Middlesex | Characters & Character Analysis

Middlesex Characters

Desdemona Stephanides

Desdemona is the matriarch of the story and the longest running character in this epic besides the narrator. Desdemona is introduced as a character when she's a young woman living in a small Grecian village. Desdemona and her brother are orphaned by their parents who were killed in the war with the Turks. As further ethnic conflicts threaten and the Turks begin burning their homeland, Desdemona and her brother Lefty decide to flee to America. The siblings also decide they are in love and want to marry, even though the law and their religion prohibit it. Even though she goes along with the marriage, Desdemona carries the guilt, shame, and secrecy with her for the rest of her life. Desdemona's guilt not only acts as foreshadowing of the genetic mutation that will manifest two generations later but she also symbolizes guilt for the whole family. The reader follows Desdemona's character...
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