After watching various films throughout the course, I have witnessed the role of women come change relatively a small amount. The primary role that women played was that as a mother or as a girlfriend to someone in the mafia and she typically has no power and no say. This traditional role is displayed in movies such as The Godfather and I cento passi in which the mother at some point wishes to provide their input but is quickly silenced the leading patriarch. As shown by the scene in The Godfather when Carmela Corleone tries to speak of Sonny’s business I believe and is quickly told to stay quite by Vito. Furthermore, although Carmela is aware of her husband’s business at no point is she seen anywhere near the meetings, or any woman for that matter. It is safe to say that her only duties are to perform her duties as a mother and wife and as a figure that honors her husband and family. Felicia Impastato has a similar role since throughout the film she is in a sense prohibited to speak out against her husband’s involvement in the mafia and to defend her son’s actions. This all begins to change during the times in which her warden (husband) is no longer present at times.
Later on, we are introduced to another role which is the involved mother, as displayed in the movies Angela and Galantuomini. These two films differ themselves because the amount of involvement in the mafia and their families differ. The role of the woman in Angela at first seems to be very important in the operations of the business. However, we later find out that Angela does not have the power she thinks she has as displayed by the scene when she is shut out from the bosses meeting. Instead, the character is in a sense lesser a woman than those of movies like The Godfather because she has neither influence nor power in the mafia, she is clearly not a suitable mother, and finally, she is dishonorable for cheating on her husband. On the other hand, Lucia from Galantuomini is the first woman to finally be able to achieve a powerful position in the mafia while being a mother that, to a certain extent, cares and protects her child. With the scene where she is nearly raped in front of her son, we are return back to the underlying theme that seems to chase most if not all women in any mafia film and that is that there will always be a man above that will eventually remind the woman of her place in the traditional patriarchy, that is Italian society especially within organized crime.
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