Michael Corleone...

Michael Corleone is easily the most complex character in The Godfather Trilogy. There are many different theories about him and what he does and how he responds to his environment. Here is my humble, but unique, opinion of the great Michael Corleone.

To make it easy to understand, I think that it would be best to put his life in chronological order to show his character development.

-Michael Corleone is born into a Mafia family. As a child, the unique personalities of all Corleones (and Hagen ) are shown. Sonny is a hot tempered but lovable guy. Fredo is a dumb witted, simplistic guy, but is also easy to love. Tom Hagen is a smart, mature boy, whom is willing to be by his friend, Sonny's side all the way. And then, there is Michael. Little old Michael. He is young and impresionable, and is seeking the truth behind his father's business.

-Sonny sees his father kill Fanucci, and so he soon joins the family, along with his buddy, Tom. Fredo and Mike though, while both loved dearly by both of their parents, are considered outcasts in the Corleone CRIME family.

-By the time Michael graduates high school, he has established too very important things. 1, Michael knows what his father does. He knows that Vito makes money off of killing people. He knows that Sonny and Tom are also working with him. Fredo is too dumb to care, but Michael admires his father and is willing to do anything to gain, what seems to be, as much acceptance as Sonny. Now, in reality, Sonny was loved no more then Michael, but form Michael's point of view, it may seem like this. 2, Michael realizes that what his father does is wrong, and so he is forced to juggle his choices. He can either join the law firm that Vito has set up for him and gain more acceptance as a legit guy, uncapable dirtying his hands like Sonny. Or, he could join the army. He would, at least in Michael's eyes, lose some acceptance from his father, but, he would prove that he has the strength to kill, to be like his brother, Sonny.

-Michael joins the army. In war, michael was forced to kill men for the sake of someone he doesn't even know. When he is back from war, he feels the guilt of killing an innocent man whose only fault was being born in another country. He decides to return to New York and join his family once again.

-He has Kay know, whom he met in college, and he feels that he is finally happy. At Connie's wedding, Michael has the love of his family, and the love of Kay. All is good. Though, deep down inside, he sees Vito, Sonny, and Tom, not even a biological son, enter the Corleone office and speak with men about private business. Michael still feels that he is an outcast. And from this, grows rage. rage that he hadn't felt since he killed in the war. He is guilty of this rage and so he promises to himself, and to Kay,that he will never work for his father. He, because of this, as too many emotions going at once. He feels that he is an outcast, though to be accepted, he must do something that would only bring him more guilt.

-Then, his father is shot. Now, that guilt is gone. The rage of his father's almost death combines with his fear of being outcast. He now knows what he must do. He must kill. He tries to sneak in on Sonny whenever possible to show that he can be apart of the Family (i.e., a deleted scene shows Michael ocnversing with Sonny who Vito's traitor is, Michael sits in when Sonny receives the fish, wrapped in Luca's vest, and of course, Michael is there to suggest his cure to the McClusky Solozzo problem).

-While he is at the hospital, after he hides Vito, it is very obvious that he is calm, compared to Enzo and even Sonny. It is now, that Michael feels all the more confident in his crudentials for being what he always admired, a mafioso.

-While he is talking with Sonny about killing Solozzo, he could merely tell them to come out to the newspapers about McClusky and Solozzo. he is smart enough for that. But, he wants to kill. He wants to rpove to his father and his brother, and everyone, that he is not to be underestimated. He wants to prove himself to everyone that he can be a true Corleone. He sees this as Santino or his father Vito. He wants to live up to the respectable role of a Corleone and he feels that th only way to do that is to follow the rage inside of him.

-After he kills Sollozzo and McClusky, on his excile in Sicily, Michael marries Apolonia. Apolonia is what Michael believes is exactly what he needs. He loves Kay, but to e a true Corleone, he feels he must marrie a Sicilian, like Sonny did, Sandra, and Vito, Carmella. In Sicily, his Mafioso values are only heightened and he is only more confident in teh fact that he can now be what his father thought he never could be. All the while, Vito is fumed that Sonny let Michael do such a thing.

-While he is back in Sicily, and while he is talking with his father in the garden, Vito says to him that he wanted Michael to become a pezzanovante and such. Michael, seems to be only more angry inside. Michael wants nothing more then to please his father. He learns here that Sonny was not what Vito wanted. Vito wanted his kids to be much more repectable. Michael has goten himself in a perdicament now. Vito thinks that his son has stumbled into this life but Michael has really been pushing pretty hard to get somewhere he father never wanted him to get.

-He marries Kay. He loves Kay, and so does the entire family. Its not Sicilian like, but it is what his father would do.

-Michael, in pleasing his father, kills the heads of the five Families and move to Las Vegas to become legitimate. He kills Carlo because he killed Sonny, simple as that. Carlo had planned Michael's role model's death. Michael had people killed before, Carlo, in his eyes, deserved it.

-The plan was, for Michael, to become completely legitimate in Las Vegas. But then men like Senator Geary try to "squeeze him" and men like Roth try to kill him. Michael looks back to what his father would have done, and what he learned in Sicily. But all of it leads to death. He has no other chouce but to whipe out all of his enemies. Or else, where does that lead him? It leaves him weak, and vulnerable to be stepped all over, him and his family.

-He is even forced to kill Fredo. Now, this is not something that his father would do. But it seems that the longer Michael lives after his fathers death and the more he is immersed in the Mafia, contrasting to what he thought was the Mafia while he looked in from the outside, the more Michael seems to become more like the men that surround him. Men like Al Neri, Rocco Lampone, these men, at least in Michael's opinion, would kill their own brother in this situation. he is a very impresionable person and it seems that all he wants is to gain acceptance. Still, his father's last requests included leading the family into legitimacy. When he sees Kays hate in her eyes, along with how Kay killed their baby, he divources her. He is a sad man. Looking back on his life, he realizes that everything he has done has been a watse. He still doesn't understand what has gone wrong.

-Now within the next couple of decades, who knows what goes on, but Michael is now old and guilty beyond belief. He has been trying to become legitimate for a while and when he sees the Imobiliare deal, he jumps at the hance. This may finally his time. He may fially make his father's ishes come true. However, agisn people like Zasa and Lucchese force him to turn to sin.

-His most uplifting time is when he gives confession. He knows he is going to Hell, but he is doing eveything he can to save his family first.

-He tries to make up with Kay and make piece with his children. He wants life to be good. He is very depressed and is sick of living in such sin. Eventually he is forced to just give the family to Vincent. He has given up, and if this is how he is to save his family, then it is what he must do. It is not what his father would have done, but he realizes that he isn't his father.

-However, when all seems good, everything is taken away with Mary's death. he spends the rest of his life miserably, possible trying to fix things, but ultimately failing in the end.

***

Sorry, that its so long, but I hope it gives some new insite into Michael Corleone. Its not fullproof, but no theory really is, at leaset not in my opinion.