The Mad housewife

The creators of the television series, Mad Men, did a great job in portraying the frustrations and unhappiness of upper middle class housewives in the 1950s when they created the character, Betty Draper. Even though, many television critics dislike Betty draper because they claim that her character is narcissistic and selfish, I sympathized with Betty Draper because she is trapped in the role of being a housewife. Like many white upper middle class housewives Betty received a college education before marriage and she was unable to pursue a career after college because immediately she married and had children. It is evident that Betty felt trapped in her role as a housewife because she struggled with depression. Betty also did not seem suited to being a parent because she was often very cold to her children. Betty’s marriage was also dysfunctional because her husband, Don Draper, was constantly cheating on her with other women, which was easily facilitated for him to do because he worked in the city while Betty was stuck at home in the suburbs.

It was also evident that Betty longed for a life outside her home because when she was offered a modeling job by one of her husband’s potential clients she showed great happiness, but as soon as she did not get the job her unhappiness and frustrations returned as she realized that she was not going to be anything else but a housewife. The writers of mad men also did a great job in portraying Betty’s frustration with her confined life as a housewife when Betty’s husband calls her by the nickname “Birdy”. The nickname “Birdy” is symbolic of her entrapment because many house birds live in cages. For example, when Betty’s hopes of modeling are destroyed she returns to her daily housewife routine, but her frustration and dissatisfaction with her life leads her to shoot some flying pigeons outside her home.

Below I have attached a video of the scene where Betty shoots some pigeons.