Lizzie Borden

Lizzie is a complex woman in her early thirties. She is a grown woman who lives at home with her father, step-mother, and older sister in a time in which most women married early in life to start their own families. She has no interest in having a family of her own, content with the children she teaches at church and her pet pigeons.

Often depicted at both endearing and frustrating by other characters, Lizzie mostly considered annoying by the other characters in the novel. She has a contentious and unhealthily dependent relationship with her sister and a love/hate relationship with her father. Lizzie is shown to harbor a deep hatred of her step-mother.

Occasionally, Lizzie’s narration becomes disjointed and difficult to follow, especially during the time after the murders. Her trauma and the sedatives she is given suggest her own insights are unreliable and...