One. Are we morally compromised when we identify with TV anti-heroes whose lives are defined by violence and crime?
Harold raises the question that in TV land certain shows like “The Sopranos make very bad people seem, well, likeable.”
Philosophers, including Plato, worried that art could manipulate the emotions and even de-stabilize society because our powers of reason would be distorted.
Identifying with criminal heroes corrupts our moral nature, was another claim of Plato.
When we take on the spirit of Tony Soprano, his grief, his joy, his rage, we take on his values and we begin to emulate the anti-hero template.
In a TV show, we see the anti-hero’s tender moments and we focus on the anti-hero’s “virtues” and in the process we become blind to the character’s egregious moral flaws. Some argue that this allows us to compartmentalize our morality.
Tony Soprano murders one of his enemies and those in the TV audience who sympathize with Tony experience satisfaction in Tony’s crime.
Several seasons long with close to 85 episodes, The Sopranos inculcates our identification with the criminal and this has more influence than a single movie.
Tony Soprano and the other criminals in the show are portrayed with deeply detailed psychological complexity, which humanizes them and makes us identify with them. Tony Soprano, James Harold argues, “is a more fully developed character than any other fictional gangster ever created, and we get to know him intimately.”
Another danger in The Sopranos is its verisimilitude, its realism. When gangsters are stylized with irony and cynicism the way they are in a Tarantino movie, they become distant from us in perhaps a healthy way; in contrast, Tony Soprano seems real, so that we identify with him more.
We are left with this moral problem: “There is no doubt that Tony Soprano is evil, vicious, and morally bankrupt. Yet we like him.”
Two. What is the author’s argument?
Is it morally wrong to watch The Sopranos? His answer: “I doubt it.”
For one, a lot of the good characters who have a positive influence on Tony Soprano are NOT criminals, so there is a moral element to the show.
Secondly and most compelling according to James Harold, there is a morality play in the show’s center: the psychiatrist’s office in which Tony Soprano has to deal with the moral consequences of his actions.
Third, Tony’s psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi “continually reminds us as an audience of the dangers of seeing things exclusively from Tony’s point of view, and her character provides an alternative point of view on Tony’s life and actions.” Therefore, the show compels us to explore moral complexity and that’s a good thing, making The Sopranos defensible.
Writing Assignment Option, Reading the Signs, page 304, number 5:
Read or reread Robert B. Ray’s “The Thematic Paradigm” (p. 377), and write an essay in which you argue whether Tony Soprano can be considered a hero. If so, what kind of hero is he? If not, why not?
You can replace Tony Soprano with Dexter Morgan from Dexter if you're more familiar with that show, or consult me for another alternative such as the show Breaking Bad or Weeds.
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