Analysis of Michael Corleone’s tragedy in The Godfather
Abstract
For many people, power, wealth equals success. But to Michael Corleone, the head of the mafia family, power and wealth only makes his tragedy more prominent. Michael Corleone is one of the protagonist in Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather. Compared with another main character, known as his father Vito Corleone, we can feel the tragedy of Michael Corleone from some related studies. From the angle of tragedy analysis, we can truly feel the tragedy of Michael Corleone. What is tragedy? What are the tragedies for Michael Corleone? What are the reasons for Michael’s tragedy? To get a better understanding of the tragedy of Michael Corleone, this paper aims to research with the guidance of tragedy theory, thus giving readers a fresh sight of the novel and this character.
Key words: The Godfather, Michael Corleone, tragedy, reason
Contents
Acknowledgements    I
摘要    II
Abstract    III
1  Introduction    1
2  Literature Review    3
3  Introduction to The Godfather and tragedy theory.    5
3.1 Introduction to The Godfather and Michael Corleone.    5
3.2 Introduction to the tragedy theory    5
3.2.1 The definition of tragedy    5
3.2.2 The source of tragedy    6
3.2.3 The components of tragedy    6
4  Michael Corleone’s tragedy    8
4.1 An innocent college boy to a real "Corleone”    8
4.2 A “killer” killing his beautiful American wife.    9
4.3 A brother making his sister a widow    10
5  The reasons for Michael Corleone’s tragedy    11
5.1 The social reasons for Michael’s tragedy    11
5.1.1 The unstable social environment    11
5.1.2 The weak brothers    12
5.2 Individual reasons    12
5.2.1 The power of love    12
5.2.2 A man of responsibility and mission    13
6  Conclusion    14
References    16