A Question About Mad Men

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Clarissa

January 18, 2014

So people who like Mad Men, what is your explanation for why Betty left Don?

I see following possibilities:

1. She fell in love with the gray-haired guy – This is the one I like the most but I have a feeling I’m just seeing what I want to see.

2. She decided to leave him back when she found out he was cheating and was only putting up with him until the baby was born – There is evidence that this is Don’s explanation.

3. She is disgusted by his low social origins – This doesn’t really work because she always knew he grew up on a farm, so what really changed?

4. She discovered that they never had a real relationship because he concealed his origins from her – This is the sappiest explanation and it bores me but hey, this is American television.

Or do you have other explanations?

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9 responses to “A Question About Mad Men”

good enough cook

January 18, 2014

All of the above? The low social origins and her feelings for the nice new grey-haired guy might not be marriage breakers on their own. However, once she discovers the adultery and starts thinking through about raising a third child with a man for whom she’s losing respect, his dubious background and deceit about it become more trenchant–and of course Henry whatsisname is a convenient escape route.

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cliff arroyo

January 18, 2014

I don’t think there’s one reason, more like a lot of things coming together. I’m sure she wasn’t entirely sure about which was the ‘real’ reason.

“She fell in love with the gray-haired guy”

Henry. That’s definitely a big part of it, especially since he was clearly attracted to her when she felt at her least attractive and is in many ways the anti-Don. Confident where Don is insecure, interested in others where Don is selfish, upper class where Don is god knows what (from her point of view)

“She decided to leave him back when she found out he was cheating and was only putting up with him until the baby was born”

I think the cheating rankled, especially since she probably looked down on Bobbie as being less traditionally attractive than her. The implications of him cheating with a less attractive but professionally engaged woman must have been especially devastating for her. Not to mention that it’s strongly implied that she was a strong sex drive that is neglected and frustrated (why she spent so much of season two with the horses…)

“She is disgusted by his low social origins – This doesn’t really work because she always knew he grew up on a farm, so what really changed?”

Not so much low, but the whole double identity thing probably throws up lots of red flags about coming from real ‘bad blood’, not just poor but criminal or worse.

“She discovered that they never had a real relationship because he concealed his origins from her”

Not so much as no relationship as not being able to pretend they had a normal relationship that fit her image of herself. An executive with a shady past she could live with, but the double identity thing _really_ freaked her out. Almost like finding out he was a space alien or something.

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  ” Not to mention that it’s strongly implied that she was a strong sex drive that is neglected and frustrated (why she spent so much of season two with the horses…)”
  
  – Yes, this was one of the parts where Betty Friedan’s famous book was followed way too faithfully in my opinion.
  
  “Not so much as no relationship as not being able to pretend they had a normal relationship that fit her image of herself. An executive with a shady past she could live with, but the double identity thing _really_ freaked her out. Almost like finding out he was a space alien or something.”
  
  – Exactly, it was like he suddenly became subhuman in her eyes, poor guy. We are now watching that season where he is drinking himself into oblivion, and it’s just too sad to see. The organizing principle of his life is gone and now the question is whether he will find a new kernel around which he can organize his identity.
  
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David Bellamy

January 18, 2014

What is Mad Men? (I am inferring that it is a television show, but I do not recall having heard of it.)

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  It’s a TV show about an ad agency in the 1960s. The main character is suffering the most convincing version of a midlife crisis I have seen for a while in any TV show or movie.
  
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Shakti

January 18, 2014

It depends on how capable you think Betty is as a character.

If you think she’s capable of acting like an adult and supporting herself, then she left when she left purely out of love.
If you don’t, well Henry Francis is a respectable lifeboat. (IMHO, Henry Francis is a much better husband than Don ever could be)

It’s implied she might have divorced him had she not gotten pregnant, or had been able to obtain an abortion. I view her random one night stand as an act of desperation because she realizes she’s trapped.

The whole finding out about his real backstory is probably too far and deep of a chasm for herself to delude herself and others successfully about. It’s more like a last straw. She needs to be seen as perfect, so adding, “My husband is a son of a whore identity thieving draft dodger” is too much to add to “My husband flagrantly cheats on me, leaves me unsatisfied and gaslights the hell out of me, but we make a cute couple and he makes excellent money.”

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  “IMHO, Henry Francis is a much better husband than Don ever could be)”
  
  – Yes, that’s real love. Very beautiful.
  
  “I view her random one night stand as an act of desperation because she realizes she’s trapped.”
  
  – But that was also the moment when she shed that restrictive good-girl identity and could move on. I was very happy when that scene took place.
  
  ““My husband flagrantly cheats on me, leaves me unsatisfied and gaslights the hell out of me, but we make a cute couple and he makes excellent money.””
  
  – It’s also easier to take that treatment from somebody you admire and even fear a little than somebody you see as pathetic.
  
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el

January 18, 2014

http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-man-stabbed-in-kiev-in-suspected-anti-semitic-attack/

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1. Stringer Bell
  
  January 18, 2014
  
  Relevant link, thanks for posting!
  
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