Power

Throughout The Cloisters, the author thematically examines power. At the outset of the novel, in the Prologue, Ann tells the reader that that she should have known “the way [their] jealousy, greed, and ambition were waiting to devour [them] all like a snake eating its own tail. The ouroboros” (1). When Ann begins working at the museum, she is set on establishing herself within the world of scholarly Renaissance study, unaware that her colleagues are also chasing power through academia. The author includes this moment at the beginning of the narrative in order to establish the underlying power struggle that motivates her characters to commit crime, lie, and deceive one another. If Ann, Patrick, Rachel, and Leo were satisfied with a life in which they are not in control, they would not have participated in the clandestine activities that unfold throughout the novel. Their hunger for power...