Duma Key

Ninety-year-old Elizabeth Eastlake is one of the main characters of the novel. In the novel’s present, Elizabeth uses in a wheelchair and has a raspy smoker’s voice, an unusual dress sense, and a powerful presence. When first seen by Edgar, Elizabeth wears “an enormous pair of blue Converse Hi-Tops” (93), and holds a spear-pistol in her lap. This portrayal shows that Elizabeth is a mixture of vulnerability, toughness, and individuality.

In her childhood, Elizabeth was filled with wonder, rage, innocence, and raw creative power. Elizabeth’s imagination and talent are described as so strong that their effects persist palpably for nearly a century: At Heron’s Roost after her death, Edgar finds that the lawn jockey her imagination brought to life is still animate.

The narrative establishes many parallels between Edgar and Elizabeth. Both have contrecoup head injuries and have lost access to memory and speech—Edgar from his accident and Elizabeth because of late-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Yet, Elizabeth’s troubles as a child, seen through Edgar’s eyes, are even more severe. Because Elizabeth is a precocious toddler when she has her traumatic head injury and Perse begins to control her, she never develops the facility to fully articulate what is happening to her. The fact that as a child Elizabeth figures out the existence of Perse, confides about her to Nan Melda, and subdues her by drowning her shows Elizabeth’s tremendous courage. Her determination is emphasized by her decision to stop painting after the defeat of Perse. Elizabeth chooses life over art, fulfilling her creative urges by patronizing other artists.

Elizabeth’s character is closely linked with all of the text’s important themes, since she resists evil through solidarity with Nan Melda, explores The Power and Perils of Art, and experiences both real and supernatural terror. Edgar wonders if her Alzheimer’s is a subconscious survival mechanism: Elizabeth witnessed traumatic evil as a young child, so forgetting might be a relief. Yet, when Elizabeth senses Perse has awakened and is acting through Edgar’s art, she pushes herself to relive her worst memories and give her friends vital information to defeat the malevolent entity, dying in the process. Elizabeth’s lifelong courage and resilience are a model for Edgar.

Resembling actor Harrison Ford in his forties, Wireman, a secondary character in the novel, is tall, handsome, and green-eyed. Wireman is distinguished by his constant pop-culture references, obscure allusions, and nuggets of wisdom. Wireman adds humor to the novel’s moody atmospherics, yet he has experienced tragedy as severe as that of Elizabeth and Edgar: the sudden, unexpected, and senseless deaths of his wife and daughter that led to an attempt to die by suicide that destroyed most of the vision in one of his eyes. Wireman’s decision to work for Elizabeth is motivated by his need to help another human being as a form of grief. His loving, altruistic attitude towards Elizabeth and Edgar establishes Wireman as a warm, wise, and resilient character.

Wireman’s often speaks maxims that border on cliché, a tendency which adds lightness to the text. However, many of his sayings are based on hard-won insight: For example, when he tells Edgar that “God always punishes us for what we can’t imagine” (56), he is using his life experiences to point out that the unimaginable sometimes happens. Wireman believes in the deeply random and arbitrary nature of existence. Thus, he often uses metaphors of gaming, lottery, and chance to describe life. However, Wireman is not cynical; rather, he is a deeply hopeful character, who finds healing in his friendship with Elizabeth and Edgar, a feature of the novel’s emphasis on Resisting Evil through Human Solidarity. Wireman risks everything for his friends: When facing zombie Emery Paulson, Wireman does not abandon Edgar, but fights off the monster; later, Wireman joins Edgar in his terrifying journey to Duma Key’s south end and the cistern at Heron’s Roost. Wireman dies of a heart attack a few months after the events of the novel, underscoring the motif of the randomness of existence.

The chief antagonist of the novel, Perse is an ancient malevolent supernatural entity who is hungry for souls (her name possibly refers to either the water nymph of destruction or the underworld goddess Persephone in Greek mythology). Perse symbolizes pure, sadistic evil, since human sorrow is a game for her. At the same time, she also stands for corrupted creativity unregulated by conscience or reason. Perse’s influence stems from her control over gifted artists, whom she tempts with the ability to make the things they paint or draw come to life.

The text never describes Perse outright, but uses a composite approach to gradually suggest her horrific appearance. This accretion of details adds to the horror she evokes in readers—each new element of her physicality makes her all the more horrible. In humanoid form, Perse resembles a woman in a baggy red robe. Her skin is pallid, suggesting death and decay, her hair is red, and she has a third eye on her forehead hidden under her hair. Perse’s mouth is filled with too many teeth, signifying her hunger and cruelty. On land, she inhabits a porcelain doll, which comes to life when she is threatened, as when the doll tries to chew through Edgar’s chest.

Perse captains her ship the Persephone, the ship of the dead. She uses the ship to lure souls and turn them into her minions. Identified with salt water and the sea, Perse is associated with marine depths and the unknown; the imagery of a ship that captures and subjugates the unwilling brings to mind the transatlantic slave trade. Perse signifies irredeemable evil which must be subdued. She is a flat character as she is unchanged over millennia—she cannot even be destroyed, but only put to sleep.

An important character in the text, Nan Melda is Elizabeth’s nanny, “almost the child’s mother” (614). Nan Melda is a young Black woman described as often wearing a scarf around her hair and three silver bracelets on her wrist. Nan Melda experiences significant racial discrimination, both because of general 1920s attitudes, and because of the bigotry of her employer John Eastlake. Her death at John Eastlake’s hands allows the novel to convey The Link Between Real Horror and Supernatural Terror.

Nan Melda is an idealized caretaker: She is kind to Elizabeth, who trusts her with her experiences of Perse, and has access to important information about Perse that saves the white people in Nan Melda’s life. Recognizing Perse’s power, Nan Melda tries several approaches to dispel her. Asking Elizabeth to draw and erasing Perse only angers the supernatural being, who kills Laura and Tessie in response. Determined to protect the rest of the Eastlake daughters, Nan Melda figures out the right way to drown Perse—fresh water—and sacrifices her life trying to save Adie. Nan Melda is a heroic character. However, this portrayal, in which her character gets no backstory, inner life, or aspirations outside of her function as a helper makes Nan Melda an instance of the Magical Negro stereotype—a form of benign racism.

Jack, a college student hired to help Edgar move into Big Pink and assist him afterwards, symbolizes youth, optimism, and friendship in the text. Jack is polite, sweet, and handsome in a clean-cut, boyish manner. Edgar recognizes the innocence and goodness in Jack, which is why he wishes Jack and Ilse would become a couple when Ilse visits.

Jack proves vital to defeating Perse, choosing to help Edgar at peril to himself—a commitment that illustrates the importance of Resisting Evil through Human Solidarity. When he holds a flashlight for Edgar in the cistern, the horror and disgust of the situation nearly makes him swoon. However, Jack persists and fights the disgust, which shows he is a tenacious character. At the end of the novel, Jack leaves the Florida Keys, moving to Port Charlotte on the mainland—a place where he and his mother can be safe.