Magdalena Haloway

Spoiler warning! This article contains major spoilers about the Delirium Trilogy.

Magdalena Ella Haloway
Alias(es)	Lena Lena Tiddle Lena Morgan Jones
Age	17 (Delirium) 18 (Pandemonium)
Home	Portland, Maine
Gender	Female
Status	Uncured (Delirium) Invalid (Pandemonium)
Fate	Living
Height	5'2"
Appearances	Delirium Pandemonium Requiem Hana Delirium (TV Series)
Mentioned	Annabel Raven Alex
Relationships	Annabel Haloway (mother) Conrad Haloway (father) Carol Tiddle (aunt) William Tiddle (uncle) Marcia Tiddle (cousin) Grace Tiddle (cousin) Alex Sheathes (boyfriend) Julian Fineman (ex-boyfriend) Hana Tate (best friend)
Portrayed by	Emma Roberts

“	You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way.	”
–Lena, Delirium

Magdalena Ella Haloway, best known as Lena, is a normal girl from Portland, Maine. She is the main character in Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem and has supporting roles in numerous short stories. Her story follows that of her normal life until she eventually confronts the lies and propaganda of her society, doing the worst thing imaginable as she falls in love.

Biography

Early Life

On September 3rd, eighteen years before the events of Delirium, Magdalena "Lena" Ella Haloway was born in Portland, Maine to Conrad Haloway and Annabel Haloway with a sister, Rachel Haloway, already nine years old. Purportedly Lena was named after Mary Magdalene from The Book of Shhh, the first woman ever to be cured of the dreaded amor deliria nervosa.

Sadly, Lena would never get to know her father as he died of a brain tumor shortly after she was born. However, her earliest memories were happy ones. Her mother had never been properly cured of the deliria and thus loved her children deeply--playing games and laughing with them long into the night. Lena would later be much conflicted about these events as society viewed such behavior as bad while she could not help but think of them as good.

These good times were not to last long, however. Regulators were called in as Annabel continued to show far too much emotion. At this point Annabel had had three procedures of the cure and many of her relatives believed that the regulators would drag her to a fourth one.

That night, as Annabel tucked Lena into bed, she whispered the words that would forever haunt Lena. "I love you. Remember. They cannot take it."

Annabel subsequently disappeared and for many years Lena was told, and believed, that her mother had committed suicide. In reality, her mother had been taken by regulators--not for a fourth procedure but to be thrown in the Crypts. Rachel and Lena--now technically orphans--went to go live with their Aunt Carol Tiddle and her family.

Life with the Tiddles was not unpleasant but certainly loveless. Lena later remembered that she wished her aunt would hold her hand and reassure her as she walked to school that everything would be all right but she also knew that would never happen.

Though Lena did not find love at home, she did find a lifelong friend and confidante in Hana Tate who she met around this time and slowly became close friends with.

This time of peace and quiet was broken when Rachel Haloway fell in love at seventeen with a boy named Thomas. Though they later broke up, Rachel began to reject the cure and refused the procedure which nonetheless happened on her eighteenth birthday. Lena--seeing her sister kick and hiss like an animal when the regulators came, along with reminders of her mother's suicide--began to cement the image in her mind that love was truly a bad thing. From that day forward, she counted the days to her procedure and eagerly looked forward to it.

Their family continued to be marred with unfortunate incidents. Several years later, Lena's cousin's husband was indicted as being a sympathizer. He fled and his wife, Marcia Tiddle, was indicted in his place. She died shortly afterwards--most likely from the stress of it all--and left another two children in Carol's care.

These events would lead to rumors that there was bad blood in Lena's family line, causing many to mistrust and treat her poorly.

Delirium

Main article: Delirium

Lena starts off Delirium counting down the days to her cure. Even before the day of her evaluation, Lena works on her interview procedure with her aunt Carol. She enters the interview procedure along side her bestfriend Hana Tate expecting an average score which would secure her a reasonable match and allow her to proceed into college.

Lena Haloway's evaluation in the Delirium Pilot where the stampede of cows is turned into a stampede of sheep.

Upon her first interview, Lena starts to panic because her answers are a little bit out of the ordinary. When asked what her favorite book is, she says Romeo and Juliet and then answers that her favorite color is grey instead of a safe color like blue or green. Just as things seem to be going downhill, a stampede of cows interrupts the evaluations as a protest of the cure. This is where Lena gets her first sight of Alex Sheathes and she thinks he is an Invalid in that instant because he is laughing at the stampede before disappearing.

After getting a second interview, Lena gets matched with Brian Scharff whom Aunt Carol deems a suitable and good match, but Lena develops a relationship with Alex after Hana encourages her to trespass upon the government property to which Alex is working as security for.

Lena sees that Alex has a three pronged scar behind his ear (a sign that he got the cure) and learns that he is nineteen.  She soon learns later in the book that Alex is an Invalid, posing as a cured, and that he is working for the resistance.

The night that Hana invites her to a party in the Deering Highlands is a night that the regulators perform a raid. Lena immediately thinks of the party, and after everyone in her house is asleep, she sneaks out of her house to go and warn Hana of the oncoming raid.

However when Lena gets there, the raid has started and a dog attacks her viciously.  Alex swiftly rescues her from harm and gets her to a shack in the woods, where he heals her.  However, Lena is still hesitant to be around Alex.  They talk there for a while, until Alex and Lena kiss, and Lena discovers that she is falling into the same path her mother had many years ago: the path of the amor deliria nervosa.  But she learns to ignore it and finds herself falling in love with Alex.

Alex then persuades Lena to meet up with him on several occasions. The first meeting was at Back Cove and then more frequently at 37 Brooks, which becomes their regular meeting spot and their hideaway from society.

Alex and Lena walking by the beach.

Lena on one occasion is taken beyond the fence lines of the society and into The Wilds by Alex. he shows Lena what life could be like, and from then on the pair plan their escape into the Wilds. Unfortunately, Hana, Lena's best friend ends up ruining this plan by reporting Lena to the authorities. Lena is then placed under house arrest and tied to her bed to stop her from escaping.

Grace helps Lena to escape by untying her bonds, and Lena then flees from her window to an awaiting Alex below with a motorbike. A chase follows, and, upon reaching the fence, Alex tells Lena to climb and run while he sacrifices himself in the process. An explosion follows and it is believed Alex died.

After, Lena flees into the Wilds and the book ends.

Pandemonium

Main article: PandemoniumAfter escaping to the Wilds, Lena endures a number of hardships. She has to learn how to live life on the outside while still dealing with the loss of Alex, and she eventually decides to join the Resistance in New York. She is instructed to watch the DFA, and then to keep an eye on Julian Fineman at a large, high-profile DFA rally. It is during this rally turned massacre that Lena and Julian are both imprisoned by Scavengers.

Eventually they escape together, falling in love with each other throughout their ordeal. They are separated when they're captured by New York police during the raid on Salvage . Lena sneaks back into New York to rescue Julian, and with the help of Raven and Tack, they make it into the Wilds together.

Not too long after their escape, she discovers that Alex is still alive.

Requiem

Main article: Requiem

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Physical Appearance

Lena has always been a bit self-consious of her body and looks. She had described herself as not ugly, but not pretty either. In-between, she says. Her eyes are not green or brown, but a muddle. She's not thin, and says, she isn't fat either. The only thing she was definite about was her 5'2 height: short. However, this isn't particularly short- rather, just under average.

However, Alex Sheathes has made it a point to call her beautiful on many occasions. So often, Lena herself starts to believe it. Described with long and soft brown hair that nearly reaches her hips, and a splatter of freckles on her nose.

Furthermore it was also mentioned by Hana that: "I've always thought Lena was pretty, but now it occurs to me that at some point—last summer? last year?—she became beautiful. Her eyes seem to have grown even larger, and her cheekbones have sharpened. Her lips on other hand, look softer and fuller. I've never felt ugly next to Lena, but suddenly I do."

This may hint Lena often overlooks her beauty.

Although, in Pandemonium Lena becomes increasingly thin due to her time spent in the Wilds. In Pandemonium Julian notes "Your waist is so small" and in Requiem Hana tells Lena "You're too skinny."

Personality

Lena's main personality traits include her bravery (she risks her life to try and warn Hanna of a raid and agrees to try and escape with Alex), resourcefulness (she is able to blend in when posing as 'Lena Jones' and is key in their escape from imprisonment), and tenacity (time and time again she is put into extreme situations but manages to be strong and find a way out of them). While in the beginning of the first book, much of her true personality was stifled by the enforced fear and close-minded nature of the society she lives in, Lena breaks out of her shell when situations force her to push her own walls and boundaries.

Lena is not as outgoing and energetic as her best friend Hana, and seems to have a more introverted personality. She is shown to prefer spending time alone or with few people (like Alex) than big group settings. She is very loyal to those she cares about, and seems to enjoy spending time with only those who she is very close to.

Skills and Interests

Lena is an avid long-distance runner, and is shown to be very fast and to have high stamina. She claims it is "the sole thing I can do better," than Hana. She also is a biker, though it is unknown whether this if for her pleasure or whether she does it because that is simply the easiest way to get around. Lena is also implied to be a bookworm, which coincides with her introverted personality.