Mamma Roma - Characters & Cast

Her sole motivation is to provide a better, petit-bourgeois life for her son, Ettore, and through him, to redeem herself and escape the stigma of her past as a prostitute. She is driven by a fierce, almost primal maternal love and a desperate desire for social acceptance and respectability.

Mamma Roma begins the film full of boisterous hope, believing she can single-handedly create a new, respectable life for herself and her son. She moves from prostitute to small business owner, actively trying to shed her past. However, her journey is a downward spiral. As her son rejects her values and her former pimp reasserts his control, her hope curdles into desperation. She resorts to old tricks (blackmail) to achieve her new goals, blurring the line she tried to draw. Her arc ends in complete despair, her dreams shattered, as she realizes the impossibility of her escape, culminating in a suicidal grief upon her son's death.

Ettore is largely unmotivated, characterized by a deep-seated lethargy and an inability to connect with his mother's world. He is primarily driven by a desire for peer acceptance and is easily influenced by his friends and his crush, Bruna. His actions are more reactions to his environment and his inner turmoil than pursuits of any clear goal.

Ettore starts as a naive, passive country boy, suddenly thrust into the alien environment of Rome's outskirts. He is initially aimless but harmless. As the film progresses, he becomes increasingly alienated and rebellious, rejecting his mother's bourgeois aspirations and falling in with a gang of petty thieves. His discovery of his mother's past is the final catalyst, pushing him fully into a life of crime. His arc is one of tragic corruption and decline, ending in his pointless death in prison, where he becomes a symbol of a generation sacrificed by social and economic forces beyond their control.

Carmine's motivation is simple greed and control. He sees Mamma Roma as a source of income and exerts his power over her to extract money, threatening to reveal her past to Ettore if she refuses. He is a parasite who feeds on her vulnerability.

Carmine's character is static. He represents the unchangeable, exploitative nature of the past. He begins the film seemingly moving on by getting married, which gives Mamma Roma her window of freedom. However, he quickly returns to his old ways. His reappearance is the force that systematically destroys Mamma Roma's new life, forcing her back into prostitution and ensuring she can never truly escape. He doesn't develop; he simply reasserts his power, acting as the narrative's primary antagonist and the embodiment of fate.

Bruna's motivations are immediate and uncomplicated. She seems to drift through life, seeking companionship and amusement. She is attracted to Ettore but is also involved with other boys in the neighborhood, representing a world where relationships are fluid and transactional rather than aligned with the bourgeois ideals of stability Mamma Roma cherishes.

Bruna is a local girl and single mother who represents the casual, amoral sexuality of the slum. She serves as Ettore's introduction to romance and sex. Her character does not have a significant arc; she remains a fixture of the environment that pulls Ettore away from his mother's ambitions. She embodies the life of the subproletariat that Mamma Roma fears for her son, a life of early parenthood, aimlessness, and casual relationships.