Don Draper is the lead character from Mad Men - the hit Emmy Award winning show on AMC. Don is smooth, good looking, and rich. He’s also got a strange take on what being married means.
Don won’t talk to his wife about anything. Instead, he visits his mistress Midge and tells her everything. We get the impression that because he feels comfortable talking to her, he then feels comfortable having sex with her. Everyone needs someone to trust, and if it’s not going to be your wife, it’s going to end up being someone.
Don is wealthy and he can afford many of the finer things in life. He buys his wife beautiful clothes, jewelry, and a big house - but he doesn’t show her any love and she is stunningly unhappy.
When Don’s boss makes a pass at his wife and Don walks in the room just in time to see the awkward silence, he blames her for flirting with his boss. The next day, Don is surprised by his boss apologizing for being inappropriate.
In the pilot episode, Don chastizes Pete Campbell for acting like an unmannered pig to Peggy. He then goes home and ignores his wife. While he’s seldom rude to her, Betty is unhappy in their marriage because he doesn’t show her he cares.
Don’s daughter has a bad dream and jumps into bed with her family. Later, he mentions to Betty that their daughter seems to cry a lot. Betty looks at him strangely and tells him that no, she doesn’t.
Don is paying for his wife to visit a psychologist. He’s also calling the psychologist regularly and forcing him to tell Don everything about their sessions, without telling Betty that he’s doing it. Later he uses the information that he gets from those sessions to insult and deride her.
Don doesn’t show much affection for his wife. He doesn’t talk to her about much of anything. Betty has the shakes. There’s not anything physically wrong with her. She decides to see a psychologist, but the audience is meant to know that she’s supressing feelings of frustration and guilt over her marriage.
Don kills Betty’s budding modeling career when he turns down a job offer with a bigger ad agency. Instead of fighting for the ad agency to keep Betty as the model for the new Coca Cola campaign, he just lets it go. Betty tells him later that she has decided not to model anymore, but she’s hiding a deep hurt that she was let go from the campaign.
Don has a private lunch with his client Rachel at the behest of his boss. Then he has another one, and another. Before you know it, she’s fallen in love with him, and he’s enamored of her. She rebuffs him because she knows that he’s married, but he is insistent, which leads to the next point.
Don has a rather rough night when his boss has a heart attack and he has to cover for the affair that his boss was having. He calls his wife to tell her what happened, but she’s away on a trip. She asks if he wants her to come home, but he declines, saying there’s nothing she can do. Don gets drunk and shows up at Rachel’s apartment and they sleep together.
