Everyone knows about the Cullens from Twilight. They’re the center of the story, after all. A group–well, more like a family–of “vegetarian” vampires who live in Forks, Washington. A small town that is not remarkable at all, except for the Cullens’ presence in it. Everyone knows that Carlisle is married to Esme and they take care of Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper. Everyone knows that they are vampires and therefore cannot have a biological family. At least, not with other vampires. So the Cullens are each other’s family. Carlisle and Esme are the parents while Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper are their adopted children. Yet there are many things that fans may not know about the Cullens, including Esme, the matriarch of the family.
Her real name is Esme Anne Platt Evenson
What a long name. Esme Cullen sounds a lot better. Although her middle name of Anne is nice. Perhaps she should have kept that as a vampire. Then again, perhaps she wanted to leave her old life behind her. Esme has a rather tragic backstory, as you will see. Her parents didn’t support her, her human husband was a jerk, no wonder she was glad to be with Carlisle and became a vampire.
She is originally from Columbus, Ohio
She lived with her two not-so-supportive parents in Ohio and later with her human husband. Sadly for Esme, neither experience was exactly a good one. She was probably glad to leave Ohio when she did. And it’s most likely a place she wouldn’t want to revisit due to the bad memories she has of it.
She met Carlisle at the age of 16
She was climbing a tree, a hobby of hers at the time, when she fell out and broke her leg. The local doctor wasn’t around, so her parents took her to the hospital in Columbus. She was treated by a Dr. Cullen, who of course is Carlisle. This was an experience she never got over. She developed a crush on Carlisle which never truly went away.
She was the last of her friends to marry
Perhaps due to her teenage crush on Carlisle, no human man could measure up. So Esme Anne Platt was the last of her friends to marry at the seriously old age of 22. All jokes aside, people did get married earlier back when Esme was human in the 1910s. No doubt she was considered an old maid at the time. She was a young woman with a lot of dreams.
She wanted to move West to be a teacher
However, this is another dream that was not to be. Her father talked her out of it because he didn’t think it was respectable for a woman of her age to live alone in such a wild part of the country. This shows how her father–and her parents in general–wanted to have control over her life. Esme was a strong, independent woman but she was–and is–open-hearted and loved her parents.
She got married at 22
As was mentioned before, she was the last of her friends to marry. And her parents wanted to control her life. So it’s no surprise that they picked out who Esme would marry. Her father especially pressured her to accept the proposal from Charles Evenson, the son of a family friend.
She fled when she got pregnant
She knew that her human husband, Charles Evenson, would treat his child as kindly as he treated her. Which is to say, not kindly at all. She didn’t want to subject her child to the life she had to lead and so she ran. First, she stayed with a cousin in Milwaukee. Yet word eventually got out to her parents and she had to leave.
She lost her child just a few days after he was born
Poor Esme. She had all the bad luck as a human. Due to a lung infection, she is unfortunate enough to lose her baby just a few days after his birth. Feeling like she has nothing left, Esme jumps off of a cliff and is luckily saved and turned into a vampire by Carlisle. She is glad to see her old crush again and is most likely glad to be alive.
She was turned into a vampire at the age of 26
As mentioned before, Esme felt she had nothing left after she lost her baby a few days after his birth. So she jumped off a cliff and was saved and turned into a vampire by Carlisle. According to Stephenie Meyer herself, she was 26 at the time. Carlisle does remember her from when he treated her at the age of 16 and since he doesn’t want anything to happen to her, he turns her into a vampire.
She has the oldest out of all the Cullens
In fact, she is older than her husband Carlisle, who was turned into a vampire at the age of 23. Esme, on the other hand, was 26 when she was turned into a vampire. So she has aged the most out of any of the Cullen family members. Because of this, she naturally fell into a motherly role with Edward and the rest of the adopted children.
