In Twilight, is the soul of a vampire condemned to hell?

Question

I think in Twilight 2 there is something about Edward Cullen saying he is condemned anyway.

What does it mean?

Answer 1

It is an unfortunate aspect of human psychology that many people are judgmental and prejudiced against anyone who is different. Historically this has manifested in many ways including racism, sexism, and persecution of people following other religions. The more different someone is, the more extreme the prejudice.

It follows, then, that many humans would have extreme views about a group that, as a general rule, uses humans for their primary food source.

If we go to chapter 16 (Carlisle) of Twilight, Edward tells Bella the story of how Carlisle became a vampire. This paragraph is particularly relevant:

His father was an intolerant man. As the Protestants came into power, he was enthusiastic in his persecution of Roman Catholics and other religions. He also believed very strongly in the reality of evil. He led hunts for witches, werewolves...and vampires.

And so, in the Twilight universe, those humans who believe in vampires most often believed that they are evil and theirs souls damned to hell. Edward, having received a fairly traditional middle-class American upbringing (of the time in which he lived), would have almost certainly learned this as a child. It would require a powerful, life-changing event to force him to re-think it.

In many fantasy stories that contain vampires, they are affected by religious artifacts such as crosses and holy water. However, in the Twilight saga, vampires are completely unaffected by them. This might mean that vampires are not universally evil and are therefore not automatically condemned. It could mean that there is no "evil". Or it could mean any number of other things. The author never gives any explicit clues in the story as to what the afterlife is like or what sort of reception vampires will receive when they reach it (albeit, perhaps later than normal).

Answer 2

Edward believes he's damned to hell because of what he is, but he appears to be the only one on his "family" with such beliefs.

At the end, I guess he stops believing that because he eventually turns Bella, something he would not do if he still thought he'd be condemning her.

There is no (as far as I remember) other source of information about this subject from the books, so I think we'll have to go with "he thought that way but eventually he changed his mind".

Answer 3

check this clip out from new moon

at around 2 minutes Carlisle explains the Bella that he is damned regardless of helping people on earth. could be different in the books but at least in the movie lore it seems that more than just Edward believes they and all vampires are going to hell