Through this name, Cal's first love becomes reduced to a shifting and hazy object of fascination. What is the significance of the Obscure Object's name?Ĭal names the Obscure Object after a movie he saw, but the name is more significant in the way it characterizes their relationship and Cal's views on events in his life. No, Calliope's story is not a classical Greek epic, but it is an epic in its own way in its length, breadth, and the themes with which it grapples. While the references are usually somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they give the story a gravity that it might not otherwise have. Elsewhere, Cal references Greek tragedies and the deus ex machina ('god out of the machine') to explain certain events like Jimmy's death or Milton's removal from the Navy.

What elements does Middlesex borrow from Greek drama, and how do they affect the novel?Ĭalliope, named after the muse of epic poetry, invokes the muses semi-seriously at various points in the narrative, asking for their help in telling her story. Although not many people are 5-alpha-reductase hermaphrodites, many have struggled with a negotiation of identity. By situating this struggle within recognizable historic events, Eugenides enables the reader to identify with Cal and his struggle for identity and self-confidence. Instead of focusing on genetic differences, Eugenides depicts Cal as a third generation American from an immigrant family, struggling to define himself with respect to culture, gender, and sexuality. How does Eugenides make Cal's very specific condition universally relatable? As a character, Antigone is also a symbol of female power and rebellion, however, and works as a model/foil for Calliope's struggles.

Much like Middlesex, Antigone contains themes of incest and monstrosity, since Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother.

What is the significance of Antigone within Middlesex?Ĭalliope and the Object perform Antigone as part of their English class.

Middlesex by jeffrey eugenides