Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Frank is a successful man in his forties. He put his own dreams of being an artist to the side many decades ago when he sought financial stability. His advertising agency is a lucrative and award-winning enterprise. Frank works all of the time to not only keep his business prosperous but to bring it to new levels. Frank embodies the Manhattan capitalist system, in which men who make money have power.

Frank is the primary breadwinner for his entire extended family. He, not his parents, supports Zoe. His generous sense of responsibility means that he doesn’t nurture his own needs. Rather than take care of himself, he unleashes his pressures by drinking too much. Frank’s life is work and partying, two extremes that he relies on for a sense of self. He rejects the idea that he drinks too much, because his mother was addicted to alcohol, and Frank refuses to acknowledge any similarities between them. Like Cleo, Frank is scarred by his past family traumas but has a difficult time confronting his issues. He prefers to obfuscate conflict through work and drinking.

When he meets Cleo, he falls passionately in love with her. Frank admires Cleo’s beauty, youth, and ability to turn heads. He feels that being with a woman like Cleo means that he is worthy, and another piece of evidence that he is successful. In this way, Frank uses Cleo like a prop even though he has genuine love for her. He wants to take care of her the way he takes care of his sister. When Cleo is unsatisfied, he sees it as a criticism of his character. The tension between them pushes him to drink more. Frank feels more like himself with Eleanor—Eleanor doesn’t expect him to be anything other than himself. She is a safe space for Frank in which he doesn’t have to keep up his façade. However, the idea of falling in love with her defies the superficiality of his attraction to beautiful women.

Frank hits rock bottom when accidentally killing Cleo’s beloved sugar glider. This is symbolic; despite his best intentions, Frank is less responsible than he believes himself to be. When Cleo tries to die by suicide in their apartment, Frank is confronted with the depths of their problems, and can no longer ignore them.

The end of his relationship with Cleo leaves him open to new possibilities, and acts as a catalyst for growth. He develops a relationship with Eleanor that is more rewarding and secure than his previous relationships. Additionally, he starts attending the Alcoholics Anonymous program and stops drinking. Both his relationship with Eleanor and sobriety give Frank new stock of his life. He becomes the version of himself that he always wanted to be. Frank visits Cleo in Italy to get a divorce but also to assure her that she’ll always be family to him. This reveals how compassionate Frank is, and how, outside of a toxic relationship, he can meet his potential as a caregiver.

Eleanor is a 38-year-old woman with a complicated but beautiful life. She is intelligent, witty, and loving. Though her parents are divorced, the unconditional love she receives from them helps her navigate a difficult world. Eleanor’s father is very ill, which pushes her closer to her mother. However, Eleanor wants to find a partner, restart her writing career, and regain her independence. Unlike Cleo, Eleanor has a mother to turn to when times get tough, and unlike Frank, Eleanor isn’t responsible for being the leader of her family.

The stability Eleanor has emphasizes the instability in the lives of Frank and Cleo. She is their foil, or a character who illuminates another character or characters’ traits through contrasting ones. Because Eleanor grew up with secure, unconditional love, she doesn’t feel the need to pursue self-worth through passion that masquerades as love.

Eleanor changes Frank’s life. She is not his usual type, which makes the significance of his love for her even deeper. Eleanor influences Frank’s character development; he learns that women don’t need to be trophies to be important in his life. She also pushes him to reunite with Cleo, which leads to a key moment of closure and plot development.

Anders is Frank’s best friend. He is characterized by dazzling good looks, capitalistic success, and a voracious appetite for women. Anders isn’t always single, but has a difficult time nurturing long-term relationships. His paternal role to an ex-girlfriend’s son demonstrates that he is capable of giving love. However, Anders is too wound up in his partying lifestyle to seriously consider how he can find a partner. He grows tired of hooking up with women but doesn’t change his life in a way that would make him more amenable to a serious relationship.

Anders loses touch with his ethical code. His affair with Cleo highlights lack of respect for Frank, his best friend. In California, when he hears about Cleo’s hospitalization, Anders cries about being in love with her, but doesn’t visit or call her. He believes he is in love, but doesn’t follow through, suggesting that he doesn’t know what love is. He is yet another toxic man in Cleo’s life, a man who has fallen more in love with his luxurious lifestyle than with another person.

Santiago is Frank’s friend and, by extension, Cleo’s friend. He’s a successful restauranter who struggles with his weight. Santiago is arguably the kindest character in the novel. He is a beacon of hope for values and goodness in a world of capitalistic excess and toxic sexuality. Santiago has faced challenges that other characters would allow to destroy them. He’s an immigrant and has had to adapt to life in America. He lost his beloved wife to drug addiction. Santiago’s pain manifests in overeating; when he adopts a healthy lifestyle, he proves that other characters in this novel are capable of change. He suggests that past traumas need not turn into self-abuse or abuse of others.

Santiago is often perceived by other characters as an Other. Santiago’s foreignness sets him apart, even from Cleo, who is also an immigrant, as Cleo assimilates with whiteness and beauty. He’s a friend, but not quite so close. He does his friends a lot of favors, such as throwing Cleo and Frank a wedding reception, visiting Cleo in the hospital, and being there for Anders. However, his friends are not as generous with him. While staying in Los Angeles with Anders, for example, Anders tries to avoid him.

Santiago believes in love and has been a good husband. Santiago is successful, but he knows what’s truly important in life, such as love and loyalty for others. Santiago is a voice of reason, a guide to moral behavior, and proof that success, stress, and trauma can be handled well.

Zoe is Frank’s beautiful younger half sister. Zoe is an aspiring actress and has a difficult time handling the reality of living in New York City and balancing her financial responsibilities with her artistry. Zoe has long relied on Frank to fund her lifestyle, which has infantilized her. She can’t hold down a job, and believes that others will save her from credit card debt. Like Cleo, Zoe’s beauty shields her from the realities of rejection.

Zoe struggles with internal issues. She is ashamed of her epilepsy and her inability to orgasm during sex. Zoe also struggles to connect with other women, seeing other women as being jealous of her beauty. It takes her a long time to be kind to Cleo after Cleo marries Frank.

Zoe is a Black woman, but the novel doesn’t explore her feelings about being the only Black woman among white people. However, she’s sharply aware of how society can be biased against her. Her hesitancy to discuss this openly with white people signals that this is yet another reality of her identity. With Jiro, who is Japanese, Zoe can be more open about how race and culture play a role in her life. Zoe’s unresolved ending with Jiro suggests that she continues seeing him; whether this turns into true love is doubtable.