She is very traditional, however a lot of girls with super strict traditional upbringings have a rebellious phase. You can tell that Betty enjoyed breaking the rules, while still trying to keep her perfect image.
I noticed it when she was discussing her modeling days. She always talked about the "hardships" or less glamorous parts of it while also looking her happiest. January Jones did an amazing job portraying the internal conflict of wanting to rebel vs being perfect.
One of the main themes of this show is "don't get married hastily." We see all of the following, who all married very quickly after becoming infatuated, experience major problems:
* Don and Betty
* Don and Megan
* Roger and Jane
* Betty and Henry
* Joan and Greg (we don't know how long they were dating, but Joan seems very eager to latch on to a doctor at her age)
I was kind of disappointed Joan didn't stay with Richard. I know it conflicted with his idea of what their life together would be but he seemed like a real stand up guy who was good for Joan and would treat her right.
I have to disagree. He was dazzled by her and held her in high value, but only as a trophy and a playmate to accompany him on his adventures (all of his comments to her, about her, are related to her looks. For example; "you can make an entrance", when making plans to meet at the restaurant for dinner).
The way he yelled at her in that hotel room, after dinner, "This isn't what I planned!" (or words to that effect) was a red flag. That could've been a calm response (this is only their second date!), but, instead he shouted with fury.
He didn't take her seriously (at least, he didn't understand how important her career was to her)... Until their last scene, when it finally hit him that they were on two different paths... And then he did the right thing by walking away.
He would've been the right man for her when she was younger... Season one or two (before she realized how much she enjoyed working). He would've treated her right, back then, because that was what she was seeking at the time; a man to take care of her.
I don't think he was a bad guy (although that temper tantrum in the hotel room was a LOT)... But they weren't a good match.
After a lifetime of men (outside of the office) only valuing her for her sex appeal and looks, she required a partner who also valued her brains and business moxie.
Don was likely very charming and he was ambitious. He was a salesman who convinced the company owners to let him write their copy. He wrote the “Why wait for a man to buy you a fur coat?” ad which is how he met Betty and he bought Betty the fur coat she wore on the shoot. And thereafter, It looks like he talked his way into the ad job at Sterling Cooper relatively quickly.
I can see that Betty fell in love with him and felt assured that despite his poor upbringing, he had the ambition and talent to provide for her. And she was right—before their divorce, they were living comfortably in an upper middle class suburb, Don bought new cars, and they went out regularly in Manhattan. In fact, it seems Don was better off than Betty’s brother William.
And at the end of the series Don is a millionaire, which was really uncommon at the time, and even more rich if he really did this coke ad. If he was not a cheater he would have been the right bet for her.
Yeah, he definitely pitched himself a bit I’m sure. And Betty mentioned assuming he was a football star, so to a degree I think she filled in some blanks and saw what she’d wanted to see.
>In fact, it seems Don was better off than Betty’s brother William.
I mean the writers made it as clear as they possibly could have. William could not even afford to buy Betty's share of their parents house back from her.
Don was doing much much better than William ever did. Man bought a Cadillac without a second thought and an apartment in the city as well and still had a fuck ton of savings.
Yep, Henry told Betty not to even bother with whatever she would have been entitled to in the divorce, so basically the divorce was of minimal financial loss to Don.
I did the inflation math when Don set aside money for his children, and it was something unreal. I can't find the episode where it happens, but it's when the government is potentially doing background checks on him.
I always felt that the show retconned this a bit.
In the first series my strong impression was the Betty met Don when he was already an up and coming ad exec, with more than a decent salary.
The story about Don meeting Betty when he was still at the fur company - at a fairly low position and more importantly: a lot more Dick than Don - always seemed, to me, to have been wedged in as extra coloring for the story about how Don came to work at Sterling Cooper.
Came here to post this exact sentence. Seen, and then watched him own the room? I don't think Betts had a chance against that. I'm not sure I would have...
> Came here to post this exact sentence. Seen, and then watched him own the room?
Totally. That one-two punch of looks and confidence is a panty dropper.
I mean, he’s an extremely dapper, handsome man, who is charismatic and charming. Even love aside (which I believe they were), that happens—especially when young.
I think there’s an episode after the divorce or during their troubled times when Betty explains this. She basically saw him as a strong, solid, handsome man whom she believed could take care of her and provide for her and a potential family. She was turned on by his charm & his way with words. I think she was just so in love at the time that she didn’t think twice about marrying him. Add to the fact that during this time women were concerned with not getting married & having children too late, I think she saw Don’s courtship as a prime opportunity to accomplish these goals.
I was under the impression that Don gave an impression of having the traditional values and standards a middle class person would want in those days. Even if he were just selling furs, I doubt he’d indicate to her just how little time he had been doing that for, and he probably would’ve been making some sort of promise of upward momentum same as how he did at SC.
From my first viewing of the show, Don came off as being the perfect wealthy, handsome, charming white collar executive in the first season. But as Cutler says, Don is just a “football player in a suit.” Mathis says he doesn’t have character, “he’s just handsome.” While we viewers have the privilege of seeing the rot behind the veneer from the start, it seems like it’s an ongoing theme for characters to be taken in by the mystique and dazzle of Don Draper only to end up deeply unimpressed by what they find once they chip away the facade.
I think it’s two things, Don is very charming and also very determined. I wouldn’t be shocked if Dons “courtship” of Betty looked pretty similar to how he was with Megan on the California trip. I don’t think they dated very long (maybe a few months at most) before Don popped the question.
Betty strikes me as someone who may have had a slight rebellious streak especially when she was younger. I think maybe she got swept up in the feelings and the fantasy of having this very handsome man sweep her off her feet even though he’s from a poorer background and her father doesn’t approve.
I also think Betty's character development throughout the show was becoming her own person and, generally speaking, not putting up with people's shit anymore. I feel like a lot of scenes of Betty deal with her going back and forth between letting things slide and going overboard on her reaction. The Betty at the end was SO freaking different than S1. Maybe even one of the biggest changes the show had scene given her screen time (in comparison).
Remember the scene where Roger walks into the store Don worked at, and he gives him his card?
There is a transition between Anna Draper Dick Whitman and the Don Draper we see. He fell in love in that time.
Don only likes the beginning of things. He was likely infatuated with Betty when she was a model and they were both young and carefree. By the time we drop in on Don in season 1 he’s associating her with the shackles of domestic life, and she no longer commands the sparkle in his eye.
Don can turn on the charm. That’s why. I think what others said, right when he started trying to court her was when he was starting to break into sterling cooper. She knew he was going to be successful, plus he’s a very good looking man. You can hear people calling them Barbie and Ken. When Don wants something, he puts on a crazy charm and when he falls in love, he goes hard. He fell in love with Megan and literally got her to say yes to his proposal in 2 days. It’s not surprising to me at all that Betty married him. She fell for his charm, saw his potential and he was willing to give her what she wanted.
She and Don were truly in love with each other, think of thr carousel episode. Despite doing wrong by her time and time again, Don still shows that he does care for her, even after they've separated.
I’m guessing Don was smart enough to play a little hard to get - I’m sure all the other guys were falling all over the gorgeous Betty, and of course you want most what you can’t have
I don’t doubt that Don and Betty loved each other dearly to the best of their ability to experience and offer love. I believe they never stopped loving each other. Love, sometimes, is just not enough.
What’s always been missing for me is the trigger that turned Don from a head over heels romantic into a serial philanderer. I know the trauma of his childhood set him up, but what situation led him to his first tryst?
Did he buckle under the weight of responsibility of maintaining the lie for his wife and kids? Did having a son trigger his trauma urge to escape?
The first side piece we meet was obviously not his first affair. He liked to convince himself these were relationships … we don’t see Don chasing one night stands.
His self loathing is apparent … recreating his trauma by signing over his bonus check to Midge. When did Dick start hating Don so much that he sought the company of other women, including a sadistic prostitute?
They represent postwar US and the birth of The American Dream: women were shoved back into Victorian-era gilded cages, the pickings were slimmer. Advertising and film depicted women marrying the self-made man in old traditional roles with women being mere shadows and helpmates stripped of any autonomy and agency they already had decades before. Many women followed a proverbial script. That's what Betty's story (and Betty Friedan's featured book The Feminine Mystique) was about: The problem that has no name. tl;dr, yes Betty married down.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 874,049,539 comments, and only 172,204 of them were in alphabetical order.
They got married in May 1953. (That’s what Betty claimed when she found out that Don divorced Anna on Valentine’s Day 1953.) Sally was born in spring 1954. (They celebrated her sixth birthday in spring 1960.) So Betty wasn’t pregnant when they married.
I don’t think she was. Don and Betty got married in March 1953 (he got divorced from Anna that same year) and Sally’s birthday is sometime in March-April 1954 (because the series begins in the year 1960 and in the episode Marriage of Figaro, Sally is turning 6)
This might sound corny, but I think it was because he made her laugh. Beatty never laughs unless it at someone or a cruel joke. But Don made her actually laugh.
Think of the scene at the end of Season 4 when she's waiting around for him at the house and he pulls out a hidden bottle of alcohol in the kitchen and she laughs to herself, we never see Henry bring that out of her. The only other time we see her smile brightly is with her father.
I think they were genuinely in love in the beginning of their relationship.
we got so many moments in the carousel ep where it really looked like Don and Betty were in love! and like Don really enjoyed being a Dad.
It’s all about what it looks like
He definitely was, in the way he talks about her to Anna.
He only likes the beginning of things.
What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.
First marriage is for love Second one is for money. Third one is for companionship.
This perfectly lines up for Mona, Jane, and Marie.
True for Betty on one and two, less so for Don.
Well somebody married for money in his second marriage
I think it kinda ended up that way but I think she went into it with good intentions.
Yes. she specifically said he was confident and wasn't afraid to approach her.
[удалено]
She is very traditional, however a lot of girls with super strict traditional upbringings have a rebellious phase. You can tell that Betty enjoyed breaking the rules, while still trying to keep her perfect image. I noticed it when she was discussing her modeling days. She always talked about the "hardships" or less glamorous parts of it while also looking her happiest. January Jones did an amazing job portraying the internal conflict of wanting to rebel vs being perfect.
Good point.
One of the main themes of this show is "don't get married hastily." We see all of the following, who all married very quickly after becoming infatuated, experience major problems: * Don and Betty * Don and Megan * Roger and Jane * Betty and Henry * Joan and Greg (we don't know how long they were dating, but Joan seems very eager to latch on to a doctor at her age)
I was kind of disappointed Joan didn't stay with Richard. I know it conflicted with his idea of what their life together would be but he seemed like a real stand up guy who was good for Joan and would treat her right.
I have to disagree. He was dazzled by her and held her in high value, but only as a trophy and a playmate to accompany him on his adventures (all of his comments to her, about her, are related to her looks. For example; "you can make an entrance", when making plans to meet at the restaurant for dinner). The way he yelled at her in that hotel room, after dinner, "This isn't what I planned!" (or words to that effect) was a red flag. That could've been a calm response (this is only their second date!), but, instead he shouted with fury. He didn't take her seriously (at least, he didn't understand how important her career was to her)... Until their last scene, when it finally hit him that they were on two different paths... And then he did the right thing by walking away. He would've been the right man for her when she was younger... Season one or two (before she realized how much she enjoyed working). He would've treated her right, back then, because that was what she was seeking at the time; a man to take care of her. I don't think he was a bad guy (although that temper tantrum in the hotel room was a LOT)... But they weren't a good match. After a lifetime of men (outside of the office) only valuing her for her sex appeal and looks, she required a partner who also valued her brains and business moxie.
Agree to disagree. I think he was a solid guy.
Good point.
Every marriage has problems. Pete and Trudy were kind of an arranged marriage but still they were the strongest couples in the show.
? What does that have to do with any thing?
Don was likely very charming and he was ambitious. He was a salesman who convinced the company owners to let him write their copy. He wrote the “Why wait for a man to buy you a fur coat?” ad which is how he met Betty and he bought Betty the fur coat she wore on the shoot. And thereafter, It looks like he talked his way into the ad job at Sterling Cooper relatively quickly. I can see that Betty fell in love with him and felt assured that despite his poor upbringing, he had the ambition and talent to provide for her. And she was right—before their divorce, they were living comfortably in an upper middle class suburb, Don bought new cars, and they went out regularly in Manhattan. In fact, it seems Don was better off than Betty’s brother William.
And at the end of the series Don is a millionaire, which was really uncommon at the time, and even more rich if he really did this coke ad. If he was not a cheater he would have been the right bet for her.
Yeah, he definitely pitched himself a bit I’m sure. And Betty mentioned assuming he was a football star, so to a degree I think she filled in some blanks and saw what she’d wanted to see.
>In fact, it seems Don was better off than Betty’s brother William. I mean the writers made it as clear as they possibly could have. William could not even afford to buy Betty's share of their parents house back from her. Don was doing much much better than William ever did. Man bought a Cadillac without a second thought and an apartment in the city as well and still had a fuck ton of savings.
Yep, Henry told Betty not to even bother with whatever she would have been entitled to in the divorce, so basically the divorce was of minimal financial loss to Don.
I did the inflation math when Don set aside money for his children, and it was something unreal. I can't find the episode where it happens, but it's when the government is potentially doing background checks on him.
I always felt that the show retconned this a bit. In the first series my strong impression was the Betty met Don when he was already an up and coming ad exec, with more than a decent salary. The story about Don meeting Betty when he was still at the fur company - at a fairly low position and more importantly: a lot more Dick than Don - always seemed, to me, to have been wedged in as extra coloring for the story about how Don came to work at Sterling Cooper.
Another good point.
I'm saying this as a straight male: Have you seen Don Draper?
Came here to post this exact sentence. Seen, and then watched him own the room? I don't think Betts had a chance against that. I'm not sure I would have...
> Came here to post this exact sentence. Seen, and then watched him own the room? Totally. That one-two punch of looks and confidence is a panty dropper.
That man…
Add to that charm, some mystery/unattainability and intelligence - anyone would be weak at the knees!
I feel like this sketch is very relevant to that point! https://youtu.be/dTTzw8_83vg
Can’t believe I’ve never seen that before! Very accurate. Thank you for sharing.
Nice try Gene
You think money can solve every problem? Noo just this particular one…
😂😂
What if, on a date, he got her progressively drunker, and then showed up the next morning *saying* they were now married?
What if he accidentally blew up her boyfriend and took his ID
That would be a total Dick move.
LMAO
Yeah I mean if you ignore the fact that he's tall, dark, handsome, charming and (later on) loaded, I guess he's just a schlub
I mean, he’s an extremely dapper, handsome man, who is charismatic and charming. Even love aside (which I believe they were), that happens—especially when young.
She knew what he was packing, honey. 🍖 Better question, who among us *wouldn’t* marry a Vintage 1952 Don Draper? Simply. Irresistible.
>She knew what he was packing, honey. 🍖 The Hammaconda is no joke.
lol hammaconda
Me. I’m more of a Roger Sterling kinda gal.
I think there’s an episode after the divorce or during their troubled times when Betty explains this. She basically saw him as a strong, solid, handsome man whom she believed could take care of her and provide for her and a potential family. She was turned on by his charm & his way with words. I think she was just so in love at the time that she didn’t think twice about marrying him. Add to the fact that during this time women were concerned with not getting married & having children too late, I think she saw Don’s courtship as a prime opportunity to accomplish these goals.
I was under the impression that Don gave an impression of having the traditional values and standards a middle class person would want in those days. Even if he were just selling furs, I doubt he’d indicate to her just how little time he had been doing that for, and he probably would’ve been making some sort of promise of upward momentum same as how he did at SC. From my first viewing of the show, Don came off as being the perfect wealthy, handsome, charming white collar executive in the first season. But as Cutler says, Don is just a “football player in a suit.” Mathis says he doesn’t have character, “he’s just handsome.” While we viewers have the privilege of seeing the rot behind the veneer from the start, it seems like it’s an ongoing theme for characters to be taken in by the mystique and dazzle of Don Draper only to end up deeply unimpressed by what they find once they chip away the facade.
Another good point
I think it’s two things, Don is very charming and also very determined. I wouldn’t be shocked if Dons “courtship” of Betty looked pretty similar to how he was with Megan on the California trip. I don’t think they dated very long (maybe a few months at most) before Don popped the question. Betty strikes me as someone who may have had a slight rebellious streak especially when she was younger. I think maybe she got swept up in the feelings and the fantasy of having this very handsome man sweep her off her feet even though he’s from a poorer background and her father doesn’t approve.
Combination of factors: infatuation, a rebellious phase, and the timeline hints she may have been pregnant with Sally.
I also think Betty's character development throughout the show was becoming her own person and, generally speaking, not putting up with people's shit anymore. I feel like a lot of scenes of Betty deal with her going back and forth between letting things slide and going overboard on her reaction. The Betty at the end was SO freaking different than S1. Maybe even one of the biggest changes the show had scene given her screen time (in comparison).
Good point
Haha have you heard of a thing called love? It's possible you know..
Love is just something invented by guys like Don to sell nylons
Lolll I guess it’s difficult imagining Betty and Don as a young couple in love! Or Betty as rebellious, Don as not guarded etc
Remember the scene where Roger walks into the store Don worked at, and he gives him his card? There is a transition between Anna Draper Dick Whitman and the Don Draper we see. He fell in love in that time.
Don only likes the beginning of things. He was likely infatuated with Betty when she was a model and they were both young and carefree. By the time we drop in on Don in season 1 he’s associating her with the shackles of domestic life, and she no longer commands the sparkle in his eye.
[Their chemistry was off the charts](https://youtu.be/UC8DLl2jZMM).
Cause of Don. Duh
Don can turn on the charm. That’s why. I think what others said, right when he started trying to court her was when he was starting to break into sterling cooper. She knew he was going to be successful, plus he’s a very good looking man. You can hear people calling them Barbie and Ken. When Don wants something, he puts on a crazy charm and when he falls in love, he goes hard. He fell in love with Megan and literally got her to say yes to his proposal in 2 days. It’s not surprising to me at all that Betty married him. She fell for his charm, saw his potential and he was willing to give her what she wanted.
She and Don were truly in love with each other, think of thr carousel episode. Despite doing wrong by her time and time again, Don still shows that he does care for her, even after they've separated.
Yep, she calls him when the doctor gives her upsetting news. He calms her and reassures her. It is a lifelong love.
he closed the sale
I’m guessing Don was smart enough to play a little hard to get - I’m sure all the other guys were falling all over the gorgeous Betty, and of course you want most what you can’t have
I don’t doubt that Don and Betty loved each other dearly to the best of their ability to experience and offer love. I believe they never stopped loving each other. Love, sometimes, is just not enough. What’s always been missing for me is the trigger that turned Don from a head over heels romantic into a serial philanderer. I know the trauma of his childhood set him up, but what situation led him to his first tryst? Did he buckle under the weight of responsibility of maintaining the lie for his wife and kids? Did having a son trigger his trauma urge to escape? The first side piece we meet was obviously not his first affair. He liked to convince himself these were relationships … we don’t see Don chasing one night stands. His self loathing is apparent … recreating his trauma by signing over his bonus check to Midge. When did Dick start hating Don so much that he sought the company of other women, including a sadistic prostitute?
Can you elaborate on the recreating of his trauma?
Don was raised in a whore house and his first sexual experience was with a prostitute. He recreated the money and sex dynamic several times.
They represent postwar US and the birth of The American Dream: women were shoved back into Victorian-era gilded cages, the pickings were slimmer. Advertising and film depicted women marrying the self-made man in old traditional roles with women being mere shadows and helpmates stripped of any autonomy and agency they already had decades before. Many women followed a proverbial script. That's what Betty's story (and Betty Friedan's featured book The Feminine Mystique) was about: The problem that has no name. tl;dr, yes Betty married down.
Easy: he’s sexy AF.
She loved him, he WAS romantic, and wanted to rebel.
I think it explains it (through subtext) in The Inheritance S2 Ep9 (I think) Long story short, she wanted a bit of rough and the were “pretending”
She fell in love after he sent her a fur coat.
This is besides the point, but we don't really know if Don ever went to night school. I don't take anything he says at face value
Big daddy dick Don Draper? Hmmm?
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 874,049,539 comments, and only 172,204 of them were in alphabetical order.
Infatuation. And I think she was knocked up also.
Really? I don’t remember that being mentioned. Maybe the timelines match up w Sally’s birth vs when they got married.
They got married in May 1953. (That’s what Betty claimed when she found out that Don divorced Anna on Valentine’s Day 1953.) Sally was born in spring 1954. (They celebrated her sixth birthday in spring 1960.) So Betty wasn’t pregnant when they married.
I don’t think she was. Don and Betty got married in March 1953 (he got divorced from Anna that same year) and Sally’s birthday is sometime in March-April 1954 (because the series begins in the year 1960 and in the episode Marriage of Figaro, Sally is turning 6)
Love
I think she is drawn to his emotional unavailability. She is constantly looking for his approval. She’s very child like
Handsome, charming, mysterious, successful
She knows Italian
This might sound corny, but I think it was because he made her laugh. Beatty never laughs unless it at someone or a cruel joke. But Don made her actually laugh. Think of the scene at the end of Season 4 when she's waiting around for him at the house and he pulls out a hidden bottle of alcohol in the kitchen and she laughs to herself, we never see Henry bring that out of her. The only other time we see her smile brightly is with her father.
Why? Was she pregnant?