Masculinity and Patriarchy Theme Analysis

The Godfather is a novel in which men dominate. The novel is primarily about men—most of the characters are male. And those men engage constantly in a fight for dominance over the other men around them. In addition, it is accepted as a matter of course among these men that they should dominate the women in their lives. Many of the men in the novel view women not as equal human beings, but as objects to be lusted after, controlled, and abused as a means of asserting male dominance both in the family and in broader society. Like the Mafia lifestyle itself, the violent brand of masculinity that many of the novel’s characters subscribe to prioritizes machismo, social dominance, and physical violence not just as tools for gaining and maintaining power but as ways to assert one’s identity.

Don Corleone serves as a symbol of patriarchy itself. He is the patriarch of his personal family and of his crime Family, where he is “Godfather” to the people who seek out his aid. Don Corleone’s formal title as “Godfather” attests to his status as a patriarchal symbol. In many Christian traditions, especially Catholicism (to which the Corleones subscribe), the godfather is a person that bears witness to a child’s christening, follows the child’s upbringing, and agrees to take legal guardianship of the child should something happen to the child’s parents. Puzo’s invention of the term “Godfather” for a Mafia Don invokes the spiritual role of godfather to express how Don Corleone wields patriarchal authority over his family and over the people who make up his extended crime Family. Just as a godfather bears witness to a child’s baptism and subsequent development, the Godfather bears witness to and guides his two families over time. Corleone’s authority is such that others compare him to God. Jack Woltz believes the Don considered himself “his own God.” Michael Corleone claims his father “takes everything personal. Like God.” Fontane claims that being angry with the Don is “like getting sore with God.” Abbandando, the old Consigliere, even asks the Don to save him from death. These divine comparisons link Corleone to the most powerful of all patriarchal figures.

The physical domination of women is also a key element to many of the male characters' conceptions of masculinity. Puzo depicts the Godfather’s eldest son, Sonny Corleone, as the embodiment of viral, aggressive masculinity. Sonny is so “generously endowed” that Puzo compares his phallus to that of a bull. Women are both intimidated by and attracted to his “massive organ.” Sonny uses his phallic endowment to lay conquest to various women throughout the novel despite being a married man. Similarly, Johnny Fontane views women not as human beings but as prizes to be won. He metaphorically wears “a thousand pubic scalps dangling from his belt” and makes a career out of bedding as many “dames” as he can to demonstrate his virility. His image as a successful singer and movie star rests on the intensity with which he dominates women sexually. Carlo Rizzi enjoys beating his wife, Connie Corleone. After a beating, “it pleased him to see the hurt look on her face, the tears springing into her eyes.” Beating Connie makes Carlo feel powerful, and he takes pride in being able to dominate over a member of the powerful Corleone Family. Despite coming from a powerful family, Connie lacks personal power because she is a woman, making her a springboard for Carlo’s desire to exert his power. Perhaps most notable, though, is the transformation of Michael Corleone. When he is initially with Kay, and his primary goal is to not join the Corleone crime family, his attraction to her rests on his sense that she is an equal. But after killing Sollozzo and McCluskey and then having to hide in Sicily, Michael Corleone encounters a peasant girl named Apollonia and is overcome with “an overwhelming desire for possession” and vows to “own her as wildly as a miser wants to own his gold coins.” Michael treats Apollonia not as a wife and partner, but as a piece of property that, by being owned, gives him power. Put another way: as he becomes enmeshed in mob life, Michael’s relation to women changes. After Apollonia is killed and Michael returns to New York and Kay, his relationship with Kay is different too. He tells her explicitly that “You’ll be my wife but you won’t be my partner in life, as I think they say. Not an equal partner.” As a mob boss, Michael’s only relationship to women can be one of dominance.

By explicitly emphasizing Kay’s inequality, Michael voices the novel’s underlying point that men derive much of their identity from dominating women. And the Corleone men’s domination of women acts as a template for their approach to dominating others as well. “They were men who guarded their free will with wiles and murder,” Puzo writes of the mobsters. To guard their own free will, Mafia men deprive others of their free will, a process they begin with the women in their lives.