and has a long distance relationship with her while he goes abroad to further his studies. Alaric is good at power-seeking and has high material goals. In the TV series, Alaric is driven by a personal tragedy and falls for Jenna Sommers, Elena and Jeremy's aunt. Also in the TV series, he was married young to a woman named Isobel (Elena's real mother) who leaves him and becomes a vampire. Damon kills him but he comes back alive, claiming that Isobel gave him a ring that protects him from vampires.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Klaus: Is an Old One (one of the original vampires) who fights the Salvatore brothers, in the end losing to the spirits of Elena and the old cemetery. He was a mentor to Katherine, whom she thought she had killed. He has white-blond hair, light blue eyes and pale skin. Klaus has keen abilities and has the capacity to be a fine leader but has a natural instinct to dominate and be the boss. Klaus was the one who transformed Katherine into a vampire.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supporting characters
Judith Gilbert: Elena's aunt. She moved in with Elena and her baby sister Margaret right after the death of the girl's parents. She is the sort of woman who always looked vaguely flustered; she had a thin, mild face and flyaway red hair pushed back untidily. She is engaged to, later married to, Robert, though she briefly broke the engagement after Elena's death, thinking it was the best for Margaret. She is caring and one of the last people Elena talks to before dying the first time. Her name is changed to Jenna Sommers in the TV adaptation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tyler Smallwood: A direct descendant of the Smallwoods that were present at the founding of Fells Church. In the first book, Tyler took Elena away to the graveyard where she saw his grandfather's grave. Tyler makes an aggressive move for Elena and to Meredith later on in the books. Stefan comes to save her and Tyler has hated the two ever since. He is later revealed to be a werewolf, it was dormant until he knew how to activate the werewolf gene. He is also the unknowing father of Caroline's unborn baby at the end of The Return: Nightfall. He is tall and muscular with black hair, pale skin and dark eyes. His name is changed to Tyler Lockwood in the television Series. He is shown to have a bitter rivalry with Jeremy Gilbert instead of Stefan and Elena, similar to the novel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vickie Bennett: was at the cemetery with Elena when they left the dance. She had stayed there in the church with Dick. She was attacked and that caused her to go insane and she accused Elena of being part of it. Then she is accused of killing Sue because she relapsed after her death and she was the only one present, however after the turnaround of events and her transition away from the "fast crowd", it is considered unlikely by her new friends. When Bonnie and Meredith go to her house, she catatonically says that the murderer said she is next. She is left under the protection of Damon by his brother Stefan, but is later violently murdered by Klaus. She is small with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. Her name is Changed to Vickie Donovan and is portrayed as being Matt's younger sister in the television Series. She is also turned into a vampire early in the series by Damon and is staked by Stefan in the following episode when her new desire for blood overwhelms her and she bites Elena.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Margaret Gilbert: Elena's much younger sister, who is 4 years old. Elena considers her to be very innocent, and even secretly talks to her as a vampire after her death, saying that it is not yet her time to rejoin her deceased parents. She has platinum blond hair, pink, peachy skin and light brown eyes. In The Fury, Margaret is almost attacked by Katherine in the form of a cat. In the television series, Margaret's character is replaced in that of being a four year old girl to being a fifteen year old adolescent named Jeremy Gilbert.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Tanner: Elena and Stefan's history teacher. Damon killed Tanner in the haunted house at the Halloween dance in The Awakening, his body found by Bonnie later on.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs. Flowers: Owner of the boarding house where Stefan lives, they once thought her to just be a crazy old woman, but, during The Return: Nightfall, she is revealed to be a witch like Bonnie and helps the friends search for Elena in the woods. She does not appear in the television series.
