Desdemona Stephanides Character Analysis in Middlesex

Desdemona is Cal and Chapter Eleven’s grandmother, Milton and Zoë’s mother, and Lefty’s wife and sister. Born in Bithynios, a small village on Mount Olympus near Bursa, Asia Minor (which is part of modern-day Turkey), Desdemona initially has a simple, rural life. She is a talented silk worker, and after her parents die she takes it upon herself to take care of her only remaining immediate family member, her brother Lefty. However, Lefty and Desdemona end up falling in love. When the Greco-Turkish war forces Lefty and Desdemona to flee their homeland and emigrate to the U.S., Desdemona is initially unenthused. She is uncertain about the prospect of marrying Lefty and does not share his excitement and optimism about life in the U.S. However, they end up engaging in a fake courtship and getting married on the boat. Once they arrive in Detroit, they meet up with their cousin Sourmelina (who promises to keep the fact that they’re siblings a secret) and Lina’s husband, Jimmy Zizmo. Desdemona does not feel as enthusiastic about her new home as Lefty does, and does not make the same effort to assimilate (e.g., while Lefty becomes fluent in English quickly, Desdemona does not learn for a long time). This is partly due to the fact that she remains in the traditional role of a wife during this era, staying home to take care of the household and raise the two children she and Lefty have together, Milton (who is conceived at the same time as Sourmelina’s daughter, Theodora) and Zoë. During the Great Depression Lefty asks Desdemona to get a job, and she ends up briefly working for the Nation of Islam, teaching young female followers of the movement how to make silk and showing them the silkworm box she brought with her to the U.S. This experience opens Desdemona’s mind, encouraging her to be critical about injustice and anti-black racism. After Lefty dies, Desdemona gets into bed and stays there for 10 years. She desperately wants to die herself, and curses the fact that she remains alive. At the end of the novel, when she sees Cal after his gender transition, Desdemona confesses the secret that she and Lefty were siblings and apologizes to Cal for their role in causing his intersex condition. She gives Cal permission to share her secret after her death, which eventually comes in 1980.

Desdemona Stephanides Quotes in Middlesex

The Middlesex quotes below are all either spoken by Desdemona Stephanides or refer to Desdemona Stephanides. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Traveling made it easier. Sailing across the ocean among half a thousand perfect strangers conveyed an anonymity in which my grandparents could re-create themselves. The driving spirit on the Giulia was self-transformation. Staring out to sea, tobacco farmers imagined themselves as race car drivers, silk dyers as Wall Street tycoons, millinery girls as fan dancers in the Ziegfeld Follies. Gray ocean stretched in all directions. Europe and Asia Minor were dead behind them. Ahead lay America and new horizons.

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides, Desdemona Stephanides

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

My grandparents had every reason to believe that Sourmelina would keep their secret. She’d come to America with a secret of her own, a secret that would be guarded by our family until Sourmelina died in 1979, whereupon, like everyone’s secrets, it was posthumously declassified, so that people began to speak of “Sourmelina’s girlfriends.” A secret kept, in other words, only by the loosest definition, so that now—as I get ready to leak the information myself—I feel only a sight twinge of filial guilt.

Sourmelina’s secret (as Aunt Zo put it): “Lina was one of those women they named the island after.”

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Zoë Antoniou (“Aunt Zo”) (speaker), Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides, Desdemona Stephanides, Sourmelina Zizmo

Page Number and Citation: 85-86

Explanation and Analysis:

This once-divided city reminds me of myself My struggle for unification, for Einheit. Coming from a city still cut in half by racial hatred, I feel hopeful here in Berlin.

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Desdemona Stephanides, Sourmelina Zizmo, Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 106

Explanation and Analysis:

Parents are supposed to pass down physical traits to their children, but it’s my belief that all sorts of other things get passed down, too: motifs, scenarios, even fates.

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Desdemona Stephanides, Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides, Jimmy Zizmo a.k.a. Minister Fard, Sourmelina Zizmo

Page Number and Citation: 109

Explanation and Analysis:

The truth was that in those days Desdemona was struggling against assimilationist pressures she couldn’t resist. Though she had lived in America as an eternal exile, a visitor for forty years, certain bits of her adopted country had been seeping under the locked doors of her disapproval.

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Desdemona Stephanides

Page Number and Citation: 222

Explanation and Analysis:

[…] right about this time Lefty’s English began to deteriorate. He made spelling and grammatical mistakes he’d long mastered and soon he began writing broken English and then no English at all. He made written allusions to Bursa, and now Desdemona began to worry. She knew that the backward progression of her husband’s mind could lead to only one place, back to the days when he wasn’t her husband but her brother, and she lay in bed at night awaiting the moment with trepidation.

Related Characters: Cal/lie Stephanides (speaker), Eleutherios “Lefty” Stephanides, Desdemona Stephanides

Page Number and Citation: 268

Explanation and Analysis:

Desdemona Stephanides Character Timeline in Middlesex

The timeline below shows where the character Desdemona Stephanides appears in Middlesex. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Just before Callie is born, her grandmother, Desdemona, asks Callie’s brother, Chapter Eleven, to bring her her silkworm box. Obeying, Chapter Eleven goes... (full context)

Migration, Ethnicity, and the American Dream Theme Icon

Desdemona’s son Milton comes in from the other room and says that her prediction is meaningless,... (full context)

The next Sunday, Desdemona, Tessie, and Chapter Eleven attend church. Milton never comes and neither does Desdemona’s husband, Lefty,... (full context)

...is conceived. During Tessie’s pregnancy, Milton feels optimistic that the baby is a girl. However, Desdemona’s spoon then indicates that the baby is a boy. Milton is furious, claiming that Desdemona’s... (full context)

...a girl. That same day, Lefty has a stroke, and loses the ability to speak. Desdemona, meanwhile, is disturbed that her prediction was wrong. From then on, she never predicts a... (full context)

...birth, before his grandparents even arrived in America. The story really begins in summer 1922. Desdemona is sitting in her silkworm cocoonery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor, and feels her... (full context)

Below Mount Olympus lies the Ottoman city of Bursa, home of the silk trade. Desdemona’s heart palpitation was caused by grief over the recent death of her parents in the... (full context)

Desdemona’s brother Eleutherios, nicknamed Lefty, is singing a song in English without being able to understand... (full context)

...often, sometimes staying overnight. He has been learning French and has picked up “affected” gestures. Desdemona interrogates Lefty about what he does in Bursa, and although he at first resists, he... (full context)

Bithynios’s already small population has dwindled in recent years. Desdemona and Lefty’s cousin Sourmelina recently moved to “a place called Detroit” in America. Of the... (full context)

...goes to a brothel and chooses a girl who has braids and sad eyes like Desdemona, although he doesn’t consciously notice the similarity until they are walking to the bedroom together.... (full context)

Lefty tells Desdemona that he’s noticed that Lucille smells better and that Victoria’s mustache is gone, indicating that... (full context)

Desdemona has done Victoria’s hair and makeup and taught her how to hold herself. However, before... (full context)

Desdemona, meanwhile, takes off the corset, lies on the bed, and cries herself to sleep. She... (full context)

Lefty wins, and tells Desdemona he wants to marry her, saying that they are not just siblings but third cousins,... (full context)

...Sourmelina, taking the route via Smyrna, which is said to be the safest. Initially reluctant, Desdemona hesitantly agrees, saying she’ll bring her silkworm box and some eggs even though, as Lefty... (full context)

...just treated—smiles as he buys chureki from the bakery, feeling hopeful. In Smyrna, he and Desdemona have been able to explore their feelings for each other without anyone around who knows... (full context)

However, when Lefty brings Desdemona the chureki and she flinches, moving away from him while they eat, he walks off... (full context)

...left. However, he has secretly stashed some in his sock, and when he returns to Desdemona he tells her that they have enough for the ship now, claiming he found the... (full context)

...General Hajienestis orders to the Greek ships to pull out of Smyrna, and Lefty and Desdemona watch them go. The whole Greek population of the city realizes with despair that they... (full context)

...he hears his neighbor singing, and rushes out against his wife’s protests. Meanwhile, Lefty and Desdemona watch as the fires begin rolling toward them. They are surrounded by people too ill,... (full context)

Desdemona says they are going to die, but Lefty replies that they will survive, and then... (full context)

...wife. He claims that his papers were destroyed in the fire. When he returns to Desdemona with visas in hand, she is standing with a man who she just stopped from... (full context)

...princess and began to unravel. Cal compares this story to himself unravelling his own story. Desdemona, Lefty, and Dr. Philobosian get to Athens, where they receive papers and inoculations in preparation... (full context)

In Athens, Desdemona gets an emergency Greek passport under her mother’s maiden name, which will allow her to... (full context)

Desdemona and Lefty are thrilled that they are successfully managing to trick everyone. Over time, they... (full context)

...improvised outfits. On the night of the wedding, the newlyweds lie in a lifeboat, and Desdemona undresses to reveal the corset. She feels “conflicted,” as the corset makes her think of... (full context)

Every night over the next week Lefty and Desdemona have sex in the lifeboat. They try to become strangers to one another, continuing to... (full context)

...incest are among those banned from immigrating to the country. It helps that Lefty and Desdemona have a sponsor in the form of their cousin Sourmelina. Lefty notes that she won’t... (full context)

...Woodward Plan, an 1807 plan to structure the city in “interlocking hexagons.” When Lefty and Desdemona arrive in Detroit in 1922, it is famous for producing “spinning things,” including cigars, bicycles,... (full context)

Desdemona is even more devastated by being forced to dump out her silkworm cocoons. When they... (full context)

...Sourmelina laments how hard it must have been for Lefty to get married and leave Desdemona in New York. After discussing the Turkish reinvasion and the destruction of Smyrna, Lefty admits... (full context)

...like the picture he’d sent of himself. Sourmelina is surprised to hear about Lefty and Desdemona’s marriage but immediately agrees to keep it a secret. She notes that they don’t have... (full context)

Neither Lefty nor Desdemona notice the signs of economic deprivation and anti-black racism that hint at what’s in store... (full context)

...years and still don’t have children. However, Sourmelina refuses. Over the next week, Lefty and Desdemona learn that Jimmy treats Sourmelina like a daughter more than a wife. He is obsessed... (full context)

...On the morning of Lefty’s first day of work, he dances in the kitchen, making Desdemona laugh. As he and the other workers walk into the factory, they stop speaking, because... (full context)

...to the Ford English School for his evening lessons. While Lefty is at the factory, Desdemona stays home, spending the whole day cooking. She serves food to Jimmy and his “business... (full context)

...and Jimmy says he doesn’t. They then express disapproval of the fact that Lefty and Desdemona are boarders in Jimmy’s house, saying that Ford workers are encouraged to get their own... (full context)

Desdemona sews Lefty a traditional Greek vest for the pageant. Lefty and Jimmy go to a... (full context)

...that he is being fired. They explain that Jimmy has a criminal record. Sourmelina and Desdemona then approach Lefty, and Sourmelina tells him in English that she and Desdemona are both... (full context)

...after the two couples go to the theater to see a production of The Minotaur. Desdemona thought she knew what to expect, but is horrified by the modern twist of the... (full context)

...not just pass on physical characteristics to their children, but also “motifs, scenarios, even fates.” Desdemona and Sourmelina’s menstrual cycles were synced, and once they both get pregnant they start throwing... (full context)

...eye to low-level “amateur smuggling,” Zizmo is not dealing with amateur amounts. Meanwhile, in pregnancy, Desdemona is looking more and more like Euphrosyne. She feels intimately connected to all her female... (full context)

One fall morning during the Desdemona and Sourmelina’s third trimester, Dr. Philobosian appears at their house. Inside, he tells them that... (full context)

Desdemona looks worried, and Dr. Philobosian assures her that no one thinks this anymore; now, doctors... (full context)

...the Purple Gang is gaining tighter and tighter control over the bootlegging business in Detroit. Desdemona performs her spoon-swinging test over Sourmelina’s belly to tell the baby’s gender; Sourmelina is delighted... (full context)

...safe from the Purple Gang, as the lake is their territory. Meanwhile, back at home, Desdemona has a nightmare about being raped by the captain of the ship that took her... (full context)

...a child. He recalls watching a film about Theseus and the Minotaur. Meanwhile, Sourmelina and Desdemona are in a taxi on the way to the hospital. Sourmelina says she was going... (full context)

...watches car until it plunges into the ice and goes dark. Meanwhile, Dr. Philobosian delivers Desdemona’s baby, a son. She is thrilled that the child does not have any obvious physical... (full context)

...dress, violating the norm that widows should wear black for the rest of their lives. Desdemona is horrified. (full context)

After the funeral rites for Zizmo are completed, both Milton and Theodora are baptized. Desdemona asks Sourmelina how it is possible to prevent oneself from getting pregnant again; Lina replies... (full context)

...used in his and Zizmo’s bootlegging days, and teaches himself to be a barman. Upstairs, Desdemona and Sourmelina share the duties of raising their two children. Sourmelina is uninterested in babies;... (full context)

...ensuing Great Depression takes a toll on Lefty’s speakeasy. Later, when Callie is a child, Desdemona will tell her stories about the horrors of the Depression. One night, Lefty removes his... (full context)

On the journey, Desdemona feels annoyed with Lefty, whose claim that silk isn’t made in Detroit turns out to... (full context)

Walking nervously, Desdemona passes children playing, a homeless man, a street artist, and a barbershop. A woman stops... (full context)

One of the women introduces herself as Sister Wanda, and asks if Desdemona has come regarding the job. In halting English, Desdemona lists her experience as a silk... (full context)

Sister Wanda takes Desdemona through the mosque, explaining that she should never go through the curtain to the main... (full context)

Sister Wanda then shows Desdemona a wooden box full of dirt, explaining that they ordered silkworms “from a company.” Desdemona... (full context)

Desdemona soon gets used to working for the Nation of Islam; in a way, working there... (full context)

Under Desdemona’s supervision, young men construct a cocoonery in the temple. One day, Desdemona is in the... (full context)

Eventually, Desdemona hears about how white people were created by an evil scientist named Yacub through a... (full context)

Desdemona watches her children closely for signs that something is wrong with them. She refuses to... (full context)

Despite the Depression, people still buy the photographs, and Lefty’s income becomes stable again. Meanwhile, Desdemona is still captivated by Fard’s speeches. She begins to understand that the deprivation she witnesses... (full context)

Fard leaves Detroit, and in May 1933, Desdemona bids a tearful goodbye to the young women of the temple. A new leader has... (full context)

...on a clarinet. The clarinet player is Milton, who is currently a college student. Downstairs, Desdemona and Lefty are sitting in the living room with Gaia Vasilakis and her parents. The... (full context)

Desdemona goes to get Milton, begging him to come downstairs. She asks why he always plays... (full context)

...phone. He is a student at the Greek Orthodox Holy Cross Theological School in Connecticut. Desdemona is keen to encourage the romance between him and Tessie so that she will lose... (full context)

...pretending that she has spent her days volunteering with the Red Cross. Milton, meanwhile, writes Desdemona letters in poor Greek, which are in turn torn apart by the military censors. Milton,... (full context)

...says that when he comes back home, he “want[s] in on the family business.” Distraught, Desdemona stays in bed for three days. (full context)

Tessie comes in to Desdemona’s room to say that she is calling off the wedding. Desdemona sits up in bed,... (full context)

When Milton calls Desdemona to tell her the good news, she replies that he now has to fix the... (full context)

...are able to buy a large house in Indian Village, which is near Lefty and Desdemona’s old neighborhood of Hurlbut, though much more affluent. (full context)

Desdemona is going through a fairly happy stage in life. She is daydreaming about moving to... (full context)

Back at home, Desdemona has discovered Lefty’s body on the kitchen floor. Having not been able to hear his... (full context)

Two months after Callie is born, Desdemona is distressed about the fact that she still has not been baptized. When Milton calls... (full context)

Desdemona is also horrified by what happened at the baptism. It adds to the existing distress... (full context)

...how the family look in these films. Lefty is still “dapper” after his stroke, and Desdemona’s dentures make her look like a “snapping turtle.” Chapter Eleven looks decidedly American. The family... (full context)

...a suitcase full of food. Distraught over the news footage of the riots on TV, Desdemona claims that this is just like what happened in Smyrna. Before the riot, the white... (full context)

Lefty, Desdemona, Tessie, and the children spend three days in the attic, not bathing or brushing their... (full context)

...it is the 1960s, then the ‘50s, and so on. In order to humor him, Desdemona pretends that the kitchen is the Zebra Room, and even invites her friends from church... (full context)

When Lefty gets back to the 1930s, his English becomes bad again, and Desdemona suddenly fears that his mind is inevitably going to travel back to the moment when... (full context)

...of everyone around her. The only person whose emotions remain a mystery to Callie is Desdemona. On the way back from the funeral, the hydraulic system within the Cadillac malfunctions, and... (full context)

When the rest of the Stephanides family asks Father Mike to figure out why Desdemona refuses to get out of bed, he explains that she doesn’t like being “left alone”... (full context)

...that their budding romance is over before it began. Back in Middlesex, Callie often brings Desdemona’s meals to her bed. Desdemona is always happy to see her, but frank when discussing... (full context)

All members of the family try to get Desdemona out of bed, including Sourmelina, who calls from New Mexico. She refuses, and instead starts... (full context)

...boys’ voices begin to drop, and some of them get the beginnings of facial hair. Desdemona, meanwhile, suffers from a series of health ailments but remains alive. A doctor enrolls her... (full context)

...Callie’s complaints are based in her fear that the same Mediterranean diet that is keeping Desdemona alive has also stopped Callie herself form developing properly. Growing upset, Tessie explains that American... (full context)

...insists on growing her hair out long even after this ceases to be fashionable. Unlike Desdemona’s smooth and sleek hair, Callie’s hair is incredibly thick and brittle, and shows up all... (full context)

...better,” although Callie doesn’t know what this means. In bed, Tessie has dreams that recall Desdemona’s own terrors about deformed children. Tessie is terrified that she might be to blame for... (full context)

...him that women will prefer him this way. Cal comments that just as Lefty and Desdemona fled home and reinvented themselves, so is he. He explains that from New York, he... (full context)

...go to Milton’s funeral, a voice comes through the intercom, calling for Tessie. It is Desdemona, who has remained bedridden for all these years. During this time, Desdemona largely faded from... (full context)

...see her, and though Tessie is initially hesitant, she agrees, pointing out that whatever happens, Desdemona will forget. Cal brings his grandmother her Epsom salts, along with a piece of baklava.... (full context)

Desdemona asks Cal to prepare her Epsom salts and help her out of bed. Once Cal... (full context)

When Cal asks, Desdemona explains that Lefty was her third cousin, but also her brother. Cal is stunned. At... (full context)

...years in prison. Aunt Zo divorces him and moves to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, with Desdemona. Before long, Tessie joins them. Desdemona dies in 1980. During Milton’s funeral, Tessie places his... (full context)

Middlesex

Desdemona Stephanides Character Analysis

Desdemona Stephanides Quotes in Middlesex

Book 1: The Silk Road Quotes

Book 2: Henry Ford’s English-Language Melting Pot Quotes

Book 2: Minotaurs Quotes

Book 3: Home Movies Quotes

Book 3: Middlesex Quotes

Desdemona Stephanides Character Timeline in Middlesex