My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the man;
And I wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
- William Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up" 1802
When Peggy quotes Wordsworth's poem with the line "The Child is father of the man", she is giving us an idea of the structure of the episode. Wordsworth wrote how a child sees the world, so sees the man, i.e., our experiences in our youth, shape our perception and emotions in the future as adults. When Don sees Peggy comforting Ted, in his drug induced state he is reminded of his illness as a teenager. Amee Swenson, a prostitute in the brothel, takes care of him during his fever and coughing* attacks, spoon feeding him soup. Don's memory of this reminds him of the Granger Oatmeal ad campaign that he previously designed, showing a Norman Rockwell type illustration of a mother feeding a small boy. Don finds it "in the archives" i.e., his memory. When Ken performs the song and dance routine, Don asks, "where did you learn that?" Ken answers, "My mother, no, my first girlfriend". Here is the key to Don's attraction and conflict with Sylvia: it reminds him of Amee Swenson, the mother figure / prostitute who was also his first sexual experience. Amee also betrayed him by telling his family of their experience resulting in the young Don being beat with a spoon by the step mother.
Peggy is also the mother figure / girlfriend in this episode, first comforting Ted, then being sexually attracted to Stan. Peggy's advice to Stan, to experience grief and not bury it with drugs and sex is what Stan (and Don) should be doing, but don't. It is the road not taken, as she and Ginsburg quote Alice** to give us a literary equivalent to the surrealism they are experiencing in the office.
Christian symbols pop up: "I hate how dying makes saints out of people" when describing the death of Frank Gleason; Ginsburg comparing Stan to St. Sebastian (death by arrows) and then throws a Xacto knife to his arm; Stan says that he's come up with 666 (the numeric symbol of the Beast in the Book of Revelation) ideas for Chevy: Sally reading Rosemary's Baby***. However, the symbols seem more cultural flotsam than a meaningful plot line.
We also find that Wendy, who offers herself sexually to Don and then she sleeps with Stan, is Frank Gleason's teenage daughter. She is the mirror to Sally and we can only assume that she is using sex, as mentioned by Peggy, to dull the emotional loss of her father. Sally is also beginning to be aware of her sexuality and dressing provocatively. Betty asks how she earned the money to buy the skirt "from working on a street corner?". We have the tension pitting the jealous (and protective) mother with the daughter and morphing Don's memories into the mix that combines the confusion of emotions of mother and girlfriend.
When Ida robs the apartment, she tells Sally that's she's Don's mother. Ida is a counterfeit mother to a counterfeit son. And even though it's preposterous, Sally believes her, because she doesn't know her father. Ida also becomes the embodiment of advertising, as discussed by Don and Ginzburg, which is to say anything to get your foot in the door. And when she steals, what does she steal? Time from Don (watches)****.
The Crash, starts with a car crash and ends with an emotional one. Wendy uses divination of the I Ching to arrive at Don's silent emotional question: "does anyone love me"? Don's self realization leaves him cold to Sylvia, Megan and to his co-worker and rival Ted, who he dumps the responsibility of the Chevy account on.
Christian symbols pop up: "I hate how dying makes saints out of people" when describing the death of Frank Gleason; Ginsburg comparing Stan to St. Sebastian (death by arrows) and then throws a Xacto knife to his arm; Stan says that he's come up with 666 (the numeric symbol of the Beast in the Book of Revelation) ideas for Chevy: Sally reading Rosemary's Baby***. However, the symbols seem more cultural flotsam than a meaningful plot line.
We also find that Wendy, who offers herself sexually to Don and then she sleeps with Stan, is Frank Gleason's teenage daughter. She is the mirror to Sally and we can only assume that she is using sex, as mentioned by Peggy, to dull the emotional loss of her father. Sally is also beginning to be aware of her sexuality and dressing provocatively. Betty asks how she earned the money to buy the skirt "from working on a street corner?". We have the tension pitting the jealous (and protective) mother with the daughter and morphing Don's memories into the mix that combines the confusion of emotions of mother and girlfriend.
When Ida robs the apartment, she tells Sally that's she's Don's mother. Ida is a counterfeit mother to a counterfeit son. And even though it's preposterous, Sally believes her, because she doesn't know her father. Ida also becomes the embodiment of advertising, as discussed by Don and Ginzburg, which is to say anything to get your foot in the door. And when she steals, what does she steal? Time from Don (watches)****.
The Crash, starts with a car crash and ends with an emotional one. Wendy uses divination of the I Ching to arrive at Don's silent emotional question: "does anyone love me"? Don's self realization leaves him cold to Sylvia, Megan and to his co-worker and rival Ted, who he dumps the responsibility of the Chevy account on.
* Don's coughing and smoking makes me think that the show may end with Don dying of lung cancer.
**
“Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked.
*** In the book and movie, the husband is an actor (like Megan) who "prostitutes" himself to Satan and pimps his wife to have his child. Betty says that Megan was on the "casting couch" (prostituting herself) in order to get a role on Broadway. The implication is that Megan is "preparing" Sally for sex .
**** We also learn that they work in the "Time Life" building.
**
“Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked.
'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat.
'I don't know,' Alice answered.
'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.”
-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
*** In the book and movie, the husband is an actor (like Megan) who "prostitutes" himself to Satan and pimps his wife to have his child. Betty says that Megan was on the "casting couch" (prostituting herself) in order to get a role on Broadway. The implication is that Megan is "preparing" Sally for sex .
**** We also learn that they work in the "Time Life" building.
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