Don Draper - Personality

Personality

Despite his outward cynicism and arrogance, Draper is portrayed as following a strict code of personal ethics, insisting on honesty, forthrightness and chivalry in his subordinates, but not always himself. He is extremely protective of people less confident. He warns Pete Campbell, in the first episode ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"), about his rude remarks to and about Peggy Olson, whom Campbell has just met. During the episode "Six Month Leave," Draper admonishes several subordinates for mocking Freddy Rumsen's episode of urinary incontinence, a symptom of his alcoholism. In a Season 4 episode, Draper briefly scolds Ken Cosgrove in front of other employees for mocking a client with a severe stuttering problem. Finally, in one scene (Season 2, Episode 1), he is seen in an elevator as another man goes on about his sexual adventures ('soaked panties'), even as an older lady enters and is clearly made uncomfortable. In protest, Don tells him to take his hat off in respect for the lady. When the man refuses, Don reaches over to the man, removes it himself, and hands it to him.

Draper also adheres to a more strict code of business ethics than many of his colleagues. A Season 2 arc has Draper upset about being told to drop the small local Mohawk Airlines client in favor of a chance at American Airlines. He questions the unwise risk of giving up an existing client for the chance of getting a bigger one, and also challenges the aggressive greed, asking his colleague, Roger Sterling, "What kind of company do we wanna be?" (Sterling replies nonchalantly, "The kind where everyone has a summer home.") In Season 3, he is hesitant to sign a wealthy client eager to pour his fortune into promoting jai alai, a sport the client thinks will replace baseball as "America's game," Don knowing the client is about to squander his considerable fortune on a doomed enterprise. During the season 5 episode The Other Woman, Don is the only partner to exhibit protest to a prostitution scheme hatched by Pete Campbell that involves Joan sleeping with an executive of Jaguar Cars, in order to secure the account.

He also becomes a confidante to Art Director Sal Romano, a closeted homosexual, whom Don sees in a compromising position in a Baltimore hotel during a fire evacuation. Don has a mixed overall reaction to learning about Sal's sexual orientation. While he does not seem upset or offended by the news and does not tell anyone at the firm (or Sal's wife) about it, he later is harshly critical of Sal for not giving in to Lee Garner Jr.'s covert advances, and spits out the words "you people" in a manner that visibly devastates Sal. He did not want Sal to get fired. But, by the time the situation reached his attention, he was so angry at that and other things that he made no effort to save Sal's job.

While Don is not color-blind in matters of race, he recognizes the changes sweeping the country and acknowledges the potential of what he calls "the Negro market." In the first episode of the series, he is seen asking a black American waiter about his cigarette preferences. In "My Old Kentucky Home" (Season 3, Episode 3), Don attends a festive Kentucky Derby party hosted by Roger Sterling, where he watches as Sterling serenades his young wife in blackface minstrel makeup. He and Pete Campbell seem to be the only guests who disapprove of or are uncomfortable with the spectacle, although Laura Smith is seen nervously laughing.

Different episodes show that Don regrets how he treats his family. In the Season 3 episode where Betty gives birth to their third child, he has a conversation with another man in the waiting room who says that he's going to be a better man for his wife and child. Clearly, Don feels exactly the same way. But, he has veered between being a good and attentive parent and having a general state of disconnect between himself and his kids. However, one constant of the show is that Don cannot tolerate Betty's oft-harsh treatment of Sally, and he has interceded to try and help his daughter on those occasions.

On another family front, Don tends to dislike his father-in-law, Eugene, but agrees to take the man into his home when he becomes unable to live on his own. On several occasions, he shows more patience and understanding toward Eugene than does Betty.