Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Godfather, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Crime and Justice
Power
Masculinity and Patriarchy
Family
Loyalty and Betrayal
Summary
Analysis
Johnny Fontane is in his beachside Los Angeles mansion entertaining a young, would-be actress named Sharon Moore. True to his reputation as a womanizer with “a thousand pubic scalps dangling from his belt,” Fontane makes his move on the girl. Thanks to his damaged voice, he refuses to sing for her and instead delicately puts his hand between her thighs. Sharon, however, rebuffs his advances, and the two instead spend an awkward evening talking before she leaves earlier than planned. Soon after, Johnny’s first wife, Ginny, calls him on the phone.
Because Johnny Fontane has constructed his identity around sexually dominating women, he begins to question his identity whenever a woman rejects him. Just as Margot Ashton’s cheating drove Johnny to Don Corleone, Sharon Moore’s refusal to sleep with him drives him into the arms of his ex-wife, Virginia (Ginny).
Themes
After talking to Virginia, Johnny decides to visit her at her home. The two are back on platonic terms but will never again have a romantic relationship. Johnny wallows in self-pity over his botched date and tells Virginia she looks good. Virginia recognizes this as cheap flattery from a man who could have any of the “young beautiful girls” who flooded Hollywood “like lemmings.” Johnny tells her he wants to spend more time with her and their two daughters.
Virginia resents Johnny’s tawdry self-pity because, as a woman, she knows that her rejection weighs heavily on his ego. However well-intentioned, Johnny’s plan to spend more time with Virginia and his daughters also seems like an attempt to reassert dominance over a different group of women after losing his dominance over Margot Ashton and Sharon Moore.
Themes
Suddenly, Tom Hagen calls and tells Johnny he is coming on the morning plane to discuss a new plan Don Corleone has for the film business. Johnny agrees and Virginia allows him to stay the night so he can meet Hagen early the next day. In the morning, Virginia and his two daughters greet Fontane with breakfast in bed. His womanizing notwithstanding, Johnny is devoted to his daughters. The girls and Virginia walk him to the door as he departs to meet Hagan.
Johnny may be devoted to his daughters, but his devotion to Don Corleone’s crime Family takes precedence over his blood family. So wide reaching is the Godfather’s influence that he is able to control even the lives of people like Virginia and the girls who are indirectly within his orbit of control.
Themes
Hagen and Johnny settle into the latter’s house. Hagen tells Johnny that Jack Woltz is paying off powerful people to prevent Johnny from winning an Academy Award for his role in Woltz’s recent picture. He offers Don Corleone’s aid in the matter if Johnny is willing to start acting like “a guy with muscle.” Hagen tells Johnny that the Don will convince his California bank to loan Johnny 20 million dollars to start producing and starring in his own films (with the Don receiving part of the profits, of course). The proposal stuns Fontane, but he agrees to it.
Don Corleone’s use of Fontane as a springboard into yet another profit-making enterprise further demonstrates the calculated nature of even his close personal relationships. Although Johnny is the Don’s godson, here the Don reveals the true reason he aided Johnny in the Woltz affair: Johnny has become his new business connection in the movie industry.
Themes
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Johnny drops Hagen off at the airport and returns to Virginia’s house. At 35, he is a “washed up” star who welcomes Don Corleone’s ability to secure him the Academy Award that will easily boost his flagging career. He relishes the many years he spent deflowering Hollywood virgins and resents the sexual frustration he experienced with his second wife, Margot. He enjoys spending time with Virginia and decides to stay with her for a few weeks as he ponders a new book he wants to make into a movie.
Johnny’s selfishness stands out even in a novel where most of the characters are exceedingly selfish. His sexual frustration and soured relationship with women are problems of his own making, yet he relies on women to nurture and support his attempted recovery.
Themes
As evening sets in, Johnny thinks about his good fortune with Virginia and resents the day he decided to leave her and his daughters for the “whore tramp of a bitch who was his second wife,” Margot Ashton. To put the past behind him, he resigns “never to hate a woman” again for the sake of his relationship with his first wife and his daughters.
That Johnny Fontane casts himself as a martyr when he vows to stop hating women attests to the deeply patriarchal culture in which he lives. Only within a culture that relegates women to objects with which men can do as they please could a serial womanizer and philanderer blame women for his womanizing and philandering.
Themes
Johnny thinks about the course his life has taken. After he made it big in radio and stage shows, he graduated to Hollywood films, where he “screwed the women he wanted to” but never let his infidelity “interfere” with his personal life. He fell for Margot Ashton just as his film career was tanking and his singing voice was disappearing. In an effort to marry her, he gave Virginia more than a fair settlement and ensured that his daughters would be set for life.
Even Fontane’s generous divorce agreement with Virginia stems from his own self-interest, not generosity. Much like how Don Corleone rejected the drug trade because it would threaten his other businesses and contacts, Johnny gave Virginia a better divorce deal as a means of securing his new marriage to Margot Ashton.
Themes
Rather than let Margot destroy him, however, Johnny decides that he will “continue to love women no matter how treacherous and unfaithful they were.” Rejuvenated by this newfound commitment to women, Johnny calls his onetime musical partner, Nino Valenti, and offers him a job in his new film venture. Nino accepts Johnny’s offer.
