Tony Soprano v. Christopher Moltisanti v. Values and Motivation

Tony Soprano is arguably one of the most complex characters in television history, and it's because of his morals and values. His strict Italian/New Jersey upbringing plays an incredible influence on what Tony values in his life, which can be good or bad, depending on the way that you see it. In the expectancy-value model, value is the reasonings a person has for completing an activity and the importance that the activity plays in a person’s life. Values can describe a lot about a person: who they are or what is important to them. Tony’s number one value and virtue is the protection of his two families. However, at times, the line is blurred on which family he cares about protecting more. His childhood upbringing enforced the value that family (and their protection) comes first. While Tony’s number one value is his families, his second (and at times #1) value is protecting the code omerta. Omerta is the code that the mafia uses: do not tell outsiders what occurs on the inside, protect the secrets of the mafia at all costs, and this family comes first. 

Throughout the series, Tony shows the audience his value of protecting his family and upholding omerta simultaneously. Christopher Moltisanti is Tony’s nephew (by marriage through Tony’s wife Carmela), but Christopher is also one of the lower ranking associates in Tony’s crime family. A perfect example of how Tony’s motivations come from his values occurs in season 2, episodes 8 and 9 (“Full Leather Jacket” and “From Where to Eternity”), when Tony’s nephew Christopher gets shot. Tony, upon hearing the news, Tony goes into an extreme rage and is motivated to find out who attempted to kill his nephew. Tony’s love for Christopher drives his needs to take revenge. Tony’s motivation, actions, and emotions all stem from the importance of family and taking the mafia codes seriously. Since family is first in Tony’s values, he is constantly thinking about how to protect these people that he loves. However, because he acts so quickly to defend his values, Tony does not always weigh the cost/benefits of his actions that follow, which have led to unfavorable situations for Tony.

Throughout the show, his values tend to change. While in earlier seasons, Tony would go to any extent to protect his families, Tony allows for his nuclear family to fall apart in attempts to protect his mafia family and omerta. In the last two seasons, Tony continuously places his crime family in front of Carmela (his wife), Meadow (his daughter), and AJ (his son). His nuclear family falls apart because Tony has chosen to value his “business” over his family’s needs. Tony also becomes so confused with values and morals that he makes decisions that destroy his true, blood family.

In early seasons, Tony would do anything to protect Christopher. He would make excuses for his behavior because Tony valued Christopher like a son (Tony knew that AJ would never be able to take over the family business, so Tony trained Christopher). Tony continuously placed Christopher onto a pedestal and would make exceptions for him, even when he would make mistakes that would have had other associates killed. Tony sees the utility value Christopher holds for him (how treating Christopher like a son could potentially make Christopher carry on the legacy of the crime family). However, Tony’s values in Christopher begin to diminish, and Tony has to make a decision that will act against his biggest value: family. In the last season, Christopher’s drug problem only exacerbates, putting Tony and other members of the crime family into harm's way. Tony has to make the decision that will affect his nuclear family and his crime family, all because Tony needs to protect himself through the motto of omerta. Tony kills Christopher. And this last action solidifies how Tony’s values have changed. Tony, now, has based his values (because he is in constant fight or flight mode) on their utility: can this serve me/how will it make me better/what can I use this for? Christopher was only causing his business harm and putting Tony’s life at risk, making the executive decision that Christopher needed to be “cut off.” Tony’s motivation was driven by the value of protecting his life and the mob first.