Why does don draper cheat on his wife

When he was younger and starting his career, he probably wanted someone like Betty; a trophy wife. As things began to move on Don moved up the professional ladder and life got less interesting with Betty. That's when he found Midge Daniels, a hippie artist who is described best by her quote He then proceeded to Rachel Menken, a ambitious Jewish store owner. Moving on we see Bobbie Barrett. Married, mildly unhappy and somewhat similar in nature to Don.

Bobbie Barrett even makes a passing reference to how word had got her that Don was famous for his extra-marital escapades. Then there's his daughter's teacher, Suzanne Farrell, a little different from the rest, but who still has the free spirited touch to her.

None of these affairs lasted too long of course. Some of these women actually cared for him and he did reciprocate their feeling for a brief period. Once his impulses desired something else he would act on them irrespective of who was getting hurt.

I'm reminded of this quote from the Kennedy vs Nixon episode where Rachel Menken character essentially calls him out when he says he wants to run away with her.

You don't want to run away with me; you just want to run away. You're a coward! This captures him quite well. An absolute lack of respect for the consequences of his actions. Think about Faye Miller. He actually proposed to Megan while Faye was under the false impression they were in a relationship.

I know this doesn't relate to his relationship with Betty but it is indicative of his primal nature. Don't get me wrong. Don Draper does have his qualities that women want him and men aspire to be him. He is a genius at his work.

He holds true to many of the adjectives describing him -- suave, sophisticated and highly intelligent. In spite of all his faults and indifference he is a relatively loving father who tries to protect his children from what he faced. For someone who has been shown to be rather meek and submissive for the better part of the show, the fact that she shamelessly decided to stay in Don's house even after their marriage was done and dusted was rather odd from Betty's end.

It's not like Betty didn't have any self-respect, but this action showed nothing of the sort, which proved to be somewhat inconsistent for her character. While it's true that Betty might've been starved for attention during her marriage with Don , the fact that she had to stoop so low to be important in someone's life was rather odd indeed. Betty should've realized that agreeing to Glen's demands and giving a lock of hair to an impressionable child was a horrible thing to do, and yet, she still did it with zero restraint.

While it's true that Betty's neighbor had been extremely rude to Sally by threatening to kill the family dog, one has to admit that Betty's retaliatory actions were quite extreme. The fact that Betty started using her air rifles to take potshots at the neighbor's birds is ridiculous, and she should've realized what a weird act this really was from the get-go.

Given the fact that Betty had dealt with her fair share of abuse as a kid, it was possible the cycle of abuse would repeat itself in Betty's interactions with her kids, as well. However, that is still not an excuse for the horrible way she treats her kids, almost making it seem like she doesn't care about her children when it has been established well beforehand that she does. Perhaps the worst thing that Betty did with her kids was manipulating them to spy on Don's life and try to attain satisfaction from the idea that her ex-husband was not doing well.

Not only is this a horrible thing to wish on someone anyway, but the fact that Betty was using her kids for such a petty issue speaks volumes when it comes to her insecurities. I always thought when married men cheat, it's because they are unhappy or they just don't have a sex life with their wives. Although Don seems like an unhappy person, he seems to be happily married to his wife who he has a healthy sex life with.

It doesn't seem to be out of entitlement because he does try not to cheat on her, it also doesn't seem like he's a sex addict and he really seems to care about his mistresses, so is he capable of falling in love with more than one woman at a time or what? It's just sad to me that a woman can be beautiful, have a sex life with her husband and be loved by him and still be cheated on.

Don was happy being married to Betty. He wasn't happy that his marriage to her was built on a lie. I think Don knew that Betty only loved the idea of him. They both actually had a mutual infatuation for each other, but they were never in love. Notice how throughout their marriage, they were very affectionate and had a sex life but not much more than that. I do think that Don really cares about Betty though, because he tired not to cheat on her and hated himself for doing it.

He also was hurt when she left him the first and second time However Don's cheating has nothing to do with Betty or his marriage to her. It's a problem he has because due to his traumatic childhood, he cannot commit to one woman and there is nothing Betty did or didn't do to keep him from cheating on her.