Vito Corleone

Vito Corleone
The Shoulder

The Corleone Boys (or Men?)

The Corleone Boys (or Men?)
Michael Corleone, Don Corleone, Santino Corleone, Fredo Corleone

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Geneva Week 2: Archetypes

What are women in the story of the Godfather? They are seen as side notes, "what's the matter with you Carlo?"(Coppolis, Connie Corleone). "shut up" (Coppola, Carlo). The women make the food, the women still take care of all the household chores. "shut up Connie... Dont you ever tell her to shut up". Women just dont interfere.

Michael is courteous towards women, his meeting of them is very traditional and noble, women are in front and Men are behind.

Santino is cheating on his wife and completely treats women like a resource.

Are women a highlight of Michael and Sonny. Is Michael really that removed from Mafia life?

The final scene is representation of women's roles, where Kay sees the final look at Michael and Clamenza says to him "Don Corleone..." (Coppola), looking from the outside towards the inner workings of the men-run society. By man-run society, i mean the way that men are represented as the bread winner of the family, where as the women are the caretaker. This is extremely evident in The Godfather when Carlo begins to beat his pregnant wife Connie. The purpose of her beating was because she talked to Carlo's mistress. Women are just expected to obey to their man's ever wish and equality and self confidence played a big part in women's lives as they became more independent in history. Perhaps dominance by the man is a system that women have come to rely on (like Connie Corleone); however, we are entitled to the same rights as men. From this, we can assume women are used in The Godfather to juxtapose the purpose of men and in light of women's power over men . Are women (more specifically wives) the spectators or the purpose for corruption in The Godfather? "What is the interests for my family?" (Coppola)

"The Hero is the man of self achieved submission." Key word: The MAN.


Geneva

1 comment:

  1. ooh- a little righteous indignation here! Good stuff. I wonder what the world would be like if it were still a matriarchy. Perhaps it will be again (if Hadwin gets his wish).

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