'Sopranos' Explores Men's and Women's Relationships, Duke Professor Says

"The Sopranos," which ends its eight-year-long run Sunday, is a unique chapter in America's fascination with the Italian mafia, in part because it revolves around the main character's relationships with women, says a Duke University expert in Italian-American culture.

In popular representations of the mafia in movies and books such as the "Godfather" series, women are on the margins, said Thomas Ferraro, professor of English and author of Feeling Italian: the Art of Ethnicity in America.

But "The Sopranos" largely revolves around main character Tony Soprano's dealings with women.

"What 'The Sopranos' is about is his relationship to his wife, daughter, [female] therapist, mother and his lovers," Ferraro said.

In addition, the show looks at the moral and ethical complexities of the women's lives, such as the erotic appeal of masculine violence and their economic dependence on the men's brutal work, he said.

"'The Sopranos' is really about being female in suburbia now," he said.

The show holds a mirror to middle-class American life, even though the specifics are rooted in the Italian-American culture of the Northeast, he said.

"The Sopranos are us," Ferraro said. "The mafia has been domesticated."
Duke University News