Originally posted by AppleOnYa:
The only unintentional betrayal on Fredo's part was that he truly didn't realize that his involvement would result in the nearly successful assasination attempt on Michael.
All the rest, the socializing with Ola, the talking with Roth's people, whatever information he provided that made that hit attempt possible...WAS intention and malice, and WAS motivated by pure jealousy. Because Fredo himself admitted to Michael the promise of 'something in it for him, on his own', if he helped Roth in so-called 'negotiations'.
While he may not have figured on physical harm coming to his brother as a result of the alliance with Roth, Fredo most certainly knew that he was helping someone whom Michael would not have wanted him to help. Therefore, Fredo's most certainly was an intentional betrayal, committed purely for personal gain, with malice, motivated by pure jealousy, envy and anger toward his kid brother, Don Corleone, in who's favor he was 'stepped over'.
Apple
And this is where I disagree. If there is
malice or
intention, then there is the action of doing something with the
intnet to hurt someone. Yes there was the jealousy factor on Fredo's part. But he did not set out to get
revenge on his brother
intentionally because of his own jealousy. He found a situation that offered him the opportunity to show his brother that he was not as dumb as everyone thought. A situation where he was mislead into thinking that if he provided some information, he could really help out his own family, on his own, without the guidance of his brother. Where in the end, if his information helped with the negotiations he could say to Mike " See, it was my own doing that got this deal done." But he only realized after the attempt on Mike that the information that he provided was used to help out with a hit against Mike. Fredo's words to Ola in that phone conversation are : "You guys lied to me -- I don't want you to call me anymore."
Once the hit attempt was made on Michaelk, Fredo realized that he was mislead, that he messed up, and he was now scared.
His rant about being stepped over, about doing something that could help the family and finding something where there was something in it for him, was not one of addmission of intentional malice to get revenge on Mike, but more of a rant to justify in his own mind that he did not do anything wrong, and as he said in that rant " I didn't know that it was gonna be a hit." So being of the mindset that Fredo was all of his life, his ignorance, and his hunger for family recognition and respect was the driving force in his decision to provide information to Roth.
In this scenario it was the presense of ignorance and sheer stupidity and ABSCENCE of malice or intent.
Fredo never intended to hurt Michael, he just thought that he could help, on his own.
Don Cardi
