Question: Why do both brother's show affection towards Elena?
About the article "The Vampire Diaries", section "Series overview".

Candidate passages:
"Scene 1: A thick wood with a cave"In the woods, Uberto/James has come to find Elena in the hope of saving her from the coming battles (Cavatina: "" / "Oh sweet flame That sets my breast on fire!
Show compassion To a faithful lover").
Meanwhile Elena asks Serano to find her father who she is expecting to see before he goes off to fight, and Serano leaves.
Uberto/James approaches Elena and declares his love but she tells him that she is in love with Malcolm: (Duet, leading to a trio: Elena and Uberto: "Alla ragion deh rieda" / "Ah!
may your agitated and overburdended soul Return to reason's control").
Nevertheless, Uberto gives Elena a ring which he tells her was given to him by the King and emphasizes that it will see her through any times of danger.
As Uberto/James prepares to leave, Rodrigo steps forward, having overheard the prior exchange between the couple: (Duet: "Qual pena in me già destra" / "What distress in my fatal misfortune"".
This becomes a trio with Malcolm's: "Misere mie pupille!"
/ "O my wretched eyes!".)
Overwhelmed with rage and jealousy, Rodrigo orders his men to reveal themselves and kill this stranger.
Elena pleads with Rodrigo's men, but then Rodrigo determines to duel with Uberto himself.
The two men exit, while Elena tries in vain to calm the situation.
She follows them.
"Scene 2: The interior of the cave"Malcolm enters, looking for Elena, but finds only Albina.
Serano joins them, explaining that Elena has gone in search of her father, Douglas, who is travelling to the King's palace seeking peace.
Despairing of his loss of Elena, Malcolm seeks his own death: (Aria: "" / "Ah!
Let me perish; death now Would be a relief for my ills").
However, he is then confronted by the arriving clansmen who announce that Rodrigo has been killed and that the Highlanders face certain defeat at the hands of the King's forces.
Malcolm leaves for the palace, determined to rescue Elena from peril, even if it means risking his own life.
"Scene 3: A room in the King's palace"Douglas begs his former student King James for forgiveness, not for himself but for his daughter and those who helped him on the field of battle.
The King refuses Douglas and orders that he be taken away to await his decision.
As Douglas is led away, the king is saddened by having to pretend to be so severe.
Meanwhile, Elena has separately gained entry to the palace by showing her ring from "Uberto" and is left to wait for the king.
There, she expresses the hope to be able to save the lives of her father, Malcolm and even Rodrigo (unaware of his death).
Suddenly, in the next room she hears the voice of "Uberto" who is expressing his love for her: (Aria: "" / "Dawn!
Ah!
will you always Arise inauspiciously for me?
Oh God!
Why show me Elena's fair eyes?").
When "Uberto" comes in, Elena is thrilled, certain that he will help her gain an interview with the King.
"Scene 4: The King's Throne Room"The couple enter the throne room as members of the King's court join them: (Chorus: ' / "Let the King give us his orders").
Initially, Elena is puzzled by the courtiers' behaviour towards "Uberto", but suddenly she realises that Uberto and King James are one and the same.
James, softening his stance due to his affection for Elena, decides to forgive Douglas, but he makes a show of severity by condemning Malcolm, and then relents and brings the young couple together.
In her rondo finale, Elena rejoices to have saved both her father and her true love Malcolm, while everyone else rejoices that peace has been restored: (Rondo: ' / "So many emotions at such moment / Come clamouring about my heart / That I cannot explain to you / My immense happiness") 
  Played by Ian Somerhalder Damon Salvatore.
Damon Salvatore is a vampire, turned by Katherine Pierce one hundred and forty-five years prior to the series' debut.
He is the son of late Giuseppe Salvatore and the older brother of Stefan Salvatore.
He is portrayed as a charming, handsome and snarky person who loves tricking humans, and takes pleasure in feeding on them and killing them during the early episodes of the first season.
In the first season, Damon appears as the frightening older brother of Stefan Salvatore, and plays as the main antagonist for the first initial episodes with a hidden agenda.
Slowly, Damon begins to be kinder to the other characters showing brief moments of compassion such as erasing Jeremy's memory of vampires and removing his "suffering" so Jeremy gets his life back on track.
Damon apologizes for turning Vicki Donovan into a vampire and admits it was wrong.
Later at the Gilbert house, Elena returns home.
He admits that he came to the town wanting to destroy it but actually found himself wanting to protect it after everything that happened at the Founder's Day celebrations and says he's not a hero and doesn't do good, saying it is not in him – those traits are reserved for Stefan, Elena and Bonnie.
The two begin to kiss passionately before getting interrupted – it is later revealed that it wasn't Elena he kissed, but Katherine Pierce.
In season two, Katherine tells Damon that she never loved him and that it was always Stefan.
Elena also later says something similar, leaving Damon heartbroken.
As an expression of his anger, pain, and hopelessness, he snaps Jeremy Gilbert's neck, not realizing he is wearing a ring which reverses damage done by supernatural creatures or forces.
Jeremy survives because of the ring, but the action incurs Elena's wrath and pain.
When Bonnie also discovers it was his blood that enabled Caroline Forbes to become a vampire, the two declare their hatred for him, leaving angrier than ever.
After saving Elena with Stefan in episode 8 of season 2, Damon shows up in Elena's room with the vervain necklace that was ripped from her neck earlier in the episode.
Before he gives it back, he tells Elena that he is in love with her, and because he is in love with her, he cannot be selfish with her.
He also states that he doesn't deserve her, but that his brother does.
He kisses her forehead and says he wishes she could remember this, but she can't.
As the camera shows a close up of Damon's eye as he is compelling Elena to forget, a tear slips.
Elena blinks and her vervain necklace is back around her neck, Damon is gone and her window is open with the curtains blowing... she had no recollection as to how the necklace was returned to her.
In "Katerina" Damon joins Rose to find out why the originals are after Elena; after some time and clever banter, the two have sex, stating that they could rid themselves of emotion.
However, when Rose, Damon's old friend who turned Katerina, suffers from a werewolf bite, he gives her the memory of her life prior to becoming a vampire, and helps her remember how good it felt to be able to walk in and feel the sunlight, without it burning her, of course.
During this meaningful moment, Damon mercifully kills her, leaving him to mourn the death of his one of very few friends.
Elena and Damon then begin to mend fences.
Damon is bitten by Tyler the werewolf, at the end of the season.
Elena takes care of him, and right before he is cured by the blood of Klaus, the original hybrid, she give him a "goodbye" kiss, or so she thought.
In the third season, Damon assists Elena in bringing his brother, Stefan, back to Mystic Falls after Stefan becomes Klaus' henchman due to a bargain for his blood that would cure Damon of the werewolf bite he had received from Tyler.
At first, he is reluctant to involve Elena in the rescue attempts, employing Alaric Saltzman, Elena's guardian, instead as Klaus does not know that Elena is alive after the sacrifice which frees Klaus' hybrid side.
However, Elena involves herself, desperate to find Stefan.
Damon, though hesitant at first, is unable to refuse her because of his love for her.
He also points out to her that she once turned back from finding Stefan since she knew Damon would be in danger, clearly showing that she also has feelings for him.
He tells her that "when (he) drags his brother from the edge to deliver him back to (her), (he) wants her to remember the things (she) felt while he was gone."
When Stefan finally returns to Mystic Falls, his attitude is different from that of the first and second seasons.
This causes a rift between Elena and Stefan whereas the relationship between Damon and Elena becomes closer and more intimate.
A still loyal Elena, however, refuses to admit her feelings for Damon.
In 'Dangerous Liaisons', Elena, frustrated with her feelings for him, tells Damon that his love for her may be a problem, and that this could be causing all their troubles.
This incenses Damon, causing him to revert to the uncaring and reckless Damon seen in the previous seasons.
The rocky relationship between the two continues until the sexual tension hits the fan and in a moment of heated passion, Elena - for the first time in the three seasons - kisses Damon of her own accord.
This kiss finally causes Elena to admit that she loves both brothers and realize that she must ultimately make her choice as her own ancestress, Katherine Pierce, who turned the brothers, once did.
In assessment of her feelings for Damon, she states this: "Damon just sort of snuck up on me.
He got under my skin and no matter what I do, I can't shake him."
In the season finale, a trip designed to get her to safety forces Elena to make her choice: to go to Damon and possibly see him one last time; or to go to Stefan and her friends and see them one last time.
She chooses the latter when she calls Damon to tell him her decision.
Damon, who is trying to stop Alaric, accepts what she says and she tells him that maybe if she had met Damon before she had met Stefan, her choice may have been different.
This statement causes Damon to remember the first night he did meet Elena which was, in fact, the night her parents died - before she had met Stefan.
Not wanting anyone to know he was in town and after giving her some advice about life and love, Damon compels her to forget.
He remembers this as he fights Alaric and seems accepting of his death when Alaric, whose life line is tied to Elena's, suddenly collapses in his arms.
Damon is grief-stricken, knowing that this means that Elena has also died and yells, "No!
You are not dead!"
A heartbroken Damon then goes to the hospital demanding to see Elena when the doctor, Meredith Fell, tells him that she gave Elena vampire blood.
The last shot of the season finale episode shows Elena in transition.
In Season 4, Damon starts season 4 at Elena's bedside after finding out about her dying with vampire blood in her system, causing her to start the transition to Vampire.
Damon decides to firstly try to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, yet she overpowers him.
Rebekah is shot at through the Window and Damon escapes.
Later in part of a plan with the Sheriff and Meredith Fell, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young.
After dispatching the deputies, Damon decides to take out some aggression on Matt and is about to snap his neck when stopped by the new vampire Elena.
After Elena and Stefan go hunting on animals the next morning and Elena has her first feed on a deer she pukes the blood out.
Meanwhile it seems a new vampire hunter is in town.
Elena goes to Damon for help, he pulls her with him to the bathroom and makes her drink his blood because he says "You need warm blood from the vein, so maybe this'll do the trick."
He says it is personal and Elena wonders why but no answer was given.
She drinks his blood but pukes hours later.
When Stefan finds out Damon has feed Elena his blood he's very angry and hits Damon who just got in a fight with the vampire hunter.
Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of Season 4 seems to be looking for reasons to stay.
Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him in 'The Rager' to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire.
Indeed a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become, drives Damon and Stefan apart.
The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College.
This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt' : how to catch, feed and erase.
After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie.
She leaves the party and later states that she doesn't want to be like Damon.
In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive.
She does, and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode.
After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human.
In the episode 'We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide.
He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane.
At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism.
However, Stefan breaks up with Elena at the end of the episode because he knew Elena had gradually growing feelings for Damon.
In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper" Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally begin a relationship.
However, it is soon tainted when it is revealed that Elena is sired to Damon; a result of his blood being used to turn her.
After Jeremy's death, Damon uses the sire bond to convince Elena to turn her humanity off.
After a tumultuous period of time in which Elena becomes ruthless with her humanity switch off, Damon and Stefan finally force her to turn it back on.
As a result of losing all of her emotions for a period of time, the sire bond (Which was caused due to Elena having feelings for Damon as a human) is broken.
However, Elena still remains in love with Damon, and the two begin a relationship without the sire bond in the way. 
The series follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who falls deeply in love with a 163-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley).
Their relationship becomes increasingly complicated as Stefan's vicious and malevolent older brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) returns with a plan to wreak havoc on the town, seeking revenge against his younger brother for turning him into a vampire against his will.
Both brothers begin to show affection towards Elena, mainly because of her resemblance to their past love Katherine Pierce.
It is revealed that Elena is a descendant of Katherine, who eventually returns with plans against the trio.
Elena undergoes many hardships and deaths of close family members and loved ones through her high school experience.
The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history since its settlement of migrants from New England in the late 19th century.
Additional story lines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena's younger brother Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), her best friends Bonnie Bennett (Katerina Graham) and Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola), and their mutual friends Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) and Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig).
The town's politics are orchestrated by descendants of the original founding families, all comprising a "Founders' Council".
Some of the founding families of Mystic Falls include the Salvatores, the Gilberts, the Fells, the Forbes, and the Lockwoods.
They guard the town mainly from vampires, although there are many more supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, ghosts, Originals and hybrids.
Damon starts season 4 at Elena's bedside after finding out about her dying with vampire blood in her system, causing her to start the transition to Vampire.
Damon decides to firstly try to kill Rebekah with a White Oak Stake, yet she overpowers him.
Rebekah is shot at through the Window and Damon escapes.
Later in part of a plan with the Sheriff and Meredith Fell, Damon uses Matt as bait to draw out the deputies and Pastor Young.
After dispatching the deputies, Damon decides to take out some aggression on Matt and is about to snap his neck when stopped by the new vampire Elena.
After Elena and Stefan go hunting on animals the next morning and Elena has her first feed on a deer she pukes the blood out.
Meanwhile it seems a new vampire hunter is in town.
Elena goes to Damon for help, he pulls her with him to the bathroom and makes her drink his blood because he says "You need warm blood from the vein, so maybe this'll do the trick."
He says it's personal and Elena wonders why but no answer was given.
She drinks his blood but pukes hours later.
When Stefan finds out Damon has feed Elena his blood he's very angry and hits Damon who just got in a fight with the vampire hunter.
Damon has decided to leave town, but through the early episodes of Season 4 seems to be looking for reasons to stay.
Meredith Fell seems to be one who convinces him in 'The Rager' to stay to help Elena with her transition to Vampire.
Indeed a renewed conflict over ideology and what sort of Vampire Elena will become, drives Damon and Stefan apart.
The Five, shows Damon tasking Stefan with learning more about the Vampire Hunter, Connor while Damon decides to accompany both Bonnie and Elena to College.
This trip is ostensibly about teaching Elena the 'hunt' : how to catch, feed and erase.
After some initial problems, Elena has a Frat Party gets success and seems to enjoy herself causing friction with Bonnie.
She leaves the party and later states that she doesn't want to be like Damon.
In the next episode, she begins to believe that Stefan is lying to her and takes things into her own hands to kill the vampire hunter who is holding her brother, Matt, and April captive.
She does, and begins to suffer from hallucinations at the end of the episode.
After asking Stefan why he wants to cure Elena, Damon tells him that he loves Elena as a vampire or human.
In the episode 'We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes', Damon helps Elena in dealing with her hallucinations and saves her from committing suicide.
He also helps uncover the mystery about the hunter's curse with the help of Bonnie and Professor Shane.
At the end of the episode, he reveals the truth about the cure to Elena and explains how Stefan has been lying to her only to find this possible cure for vampirism.
However, Elena breaks up with Stefan at the end of the episode after confessing her gradually growing feelings for Damon.
In the following episode "My Brother's Keeper", Elena tells Damon he is the reason she and Stefan broke up and at the end of the episode Damon and Elena finally have sex.
After that it turns out Elena is sired with Damon, first they think it is the reason why Elena loves Damon, but in episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street" they found out that it only affects how you act, not how you feel.
The sire-bond can only be broken when Damon leaves Elena and tells her to stop caring about him according to a witch in New Orleans named Nandi.
In the following episode Damon goes with Elena to her family's lake house to help with Jeremy's Hunter instincts.
In the episode Elena tries to act like a couple with Damon, but he refuses to even kiss her out of his guilt about the sire bond and worry that he's taking advantage of her.
In the end of the episode Damon invokes the sire bond telling Elena to return to Mystic Falls while he trains Jeremy "O Come, All Ye Faithful".
Elena kisses him goodbye.
In 'After School Special', Damon is at the Lake House training Jeremy, along with Matt Donovan.
Klaus shows up and threatens Damon, wanting him to get Jeremy's mark completed earlier rather than later.
Damon is shown to be reluctant, not wanting to hurt innocents for Elena's sake, but Klaus follows through with his plans regardless.
Later in the episode Elena calls Damon and confesses she's in love with him and its the 'most real thing she's ever felt in her entire life', in a moment of weakness Damon tells her to come see him.
Afterward Damon is confronted with a bar of newly turned vampires for Jeremy to kill concedes that its the quickest way, however balks when Klaus takes control and compels the newly turned vamps to kill Matt Donovan.
In Catch Me If You Can Damon tells the boys to run since Jeremy isn't ready to take on all these vampires.
Later when Elena arrives her and Damon argue over the killing of innocents and tells her to take Matt home while he and Jeremy take care of Klaus's newly turned vampires.
However Kol shows up and has killed all the vampires, determined to stop them from finding the cure & waking Silas, and threatens Jeremy's life.
Kol compels Damon to stake himself and later to kill Jeremy and to forget what Kol compelled him to do.
Upon arriving back in Mystic Falls Damon begins to seek out Jeremy due to the compulsion, however when he sees him in the grill he realizes what Kol compelled him to do and tells Jeremy to run.
Damon chases Jeremy throughout Mystic Falls and advises Jeremy that he is compelled and he needs to kill him.
Jeremy shoots Damon in the head and when Damon awakens later starts cursing the youngest Gilbert, calling him stupid for not killing him.
At the end of the episode Damon catches up with Jeremy Elena follows and urges Damon to fight it because "You love me and I love you", but he tells her that he can't, falls to his knees and urges Jeremy to kill him.
Stefan shows up just in time to break Damon's neck and lock him up until they can take care of Kol.
Damon spends the next episode locked up and bled dry by a jealous and snarky Stefan and engages in a conversation with Klaus about Caroline,Rebekah and Elena.
When the group goes to the mysterious island to find the Cure, Damon continues to be suspicious of Professor Shane.
When Jeremy goes missing and Bonnie and Shane stay behind to try a locator spell, Damon stays to keep an eye on Shane.
He later begins torturing Shane for information, but Shane starts analyzing Damon and telling him Elena will go back to Stefan once she's cured.
Elena interrupts the torture session and Damon storms out and Elena follows.
She tells Damon that she's sure her feelings for him are real and asks him to become human with her, however Damon tells her he has no desire to be human and that human/vampire relationships are doomed and stalks off.
Afterward he is captured by Vaughn, another member of the Five, who tortures Damon and leads him around with a noose around his neck.
Damon goes with Vaughn to the cavern close to where Silas is buried and eventually overpowers him, but not before Vaughn injures Rebekah.
Elena and Stefan come across the injured Damon and Rebekah, Stefan stays while Elena rushes to find Jeremy.
Damon urges Stefan to go get the cure for Elena, uncaring that there is only enough for one, because he wants it for the girl he loves.
After Stefan leave Rebekah comments that Damon did something selfless and remarks that he will always love Elena.
An exhausted Damon admits that he can't control everything and is tired.
After Katherine kills Jeremy in 'Down the Rabbit Hole' Damon stays behind determined to find the missing Bonnie, telling Stefan he can't come home without her.
Eventually he finds Bonnie, hugging her in relief, but when the two arrive back in Mystic Falls in informs Stefan Bonnie has lost her mind.
Elena, who had been in denial about Jeremy's death, comes into reality and demands Damon bring Jeremy's body downstairs.
When Elena starts breaking down Stefan urges Damon to help her, indicating he should invoke the sire bond to take away her pain, however instead Damon tells Elena to shut off her emotions.
In the next episode Damon begins trying to track Katherine in order to find the cure while Rebekah attempts to tag along.
He finds an old friend from his past, Will, dying from a werewolf bite and kills him out of mercy.
He arrives back home just in time to stop Elena from killing Caroline and takes her with to New York.
While in NY Damon begins investigating Katherine's whereabouts and tries to keep that he's looking for the cure from Elena.
Elena finds out and attempts to play him all the while Damon tells her and Rebekah about his time here in the 1970s.
He admits that he had his emotions off and Lexi had come to help him on Stefan's behalf, however he tricks her into believing he fell in love with her only to leave her trapped on the roof during the day as revenge.
He reveals that the reason he killed Lexi in season one was out of the guilt she stirred in him.
Elena kisses Damon and attempts to steal Katherine's address out of his pocket, however Damon was aware she was trying to play him the entire time, and attempts to convince her to turn her emotions back on.
Rebekah shows up and snaps his neck.
He then calls Stefan and the brothers attempt to track down Elena.
The decide to give up on the cure after Elena kills a waitress and threatens to kill people.
In 'Pictures of You' Damon, along with Stefan, decide they're going to try making Elena turn her emotions back on.
The Salvatore brothers decide to take Elena to the prom, where Damon asks Elena why she told him she was in love with him and its the most real thing she ever felt.
Elena tells Damon that she only said it because of the sire bond and she feels nothing for him.
However later when Bonnie nearly kills Elena, she cries out for Damon to help her and he locks her up in the Salvatore basement.
Damon then manipulates Elena's dreams in an attempt to remind how much she loves her friends in family, however when it doesn't work the Salvatore brothers (per Stefan's advice) try torturing Elena to get her to feel emotion.
Elena however calls their bluff and attempts to kill herself, knowing Damon would never really hurt her and let her die.
Damon realizes that Elena is smart and that torture will not work.
After Katherine frees Elena Damon comes up with a plan, killing Matt in front of her (while he wore the Gilbert ring) and it works to get Elena's emotions back on.
When Elena focuses her hate on Katherine Damon tells Elena where Katherine is, but tells her she shouldn't try and kill her.
Damon admits he hates Katherine, however he knows once Elena kills her all her other emotions (grief & guilt) will all come flooding back in.
Elena stakes Damon in the stomach when he attempts to stop her.
In 'The Walking Dead' Damon is almost killed by one the ghosts, however Alaric appears just in time to save him.
After initially questioning whether it was Silas, Damon is happy to see his best friend and the two hug.
Later Silas, disguised as Alaric, attempts to trick Damon, however Damon is too clever and figures it out instantly.
He chains up Silas while Bonnie turns him to stone.
At the end of the episode, afterIn the season finale 'Graduation', he tries to give the cure to Elena, but Elena refuses, which tells him that there is no more sire bond.
He gets shot by Vaughn with a bullet laced with werewolf venom, and almost dies, but Klaus comes back to Mystic Falls and saves him.
At the end of the episode, Elena proclaims her love for him stating that of all the decisions she has made choosing him will prove to be the worse one. 
Act 1.
"Scene 1: The shores of Loch Katrine"Shepherds are watching flocks at dawn on the shore and men in the nearby forests are hunting (Chorus: "Del di la messaggiera").
Elena crosses the lake and sings of her longing for her true love, Malcolm (Cavatina: "Oh mattutini albori" / "Love has proceeded you, to awake me again from my slumbers").
At the edge of the lake, Elena hears the sound of horns and vainly hopes that Malcolm will be amongst the hunters.
However, King James who has disguised himself as "Uberto" in the hope of meeting the beautiful Elena, approaches from a distance, proclaiming himself as a lost hunter.
She offers aid to him and James accepts as the two cross the lake towards Elena's home (Duettino: "Scendi nel piccol legno" / "Get into my little boat").
As they sail off together, the men in his entourage arrive, searching for the disguised King (Chorus: "Uberto!
Ah!
dove t'ascondi?"
/ "Oberto, where are you hiding?").
Frustrated, they agree to spread the search wider and pray for guidance in finding their leader.
"Scene 2: Elena's home"Upon arrival at Elena's home, she explains her simple life but Uberto/King James sees the insignias of his ancestors and learns that Elena's father is Douglas, the King's former tutor now turned against the King.
Elena's friends arrive and sing of her betrothal by her father to Rodrigo, chief of a Scots tribe opposed to King James - the Highlanders.
Uberto/James becomes jealous.
However, he determines that Elena is not in love with Rodrigo (Duet: "Le mie barbare vicende" / "What good will it do to hear about my cruel fortunes?").
Directly, he asks if there is someone she loves, and learns that this was only a brief moment in her past.
Encouraged by the hope of his own prospects, he prepares to leave Elena's house (Duet: "Cielo!
in qual estasi!"
/ "Heavens, I feel myself transported in ecstasy"): each expresses similar emotions.
All leave and Elena goes inside.
Malcolm arrives, having determined to join the Highlanders.
Alone, he recalls fond memories of Elena: (Aria: "Elene!
oh tu, che chiamo!, Deh vola a me un istante" / "Elena!
you whom I call!, Ah!, fly back to me for a moment, come back to me and say I love you").
Then he swears that he will take her away from the strongest man or die in the attempt.
Unseen, Malcolm then watches Elena and her father discussing her upcoming marriage to Rodrigo.
Despite her reluctance, Douglas orders his daughter to marry as he has commanded: (Aria: "Taci, lo voglio, e basti" / "Be quiet!
It is my wish... Show me that you're a daughter worthy of her father").
As Douglas leaves, trumpets are heard acclaiming Rodrigo and he commands Elena to follow him and pledge her love to him.
Malcolm, who has overheard the conversation, approaches Elena and they pledge their undying devotion to each other (Duettino: "Vivere io non saprò/ potrò, mio ben, senza di te" / (Elena, then Malcolm): "Beloved, I shall not be able to live, my love, without you").
Together they leave.
"Scene 3"The Highlanders' warriors urge all to fight on (Chorus: "Qual rapido torrente" / "Like a swift-flowing stream, surging over obstacles in its way") and welcome Rodrigo, their leader.
He pledges to lead them to victory and to glory but, aside, he expresses anxiety to see his future bride: (Cavatina: "Eccomi a voi, miei prodi" / "I come to you my brave honor of the native soil").
His soldiers assure him that he will win the hand of the woman he loves and that victory is at hand.
Douglas enters and he and Rodrigo welcome one another, with the latter fervently expressing his desire to see Elena.
(Rodrigo and Chorus: "Ma dov'è colei" / "But where is Elena, who kindles such a sweet flame in my breast").
Acclaimed by the assembled crowd for her beauty, Elena enters.
Rodrigo approaches her, declaring his love: (Aria: "Quanto a quest'alma amante" / "My loving soul finds the sweetness of this moment").
Concerned that she does not appear to respond to Rodrigo, Douglas assures him that it is her modesty, but quickly father, daughter and suitor each express their hopes, concerns and fears: (Trio: "Di opposti affetti un vortice" / "A whirlwind of contrary emotions, Swirls about me").
Malcolm and his men arrive to join the Highlanders, demanding that they be put to the test.
Despite Elena's efforts to hide her emotions, Douglas immediately understands where her heart lies.
At the same time, Rodrigo offers his friendship to Malcolm and introduces Elena as his bride-to-be, but Rodrigo also perceives a connection between Malcolm and Elena as she tries to stifle Malcolm's growing anger.
In a quartet accompanied by the chorus of soldiers and women, each expresses his or her conflicting emotions: (Rodrigo: "Crudele sospetto, Chi me agiti il petto" / "Cruel suspicion That sets me shuddering"; then Elena and Malcolm together: "Ah my affection - keep yourself hidden"; then Douglas: "Ah!
Anger and resentment Tear my heart apart"; finally Albina and chorus: "Cruel suspicion twists Like a snake").
Abruptly, Serano enters to warn of an attack by the King's forces.
Rodrigo, Malcolm and the Highlander warriors prepare to depart for battle: ("Su...amici!
guerrieri!"
/ "Go on, friends and warriors, Go on, let's march, let's fight").
All leave for battle.