Betty Draper

Elizabeth "Betty" Draper
First appearance	Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Created by	Matthew Weiner
Portrayed by	January Jones
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Housewife
Children	Sally, Robert
Relatives	Gene (father), Ruth (mother, deceased), William (brother)

Elizabeth "Betty" Draper (née Hofstadt) is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. She is portrayed by January Jones.

Biography

Betty was born Elizabeth Hofstadt in 1932. Her first kiss was with a Jewish boy named David Rosenberg. She spent the summer after graduating from Bryn Mawr College modeling in Italy before starting work as a model for a designer, Giovanni. After that, her career moved her to Manhattan where she had an apartment with several roommates, including Juanita Carson. It was during this time that she met Don Draper. Betty's mother died early in 1960, three months before the events of Ladies Room. Her father, Gene (Ryan Catrona), had a girlfriend named Gloria, whom Betty doesn't like; Gloria left Gene when he began showing signs of mental deterioration, in Season 3.

Her confidantes have included her neighbor Francine Hanson, and Glen Bishop, the young son of divorcee Helen Bishop. Her father currently lives in Cape May, New Jersey. She has a brother, William, who is married and has children Betty considers "rowdy."

Throughout the series, Betty and Don live in Ossining, New York, with their two children Sally and Bobby. In the second episode, set in the spring of 1960, Betty started to see a psychiatrist because of repeated spells of numbness in her hands. In combination with psychosocial stressors and the exclusion of a neurological cause, it seems likely that Betty was experiencing Conversion Disorder. It was during these meetings that, after having discovered that the psychiatrist was giving reports of her sessions to Don, she admitted she knew of her husband's infidelities. Sometime between the end of the first season and the start of the second, in February 1962, the consultations were stopped.

During the second season episode 'A Night to Remember', Betty and Don seem to have reached an agreement, but after a dinner party where Betty is embarrassed to be considered a 'demographic' by Don and his associates, she confronts her husband for the first time about his adultery, specifically with Bobbie Barrett. Don, however, denies having an affair. The next day, with a glass of wine in hand, Betty searches through Don's belongings for any proof of his indiscretions, but does not find it. Betty awakens Don - who is sleeping on the couch - that night and explains that she doesn't want things to 'be like this.' He repeats that he did not do anything and when she asks if he hates her, he insists that he loves her and doesn't want to 'lose this.' When preparing dinner the next day, an Utz commercial featuring Jimmy Barrett airs on the television. After seeing this, she calls Don at work and tells him she doesn't want him to come home.

Betty does turn to Don when she learns that her father Gene has suffered a stroke. She and Don leave the children with a neighbor and drive to visit her father; Betty is visibly impatient with both her father's girlfriend Gloria and her brother William. She and Don are careful to present a united front. At the end of a stressful day, Betty makes Don sleep on the floor of the guestroom, but later joins him on the floor where they make love. The next morning, Betty's father mistakes Betty for her mother Ruth, suggesting that they "go upstairs." Betty is severely shocked and frightened, but tries to pretend that everything is all right. When she and Don return to New York, Betty asks Don to leave again.

In the Season 2 finale, Betty discovers she is pregnant. Although she brings up the subject of abortion with her doctor, and also has sex with a random man at a bar, at the end of the episode she asks Don to return home and tells him that she is pregnant. Season 3 begins with Betty is in her third trimester as she and Don are seemingly reconciled

Quotes

• "It's hard to hold onto anything these days." (Ladies Room)

• "I don’t know why I’m here. I mean, I do, I’m nervous, I guess. Anxious. I don’t sleep that well. And my hands. They’re fine now, it’s like when you have a problem with your car and you go to a mechanic and it’s not doing it anymore. Not that you’re a mechanic. I guess a lot of people must come here worried about the bomb. Is that true? It’s a common nightmare, people say. I read it in a magazine. My mother always told me that it wasn’t polite to talk about yourself. She died recently. I guess I already said that." (Psychiatrist's Office)

• "As far as I’m concerned, as long as men look at me that way, I’m earning my keep. Then every once in a while I think, no. This is something else. I don’t want my husband to see this." (Red in the Face)

• (about her mother) "She wanted me to be beautiful so I could find a man. There’s nothing wrong with that. But then what? Just sit and smoke and let it go ‘til you’re in a box?" (Shoot)

External links

• AMC Character Page
• Guardian.co.uk Profile