53 pages • 1 hour read
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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Finding Purpose in Life
In Cleopatra and Frankenstein, characters search for a purpose in life. Frank’s purpose stems from his sense of responsibility. He likes to take care of others and to be seen as a reliable provider. Frank dedicates himself to this pursuit without realizing that working hard to fund a certain lifestyle for himself and others is not a real purpose. Frank is obsessed with his work. The stress keeps Frank away from discovering his other layers. To let off steam, he parties and drinks too much.
Frank believes this cycle of working and partying is fine so long as he can provide for his sister or for Cleo. However, this dilutes Frank’s search for purpose. The hamster wheel of work and partying keeps him away from self-care and love. Frank didn’t grow up in a stable home environment and feels his purpose is to make sure that he never suffers financially or relies on other people for financial stability. Frank works hard so that Cleo can have a place to live and focus on her artwork, but her criticisms make him feel unappreciated. Thus, what Frank has placed his life’s purpose into—taking care of others—feels unsatisfying.
Frank eventually learns to find new purpose. He starts attending AA meetings and quits drinking. When sober, Frank can see what he wants more clearly. His purpose transitions into developing stable, loving relationships, such as the one he builds with Eleanor.
Cleo’s purpose is to find a love that can replace that of her mother. Cleo is extremely lonely, even within her marriage. She searches for love because without maternal love, she has a difficult time loving herself. She is drawn to people who may not always be right for her.
In the aftermath of her attempted suicide, Cleo realizes that what she really needs is to figure out how to love her life and find commonality with her mother in a way that is not tied to depression. Cleo’s pursuit of happiness transitions away from Frank and back into art. Through art, Cleo can be any version of herself she wants to be, and she can pay homage to beauty.
Zoe has a similar attachment to art as purpose. Zoe wants to be an actress because within acting, she can simultaneously be herself and anonymous inside a role. Zoe’s pursuit of purpose is tied to her status as outsider and insider. She’s part of a wealthy group, yet struggles to keep up with them financially, which puts her in vulnerable situations. She also struggles with epilepsy, something she can’t control. Her beauty makes her uncomfortable, and she is ashamed that it doesn’t foster intimacy with men. Zoe’s depth of shame must be resolved before she can find her purpose. Coco Mellors uses Zoe’s character to highlight that sometimes, especially in youth, managing shame is a way of finding purpose.
Santiago and Anders are also in pursuit of purpose. Anders lives for pleasure; this keeps him away from his life’s real purpose, and he starts to suspect that a life of debauchery is not fulfilling. Even within his relationship with his ex-girlfriend’s son, he finds a way to maintain distance. Anders says he wants love, stability, and purpose, but he’s lost himself to power, success, and partying. He has the opportunity to fight for his love for Cleo, but ultimately moves to Los Angeles and stays there to avoid her. Anders can’t fulfill his true desires that might give him purpose, emphasizing his need for further growth.
Santiago, on the other hand, is all about purpose. He uses his past traumas as inspiration to create meaning. Santiago distances himself from his love of food for his own health, and finds a new purpose by providing food for others. He is compassionate to everyone and a reliable friend. Santiago doesn’t think about immediate pleasure; rather, he thinks of dynamics and pleasures as long-term. Santiago’s purpose is in giving love, which he achieves through an engagement to a new woman, a feat that honors his late wife and gives him a companion.
Money Does Not Bring Happiness
Characters in the novel are swept away by their wealth. In the novel, wealth becomes a way of creating a façade that protects people from the world’s realities.
Zoe is a young woman accustomed to being taken care of. She doesn’t need to worry about student loans because her brother pays for her expensive acting school. When Frank cuts her off, Zoe attempts a retail job but steals clothes and gets fired, highlighting her obliviousness. She turns to sex work, even though she has a lot of insecurities about sex. Zoe’s first escort job provides her with an older man who will give her money without expecting physicality. Thus, Zoe doesn’t learn the gritty side of sex work. She is again safely ensconced by the privileges of wealth and beauty.
Jiro is a kind man, and teaches Zoe valuable lessons about the reality of the world. Their argument about race highlights Zoe’s ignorance and reveals how little she knows about the world outside of her privileged pocket of New York City.
Cleo quickly becomes accustomed to wealth within her marriage to Frank, quitting her textiles job to devote time to her artwork. Cleo, like Zoe, doesn’t learn how to work for money to support herself, and lacks the skills to make it in the world on her own. Both Cleo and Zoe rely on older men to give them money in exchange for their presence. This places a screen between them and the real world. Even when Cleo and Frank break up, Frank will help Cleo pursue the next chapter of her life.
Frank is also oblivious within his wealth. He is attached to his role as financial provider, which exacerbates stereotypical gender roles. Money makes him feel like he can treat a woman well, which gives him a way out of being vulnerable. Frank’s wealth is tied to his identity as a man, and keeps him from discovering his true potential. In Frank’s view, as long as he is providing wealth, he's doing his job.
Eleanor is at odds with the world of the novel: She is Jewish, not beautiful or wealthy, and builds her identity from elements that are not tied to luxury and capitalism. The novel highlights her inner beauty, intelligence, sense of humor, and capacity for love. As one who isn’t wealthy, Eleanor is not oblivious. She understands what hard work looks like, both in her career and in her relationships with herself and others.
Through Santiago, the novel challenges wealthy, oblivious characters. Though he has money, Santiago doesn’t use it to define himself. Instead, he identifies himself through the love he gives to others. Santiago believes in himself, and understands that his success doesn’t make him worthy of respect that other, less wealthy people don’t deserve.
Mellors’s novel emphasizes that glamor does not equal happiness. In fact, wealth can do the opposite and drive people to behave poorly to themselves and others.
Love for Self and Others
The novel features or alludes to different types of marriage. It portrays a rapid-fire marriage between Cleo and Frank who, despite their lust and love, are ill-suited to be life partners. The marriage is one of convenience. Cleo needs a Green Card to stay in the country, and Frank likes seeing himself as the hero in a beautiful young woman’s story. Their love is genuine, but their decision to marry comes too quickly. They haven’t yet learned the worst parts of one another, and they’ve never endured challenges together.
Their marriage becomes a symbolic façade. Both Cleo and Frank like the way they are perceived as a husband and wife. For Frank, Cleo is a possession; her beauty and attractiveness to men makes Frank feel that he is worthy of respect and love. For Cleo, having Frank as a husband makes her feel worthy of unconditional love; if a man like Frank can love her, then it must mean that Cleo is better than her family has made her feel about herself. Marriage becomes a projection of who Cleo and Frank want to be, and of their hopes that they can be loved. Their marriage is easily defeated by their unresolved internal conflicts.
However, the year they share teaches them meaningful lessons. They learn that marriage can’t make them new people, or fix their internal problems.
Santiago is a widower who lost his beloved wife. His marriage provides a contrast to Frank and Cleo’s. Despite problems, the love between Santiago and his wife was strong. Santiago exemplifies what Cleo wants for herself: Devotion. No matter what conflicts arose in his marriage, Santiago was willing and able to confront them out of respect for his relationship. Unlike Frank and Cleo, Santiago and his wife were in an equal partnership. Sometimes, he was the leader, and other times, she was. While Cleo and Frank see conflict as evidence that their love is not strong, Santiago knows that conflict is a part of love.
Cleo’s father moved on to a marriage that Cleo was not invited to celebrate. For Cleo’s father, remarriage meant the opportunity to step away from his daughter. His abandonment of Cleo makes Cleo hesitant in her own relationships. She has no role models for what a good marriage can be. Frank’s mother also remarried. Though he was more included in her life, she also left in her own way.
The novel shows how one can have divorced parents but still maintain a healthy sense of self and love. For example, Eleanor comes from a divorced family, but the divorce did not change her sense of self or her ability to contextualize relationships. Because Eleanor was always loved and included by both of her parents, their broken marriage didn’t make her feel rejected. Eleanor makes peace with her family situation and maintains her faith in love and marriage.
One of the novel’s most important messages is that love for others requires love of self. Cleo, Frank, Anders, Quentin, and Zoe all struggle with loving themselves. They each carry deep stores of shame, and believe themselves to be unlovable. Thus, when the opportunity for love arises, they don’t know how to nurture passion into a long-lasting relationship.
There is a direct tie between how characters in the novel treat one another and how they treat themselves. Cleo doesn’t believe she is worthy of love, and pushes Frank away. Frank doesn’t believe he is worthy of love, and he uses alcohol to build a wall between himself and Cleo. Zoe doesn’t believe she is worthy of love, and shuts herself away from real connection. Anders doesn’t believe he is worthy of love, and convinces himself not to present himself to Cleo as a reliable partner. Quentin doesn’t believe he is worthy of love, and dives into drug addiction.
The novel ends on a hopeful note, as Cleo and Frank both get a new chance at love. Cleo’s journey to Italy and the opportunity to focus on her art gives her the space and time to find herself and reconstruct self-love. Frank’s new relationship with Eleanor gives him a chance to be a better version of himself and to trust in the process of love developed first and foremost through friendship.
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