The Godafther: Is Kay Worse Than Michael?

[acoustix]

I was watching the Godfather 2 the other day, and something occured to me about Kay during the scene where tells Michael about the abortion. Her actions were far worse than any of Michael's in my opinion. I don't want this to turn into an abortion debate per say, but more focus on Kay's motivations for having the abortion and why they were so wrong.

Kay spends the better part of the trilogy being holier than thou, except for this one part where she sinks to, if not below, Michael's level. She knew what would set Michael off so much as to kick her out of his life, and that would be an abortion of his child. Then to pour salt on the wound, she let's him know it was a boy, which is a fairly big deal to an Italian man.

Her excuse for the whole thing is that "this must all end", but that doesn't make much sense as he already has a son who could potentially take over the family business. I think she would be rationalizing it that way to cover up that she essentially commited a more heinous act than Michael ever has. She took a life, and I'm defining it as a life at that point because gender was distinguishable, for no other reason than she was unhappy with her situation and wanted it to change. Michael , at least has always only killed for his business purposes (nothing personal). I realize that it's a terrible rationalization on my part, but in the Godfather universe, I believe that what she did was far more evil, made even worse by the fact that she is back on her high horse in part 3.

What do the Loungers think about this? Am I reading too much into it, or was Kay really ok to do it as it was her only out?

[LonesomeFugitive]

woman killing innocent babies that can't defend themselves>>son of mafia don shooting the 2 men that were behind the shooting of his father

of course she is worse if you analyze the circumstances!

[Hey_Porter]

I don't know about this specifically, but it raises interesting points regarding protagonists who did/do "bad" things, e.g., Michael Corleone or Tony Soprano. Because of the way they are portrayed on the screen, we relate to them, think they're kick ass, whatever, and tend to ignore the fact that they are in reality "bad" people who do bad things. The above response (although there might be some leveling there) is a good example. In reality, say with a friend of ours, would you really advocate and support vigilante justice, and find it more appropriate than a licensed, legal procedure?

[acoustix]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know about this specifically, but it raises interesting points regarding protagonists who did/do "bad" things, e.g., Michael Corleone or Tony Soprano. Because of the way they are portrayed on the screen, we relate to them, think they're kick ass, whatever, and tend to ignore the fact that they are in reality "bad" people who do bad things. The above response (although there might be some leveling there) is a good example. In reality, say with a friend of ours, would you really advocate and support vigilante justice, and find it more appropriate than a licensed, legal procedure?

[/ QUOTE ]

You raise a good point, here, but my observation is based on Kay's unlikelyhood to do such a thing, legal or not. She is an old fashioned family woman until she carries out this act for no other reason than to throw Michael into a rage and get out of that family. If she was portrayed as someone who wouldn't want a pregnancy it would be a different story, but clearly her only motivation was to spite Michael. That to me, is just evil.

[Thug Bubbles]

Her rationale was that she didn't want to bring a child into Michael's world. If that child was born, there's nothing she could do to keep Mike away from it, and as such it would be brought up in the life that Kay thought as the epitome of evil.

On a different note: WTF happened to Pacino's face?

[Taso]

What do you mean what happened to his face?


As for Kay - yeah, totally heinous act. She was a good "family women" but I think she was pushed over the edge. She was expecting to be part of a legitimate business, as promised by Michael, and when nothing changed, she went over the edge. You also have to remember that all women are inherently crazy. :P

Godfather is my favorite movie by the way - not so much the second one because part of it doesn't make sense.

[gusmahler]

Things Michael did (that we know about):

* Kill a police captain and The Turk.

* Kill at least 5 mob bosses.

* Run all organized crime in NY (including prostitution, gambling, extortion, bribery, etc.)

* Kill his brother-in-law (and the father of his Godson).

* Kill his own brother.

* Kill an anonymous hooker in order to frame a U.S. Senator.

Having an abortion is worse that that resume?

[Blarg]

I think your question presupposes tremendously an answer that shares your politics/religion, because any other pretty much goes off the wall.

On another note re the "just business" idea, The Don always told Michael, "Everything is personal." This was one of the bigger themes of the film, too. I find it hard to believe you overlooked that, which is another reason I think you're folding your own personal religion and politics into the question far too much to expect to get that good an answer. You'll probably get preaching to the choir answers, because it's a preaching to the choir question.

[Golden_Rhino]

I always thought that the biggest problem with the Godfather movies was that Kay was not a very likable character.

[andyfox]

Maybe the point was to show that even Kay, the paragon of virtue, despite her disgust at what her husband had become, was infected by the Corleones to the point where she too took a life. A kind of vengeance killing that her husband had perfected.

Here is what Alessandro Camon says:

"Michael starts off being open and communicative with Kay, concerned with shielding her from the ugly side of his family's activities but not cynical or duplicitous. As he comes to assume a position of leadership, his attitude changes to an extreme degree. He becomes hard, impenetrable, capable of lying without flinching about his own brother's murder. Kay is progressively imprisoned within the boundaries of the family's residences, and within the lie that she is forced to 'believe.' The problem is, she hasn't grown up in the acceptance of the Mafia value system; in fact, she isn't even Sicilian. She represents a corrupting agent within the organism of the family, and Michael has no choice but to build a wall of lies around her. Her way of breaking out of this existential quagmire is to abort the Godfather's child (a son). This gesture epitomizes Michael's failure to keep violence and disharmony out of his personal life."