At the end of Souvenir, Don gives Betty a gold Colosseum bracelet charm. Given that each of the main characters are shown performing at various points, it would seem deliberate that the object for which the episode is named represents a sort of theatre.
Betty and Don engage in role-play at a Roman cafe. Betty, by taking a lead role running a campaign to stop the water tank construction, exchanges roles with Don for a time. Pete acts concerned about Gudrun’s dress. Likewise, Henry Francis feigns interest in helping Betty deal with the Tarrytown Board of Trustees. Joan pretends to be working at Bonwit Teller just for the free dresses. Pete asks Joan to be discreet because he wants to avoid “drama” with Trudy. Trudy pretends everything is normal after finding out about Pete’s infidelity.
At the Tarrytown board meeting (itself an exercise in political theatre), one of the trustees refers to the community as a “hamlet.” This struck me as a nod to other Shakespearean allusions made in Souvenir.
For instance, much of the action takes place in Rome; the same locale as Julius Caesar.
MacBeth: Like Lady MacBeth, Gudrun is desperate to remove a stain. In this case, it is a spot on her employer’s dress. In the next shot, Betty is shown rising from bed with a stain on her nightgown. Later, talking to Don after their trip, Betty does a quick bit of business where she swipes at her dress as if trying to clean it. On a more minor note, Newburgh is cited as a possible alternate location for the dreaded water tank. In MacBeth, this is the hometown of the MacDuff, MacBeth’s rival for the throne.
Romeo and Juliet: Like Betty and Don, Sally and Ernie play act at being a couple. After Sally’s incident with Bobby, Carla threatens to not let Ernie play at the Draper’s house anymore. Sally and Ernie glance at each other like the two star-crossed lovers from Shakespeare’s tragedy.
17 Responses to “The Play's the Thing”
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Matt, I love it. So interesting!
I love this website and all the Basketcases who offer opinions and insights, and especially Deborah and Roberta. This has become a really worthwhile hobby. My brain says thank you for making me think again!!
This is another "wow" post.
Well, Matt. Really smacked this one into the cheap seats, didn't you?
Terrific catch on the multiple fusses over stains, and their connections to weakness and power, in Souvenir. That is a great parallel.
The marriage in Macbeth, if you've never read or seen the play, is really worth a look.
Macbeth, having killed the king, finds himself afraid to see the blood a second time. It falls to Lady Macbeth to help him complete the crime by covering up the evidence. She chides her husband –fresh off the kill — for his weakness, before she goes in to do so:
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
Of course, it's later she who is haunted by the ghostly stains of blood on her own hands. Those lines ("What, will these hands ne'er be clean?" …) have led some who have never seen the play to think that Lady Macbeth did the killing. Being an accessory to a crime imparts the same guilt. I think Shakespeare knew that first.
Lady Macbeth's madness mirrors her husband's loss of control on the battlefield, and his monologue late in the play is one of my favorites:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
That's grief, right there. That is what a person feels when he first bears the loss of the person who was his sole reason for living. From that moment, Macbeth is a dead man walking.
Whatever else the play does, Macbeth depicts a marriage. A good one … until its end.
Thanks again, Matt. And ever thanks.
Nay, Bobby is Sally's brother but for these purposes, he shall be Tybalt, the cousin of fair Juliet.
Tybalt confronts Romeo — "Romeo, thou art a villain!" But Romeo who refuses to fight him since he considers him a future kinsman. However, after Mercutio stands in for Tybalt and is slain, Romeo then slays Tybalt.
Considering Shakepeare provided so much material, I'd be surprised if people couldn't find allusions (compliment to MM writers). Shakespeare often sets the story in an exotic place – the where (in the great tragedies, as opposed to the historical tragedies) isn't so important as the fact that it is not here. And there's lots of role playing – but more so in the comedies.
Thanks Anne B! Although I really think Betty doesn't have a stain on her nightgown but some sort of design, as it appears on the lower part of her nightgown as well.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" is said in the first act of Hamlet and informs the audience that things are amiss, from the top (power center). I think the smell in the hotel lobby represents this, as does the sirens (unless of course, they are just things that no amount of advertising can change).
Hamlet's "tragic flaw" is that he does not act (if you have no real power, delay) until too late. Was this MM ep about Don delaying once he signed his contract? (Hamlet has legitimacy of birth and place, so he does have power. The literary allusions only go so far.)
I thought Ernie looked more nonplussed than star-crossed
But R&J is the most juvenile of the great tragedies (both in youth of main characters and complexity of plot), so, Matt – it fits!
pat,
Good points all. I think I was (still am) stuck on post-vacation Betty — in the kitchen, fussing with her dress, while her face said nothing — and the early-S2 Betty, also post-hotel visit with Don, examining the "blood or chocolate" stain on the baby clothes she was giving to Francine.
Which she thought she'd never need again, of course.
As for Hamlet, he tries to use the Players to trap the king (his new stepfather) in his own guilt. His idea: their "play's the thing/Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Hamlet does delay his own action until too late, yes: but in the meantime, he bids others to act out what he thinks happened.
Very witty guy, Hamlet. For a complete nut.
I think if the play-within-a-play fit anywhere, it fit most neatly into Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency: for its humor, darkness, dark humor, tears, bloodletting, and otherwise fantastic ability to give the groundlings (that's us) exactly what we want.
Add as well as that episode's inability to recede from memory … and the uneasy sense it left behind: either that we had seen all of that somewhere before, or we will soon, played out on a much larger stage.
Betty asking Don about the smell upon entering the beautiful hotel lobby reminds me of “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
interesting post.
to me the charm from the colosseum related to Don's remark that he would only get to see it from a taxi. in fact, he and Betty spent the time in Rome in bed, for the most part, so the souvenir was, to me, supposed to be a memory of a romantic moment.
for Betty, those romantic moments, outside of the drone of her best friend's musings, are limited to Rome and she resents that. Because she knows Don has much more going on in his life, whether they're in Rome or Tarrytown.
All of Mad Men is based upon people assuming roles, most especially Don, but also every single character acts based upon roles they feel they are supposed to assume because of the time in which they live.
So, to me, it's a bit of a stretch to take the Souvenir episode and mark it as Shakespearean. I think the references to Italy have far more to do with the high style and experimentation that marked more European post war parts of the world than American parts of the world – this is where existentialism gained force as a way to understand the inhumanity of WWII and concentration camps – how to make sense of senselessness.
Communism still had currency in western Europe as a reaction to fascism, and as an acknowledgment that the communists and socialists were at the front of resistance while the powers-that-were. That's how western European nations developed their social democracies, post war.
Even the fashionistas, and especially filmmakers, were sympathetic to issues of social justice. The Kennedy's were powerful for the U.S. in Europe because they represented a move forward from the post-war devastation. They were the future, the jump into space, the way to get past degradation.
When I see Betty and Don in Rome, I see La Dolce Vita moving beyond The Bicycle Thief.
in any case, great post. I hope it's okay to proffer alternative views.
I don't know…did Trudy really find out or sense Pete having an affair? I thought she was just upset that she still couldn't have children?
I mean, knowing Trudy so far…Trudy seems to be SOOOOO in love with Pete and would die for him. As opposed to Betty, Betty…yeah is in love with Don, but she took it without throwing a fit. I don't know…I'd expect Trudy to throw plates or try to kill herself, lol.
A tiny point – Betty and the other JLers go to the Ossining Village Board meeting. The Pleasantville Road water tanks (sorry, Betty, they got built and were just re-painted last year) are in Ossining. The resevoir is now a lovely park, enjoyed by the residents of Ossining and Briarcliff. The former Junior League of Tarrytown had members from many river towns, and is now known as the Junior League on the Hudson.
I know this because I was an Ossining Village Board member from 2005-2008, a Junior League president (Northern Westchester, 2001-2) and am now the town supervisor of the Town of Ossining.
I'm a huge Mad Men fan, and I certainly appreciate the historical accuracy of the O-town scenes.
Although I really think Betty doesn’t have a stain on her nightgown but some sort of design, as it appears on the lower part of her nightgown as well.
I'm a guy, what do I know
Actually, I've just ran it again (for the 4th time now). While I agree it's not a stain per se, the effect is the same. The shot of Betty waking up in the nightgown comes directly after the Pete and Gudrun's scene. The redish design is in the same area as the stain on the dressn. Given that Mad Men is very purposeful in its use of clothing, this can't be an accident.
Time for Mari the Shakespeare Nerd to hit the scene.
Newburgh is not necessarily the home of MacDuff. There is no 'the' MacDuff, as it is a family name, not a title. While Newburgh is home to MacDuff's Cross–where he received clemency for hot-blooded murder is not necessarily his home base. Indeed, it seems most likely that Newburgh would be on the border of the area under his dominion, as he'd want that sanctuary granted to him as soon as he was on anything remotely approaching friendly territory. Nor is MacDuff a rival to the throne–he winds up being the only one who can kill him, as he is not of woman-borne, but in no way are they jockeying for position up to the death of Duncan.
I, like Esme, see this as a Fellini episode rather than a Shakespearean one. I would have given The Fog the title of Shakespeareanest (english prof rolling in their grave!) episode of season 3. I can imagine Betty having quite a few soliloquy up her sleeve if given free reign to speak in that hospital.
With that scene in Rome on the patio, with those round tables? Straight out of La Dolce Vita, and I hadn't mentioned her sensational little black dress yet, which is the Fellinette's uniform. God did I love that episode.
there is no ‘the’ MacDuff
That's a typo. It should have been just "In MacBeth, this is the hometown of MacDuff, MacBeth’s rival for the throne." As far as him being a rival or just the guy who kills MacBeth, I won't take issue. While it's possible to read too into these things, Mad Men is a tightly scripted show. For instance, often the tiny bits on the soundtrack (such as a clip of a show the kids are watching that's only on for few seconds) or a quick shot of a newspaper headline are used in support of the theme. So that Newburgh is mentioned at all makes it worthy of consideration.
I, like Esme, see this as a Fellini episode rather than a Shakespearean one.
I don't see this episode as "Shakespearean" in the same way that 723 was an homage to the film noir genre either. However, the theme of individuals "on stage" convinces me that the Shakespearean story elements I noticed weren't accidental.
Fellini? Maybe Antonioni?
Monica Vitti in the courtyard in L'avventura?
Umm, L'eclisse, partly about romance vs materialism?
La Notte has a final revelation like Betty's
@ #12 & 14
Like esme, I immediately exclaimed "La Dolce Vita" at the TV during the cafe scene. And it's a very short step from the people in La Dolce Vita (especially the closing party scene) to the people in Antonioni's films.
It suddenly occurs to me that when Don found himself among the Antonioni-people in The Jet Set, he soon felt profoundly uncomfortable and out-of-place. But what if Betty were put in the same situation? She was so happy in Rome. Is that the kind of life she really wants, always among the shallow, pretty people?
@ 15 Melville S- I'm not sure Betty knows what she wants. She knows she isn't happy where she is, but I'm not sure she has any idea where she wants to go.
Catherine – Thanks for the current details re: Ossining…
It must be especially fun to watch Mad Men considering where you live and work!