Women...What Is Their Role?

Women all together is a mystery that will never be solved by man, but a mystery that can maybe be sorted out is the role of women in The Godfather.  


At the start of the film, women have been of lesser importance.   The men have dominated the movie.  They have had all the fights, the killing scenes, the drama, and really, the women have just been there.  Either Coppola is making the viewer feel sympathy for the women, because the men in The Godfather always speak to women as un-equals, or Coppola is expressing how he thinks women are treated in the real world.  


However, two women have been shown in scarlet, orange or red clothing multiple times, and that lead to the conclusion that Coppola was portraying them as Babalon, also known as The Scarlet Woman.  The Scarlet Woman is defined as a Goddess who represents the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman.  It also just so happens that both women who have been shown as Babalon have been close to Michael Corleone, Kay Adams and Apollonia.  


Apollonia fits into the hero's journey nicely.  Michael had already ran away to killed The Turk and The Captain, which was crossing the threshold into the life of a Mafia man.  He had already ran away to Sicily, which was him going into the belly of the whale, and then, he met Apollonia.  Apolonnia is without a doubt the  meeting with a goddess, and then a woman as temptress in Joseph Campbell's hero's journey.  It is fitting that her name is Apolonnia, which close to the name of a god Apollo.  


So really, it is still unclear what the role of the women in The Godfather will be.  Will they still be treated as 2nd class citizens, or maybe they will be equal the men in the end?  It is unpredictable, kind of like women themselves.