When Roberta and I first saw Marriage of Figaro, one of the things we discussed was Don sitting at the train tracks. Was he contemplating suicide? In Ladies Room, Paul says he’s late for a meeting because someone jumped in front of his train and killed himself. You don’t drop a remark like that for nothing. Especially Matt Weiner doesn’t drop a remark like that for nothing.
So all through season 1, I absolutely believed that Don was contemplating suicide that afternoon; that’s why he sat at the train. Sure he’s a bastard: He’s a bastard for walking in with no explanation or apology, for choosing a moment when his daughter needed him to fall apart like that, for acting as if there had been no crisis in the first place. But he’s also so horribly wounded that it seemed to me that he could not for the life of him leave those train tracks. It just hurt too much.
Only now I don’t think he was suicidal. I think it was the train.
The second major motif of Mad Men (other than birds) is trains. Don doesn’t get off the train in his home town, leaving the real Don’s body to be Dick Whitman. Don’s identity is first hinted at (in Marriage of Figaro) on the train. Trains are escape.
One thing we learned about Don in Nixon vs. Kennedy is that he always wants to run away. Running away is the only thing he’s 100% sure he knows how to do. I think, now, that’s what he was contemplating in MoF, he was looking at the train and deciding whether or not to escape.
15 Responses to “Was Don Suicidal?”
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Ahh. Nail. Head. Ouch.
There are many scenes on trains (it is practically a party on the train on Don's ride home in the Wheel), but I am pretty sure there is also at least one Sterling speech about trains.
You're good.
Here's another one about Don running away. Marriage of Figaro: Rachel walks into the business meeting and says to Don "good to see you didn't leave town the minute you cashed my check."
Angsty, vulnerable Don=HOT!!
Thank you Dan.
Betsy, good one.
Kay, yes.
The classic Freudian association with trains is death. The shot of the train reflected in Don's windshield is iconic. It recalls Dick Whitman's conversation with the hobo: "If death is coming anywhere, it's here, kid. Creeping around every corner." Overt suicide is not likely, but death by staying where life is deadly dull and meaningless is.
Excellent analysis!
Whereas the classic Hitchcock association with trains is sex. So, sex and death. That works.
Very interesting. I'll add that, in blues music, trains usually symbolize Fate: something powerful, implacable, something that can't be escaped.
Wow, I've heard so many blues songs about trains, but I never realized that.
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This aspect of that episode puzzled me as well until I realized that this is just Don's default reaction when he feels overwhelmed: he runs away. Trains symbolize that. I also think they're one of the most common dream symbols: you know, feeling that you're on the "right track" or that your life is "on course", etc. In some elemental way, Don is as confused as Betty's as to why he's unhappy. He has the beautiful wife, the kids (a boy and a girl), the beautiful house, etc. and yet there's something lacking. To me, him going to the train station is showing us that he wants to run away from his life, perfect though it may seem. I mean, he did run away from his past, didn't he? I don't know. Just thinking aloud here.
Good thoughts, Eme.