Francis Ford Coppola decided to show follow the hero's jouney with two scarlet women that appeared in the film. The first scarlet woman was when Micheal Corleone was with Kay Adams, and he left her later on in the film. Kay was shown wearing scarlet when Micheal was about to leave her to kill McClusky and Sollozzo. Micheal then went into hiding which follows the hero's journey again because he is going into the, "innermost cave". In his "innermost cave", he saw another scarlet woman that he met in the town called Corleone. This scarlet woman is actually "the temptress" in the hero's journey, and may bring about the downfall of Micheal Corleone. Her name was Apollonia which is also a name of a goddess, and she ended up marrying Micheal. Apollonia then died later on in the film, and Micheal was suprised that one of his bodyguards were working for another person.
I feel that Micheal is going to go into stage 5 in the hero's journey, which is to return to America and get revenge on the people that killed his brother. Micheal has somehow been reborn because he was affected when his new wife died. He is troubled, so I think that he is going to sort it out sooner or later. Well how is he troubled? He is troubled because he feels that he is losing his family and the mafia gangs are supposed to be close to family. His brother Sunny died, and his father is still recovering from his wounds, so Micheal knows that he has to do something instead of hiding in Corleone. Micheal is going to be the next godfather in line, so that is why he is troubled and why he is going to return to New York to help out.
I like your blog post. On the other hand, I think that although Apollonia is a temptress, she did not bring the downfall of Michael nor did she cause him to be occupied with selfish pleasures. She is more like the goddess. I agree with your point that since Sonny died and Vito is not fit to work, Michael will likely return to New York to take care of the business and to, ultimately, take over it.
ReplyDeleteI agree but also disagree with your post. I think that Apollonia has played "the goddess"but not "the temptress". She has guided and helped Michael in his journey (his hero's journey). I think Apollonia in a way gave Michael strength, stronger will and greater confidence. During the days Michael spent with Apollonia after their wedding, he seemed happier and his mind drawn away from what was happening with his family back at home. Apollonia distracted his mind from wandering to much into the past and what he has done, to help his family. When Apollonia dies, Michael is sad and wants to take revenge. She gives him more reason to kill the Tatalia family since they have killed his brother, Sonny and Luca Brasi. Also, she has died for him, it should have been Michael but it was not. If it was Michael then the movie would be over because Michael is probably going to be the next don. If Michael died, who would save the Corleone family?
ReplyDeleteApollonia has helped Michael in his hero's journey. Even though she is a scarlet woman, she was only wearing the colour scarlet once. How do we know that Coppola is interested in the scarlet woman when he characterized Apollonia? We know that he was interested in the scarlet woman when he characterized Kay Adams because she was wearing the colour scarlet most of the time. As Mr. McGuigan said, two is a coincidence and three is a pattern. We can assume that Coppola is interested in the Scarlet Woman because he depicts this through Kay and once in Apollonia but how do we know for sure he is interested in the scarlet woman for Appolonia? Is it such a coincidence that both the two woman that Michael had as his girlfriend or wife are wearing the colour scarlet though?
While I agree with most of your post, I do disagree with some of your points. I do not believe that Apollonia was the temptress because ultimately, she did not bring Michael's downfall. Michael really did seem to care about her and she seemed to care about him. Could she have been the supernatural helper because she guided him and helped him through Sicily and Corleone. I believe that her death was more about the plot of the movie. I agree with your last point about Michael returning to run the family. However, to make that more realistic, Coppola had to kill of Apollonia in order for him to go back to his old life. Coppola is interested in the idea of the scarlet woman; however, I do not think that it was strongest expressed through Apollonia.
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