The Ghost of Christmas Past and Future - Mad Men Dream Theory Pg 2.

For those that didn't catch the first page (which I suggest you might want to, because "dream theories" tend to really irritate some people and I have a little preface warning blog readers about it), let me start with the idea that the dream starts on the night that Anna passes away, which is also Peggy's birthday.
(A theme of death and renewal/rebirth)

"Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide"
(Note: Pinocchio references in Mad Men = Wanting to be a real [honest] boy verses lies that makes one "fake")

This whole iconic sitting or laying on the couch idea is a notorious symbol of our subconsciousness, and our subconsciousness is synonymous for insights into how we are feeling based on the decisions we make everyday. It plays to both our fears and our dreams --our imagination.

 In Mad Men there are several instances with people laying on the couch. There's Mad Man's opening theme with Don falling through his life, but landing safely on the couch. It represents both suicidal aspects of being an ad man at this time (as it mirrors the idea of selling lies, or fantasies to people, while not being true to yourself or those you care about) and about the human capacity to "reflect" on life in general.

This is furthered by characters that go and see psychiatrists through out the series. From Betty (who also buys a lounge chaser because it reminds her of the fantasy of wanting to be Henry), Sally, Jane (mentioned only), and now in season 6 Roger, all of these characters seem to need a place to voice their concerns (or in Rogers case a pretending of lack there of).

The night Anna passes away she seems appear as a ghost while Don briefly wakes up after falling asleep on Peggy's lap, as they both lay asleep on the couch in Don's office. It's at that moment where I think Mad Men veers off onto another road, a road that's about denial and/or enlightenment. (Aka: "The Jumping Off Point")





With that I bring us to the title of this post which ironically references ideas presented in Charles Dickens' Christmas story, "A Christmas Carol". It's something that I think was profoundly and eerily expressed in the two hour season six premiere, but also presented towards the end of season five.


We open season 6 a bit in the future. Meghan has become successful landing a small role in a soup opera, but she and Don have decided to take a WINTER vacation to Hawaii (it's on behalf of a client), before returning home for New Years. Meghan and new characters, a Client and his wife who wants to advertise Royal Hawaii along with a women who recognizes Megan from her soap opera named Karen (and who has an accent reminiscent to Anna Drapers) are the only character speaking for much of the opening scene. Don is mostly silent, passive, and is complacent until he goes to bar and meets a random young blonde G.I. PFC DINKINS. who in know doubt is reminiscent to Roger Sterling. In this sense we see the Ghost of Christmas Past, as we can see what it would be like to see Roger as a young man.

Note: Later Don ends up with Dinkins lighter. He tries to get rid of it, only to have Meghan pick it out of the trash. He then passes it on to the other Dawn at work. This all contrasted with a VERY drunk Don appearing sick and throwing up at Roger's Mother's Funereal Gathering, which is much like what Roger did with clients in a previous season! These things are important since Dinkins looks and behaves like a young Roger, but also because Don left his Mother (the one who raised him) to think he was dead (he even passed on Don's real body to her and his brother), but also that it's Dick. dropping his lighter that kills the original Donald Draper. Dinkins is also very close name to Dickens and both are close to Dick. This also goes with the concept, "What comes around, goes around" (Karma/Fate). PFC also reminds me ad agency names, such as our own SCDP. Could there be foreshadowing here? Could theses be deaths, Pryce, Frances (Betty), & Cooper???? And what about Past, Future, Current?

Other scenes included the Francis residents where a young girl named Sandy (a little older than Sally and note Sandy plays to 'the beach') had lost her mother and has been spending a lot of time with Betty in particular, as Betty sees need to sudo-adopt her. Sandy is an interesting character, as we can see the aspirations of a much younger pre- big city living Peggy Olsen, but also because her mother's death dances around Betty, whom last season "envisioned" herself post death due to a cancer scare, and because when we first meet Betty in season one she's struggling with a loss of her mother, whom she often lies about how she truly felt about her, while also mirroring her mother by playing mind games with her own daughter, including this idea of ignoring Sally for the sake of another.

Additionally Sandy plays the violin and dreams of going to Julliard School of Music, which defies the convectional ideals of the previous time period had about the place of a women, a discussion she has with Betty in the kitchen on Christmas...Sandy soon after leaves without saying goodbye, while Betty's role in the rest of the episode is about trying to find this lost girl.

The idea of this child playing the violin is playing to a well known verbal expression, "get out the violin.", which is the idea of already knowing something is sad, and Mad Men's case, is leaning towards a swan song (death).

Note: The title A Christmas CAROL implies it's a story that is a spiritual song. And Sandy may also be a juxtaposition/allusion to Joan, as Joan plays the accordion. This episode, or ideas presented in it may tie back to the episode "The Gold Violin" (disillusionment). Sandy is also likely a juxtaposition/allusion to Sally, as both the idea of growing up 'motherless' and/or not being able to connect with your mother is something Sally has experienced (and so has Betty), but also Julliard has a school of Dance and not just music. Sally had practiced Ballet in younger years (this could then be foreshadowing her coming of age, leaving the nest) . Additionally MUSIC may be something we associate with the goodness of Anna Draper, as she taught children how to play the piano and Anna may be a reference to St. Anne. ("Grace" - Mother of Mary) -And this is also contrasted with Peggy's trying to figure out a pitch for a head phone company...One could argue that wearing head phones could be a metaphor for either being in your own world and/or not being able to hear others around you.

Once back in an earlier season Don was trying to pitch an add that included young people smoking cigarettes. But what Don says is really at heart of the whole series suggesting the rebellious streak is about about children turning into adults, but really about pinning for their childhood, as they don't know yet that they're going to die.

Anna also had told Don that there is much value in young people. Telling him that they are what keep older people youthful.

Ultimately Mad Men is about facing the inevitable and fearing what comes next.

The whole thing with the death of Sandy's mother and Betty's search for Sandy is all contrasted by a the death of Roger's mother and the first time in any episode we finally see Roger have a breakdown and cry. One could argue that Betty and Roger are also similar characters in that their behavior is often child like or adolescent and that both characters are often extremely two-faced, -and both characters are often vein and spitful.

From Hell & Back

But most of this episode's impact and awareness to Charles Dickens Christmas Moral Story comes off skirts of last season, as the British character (playing to 1960's British Invasion themes) Lane Pryce killed himself in similar fashion to Don's brother, but during Christmas. This first episode back we jump ahead to another Christmas, one where the company has expanded (to the point where one can get lost in crowd) and Lane is forgotten.

Charles Dickens' tale about a cranky old man named Eboneeser Scrooge, who cares for nothing but his wealth and success and who treats those [he deems] underneath him appallingly bad during the Christmas season. He is first visited by his former business partner Jacob Marley, whom just escaped from Hell to tell Scrooge just how bad it is and that he will be visited by 3 ghosts of time to remind him of who he was, who he is, and who he will become if he does not change his ways. The ghost of Christmas future in particular is the one that presents an alternate reality filled with a nightmarish post death sorrow.

One allusion is Peggy, who again is mirroring a former Don (like the night of Peggy's Birthday) by not letting some of the people who work for her go home on New Years Eve, as it's a similar idea of Scrooge making one of his employees work on Christmas Eve Day.


Charles Dickens is also known for using whimsical names in most of his works. When you think about it many of the characters have surnames that add an additional dimension to their personal struggles with life they face, such as Lane Pryce, as a Lane is another name for street or road and Pryce is a word very close to Price, which spells out themes about values and choices: the roads taken and not taken and the cost of living certain lifestyles that include treating others poorly and/or using others for material gains...

This season also starts with Don and Megan on the beach in Hawaii. Even though it's Christmas, you could have fooled the viewers with this tropical setting. It's "A Snowball's Chance in HELL." (In case you didn't notice Don is sitting on the beach at one point reading " THE INFERNO")

"You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello"

This whole allusion is played through the episode, as Don is trying to create an add for a particular tropical setting, Hawaii. He's presentation features a very philosophical aspect of what Don refers to as "the jumping off point". This idea where one breaths in and out one's life in exchange for another one, as the ad features a man's suit clothes and foot prints left behind, leaving the person looking at the add to wonder or think about (in an adventurous or mysterious way), "Where did this man go?!" The client however reads it a different way, in which he feels it morbidly expresses death.

For me, the truth is I can see it both ways simultaneously, as death can be perceived as state of transition or a change ("this could change everything"), as opposed to a finalization, but it's often brushes with death that make or break us as people, as we keep searching for meaning in our lives, as the BIG questions are, "Are We Coming or are we going?" and "Is this all there is?"

Don's spiritual message in this ad also reminds me of what Harry once told Don about when archaeologists had found hand prints painted on cave walls. -How Harry believed they weren't just leaving their mark/identity behind, but also reaching out into the future. In that instance, which may stem back to this one, Don had used  Harry's idea and made his for Kodak's Carousal pitch. (aka: a reinvention of the wheel /A Time Machine)

This also goes with Megan's Heinz pitch last season in which expresses something eternal from past to future, from cave man to residents of the moon, and mothers and daughters, again playing on nostalgia, leading into season 6 themes (the more things change the more they stay the same/or some things never change), and pointing out that Mad Men's themes are not exclusive to the 1960's, they're universal to all of humanity.

Do You Love Them MADLY?
 Don's inspiration for his ad also ties into other things in the episode and the series. The Door Man (The episode title for 6x01/602 is "The Doorway"), whom Dr. Rosen calls Jonesy collapsed and was pronounced dead, but was revived! (Note: Jonesy is similar sounding name to Joanie, Roger's nickname for Joan) This then goes hand in hand with Don's double hanging deaths, double marriages, double floors at work, and/or double lives taken and given, something touched on in the season 5 finale with the James Bond Theme Song for "You Live Only Twice" playing in the background of the final scenes.

Lyrics for You Live Only Twice:

You Only Live Twice or so it seems,
One life for yourself and one for your dreams.
You drift through the years and life seems tame,
Till one dream appears and love is its name.

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on,
Don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone.

This dream is for you, so pay the price.
Make one dream come true, you only live twice.

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on,
Don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone.



Doors (and windows) are then furthered explored by Roger who tells his psychiatrist a metaphor that life is meaningless, because all it's about is walking in and out of doors -and they are all the same and where just going to one place...

This immediately also makes me think of both the band "The Doors", who are named after Aldous Huxley's trippy 1954 novel, "The Doors of Perception" in which Huxley wrote his experience while on mescaline (a mind altering drug). Huxley names his novel after a poem by William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", which Blake barrows "argumentation" prose which is a style well known in Dante's "Inferno" and John Milton's "Paradise Lost."

The episode also introduces a new character (mentioned a couple paragraphs ago) who lives in the same building as Don and became a social acquaintance. Dr. Rosen is heart surgeon aspiring to preform the first American heart transplant! It's a curious occupation to introduce when one considers themes about 'fixing broken hearts'  (and someone else's heart in another's body), especially when in the final scenes the character himself tells Don that he and him are the same, because they really both don't "really" care about their jobs, which is juxtaposed by Don sleeping with his wife, Sylvia, while he "skies" to the hospital New Years Day (very early morning and right after socializing with Don and Megen.

Note: Skies tie back to last season when a pair was given to Pete.

"This time of year can be hard." -Betty

These Are "Hard Times"
Charles Dickens can also be felt in scenes where Betty goes to try to find Sandy in the run down abandoned apartment only to find a bunch of filthy degenerate boys and Sandy's violin in case. Really the scenes are very surreal, not just because Betty can't find her and she helps the boys make something to eat, but that the scenes feel more like a dingy orphanage, which easily makes one think of "Olivier Twist". There's also a juxtaposition back to Glen when he intentionally walked into the bathroom on Betty, as Betty accidentally walks in on a young boy doing the same (And Glen once expressed that his mother was never there to take of him or sister). But the scenes are also haunting, as Betty looks through all THE DOORS of the apartment for a ghost of a girl, who has only left behind this one precious item...an item one boy says Sandy had sold to him, that Betty can't imagine Sandy would ever do, and Betty clinging onto the past of this child, almost takes the violin back home with her, but actually just leaves it outside another DOOR. At home Betty looks for solace and comfort from her own daughter, but sadly has found she too has also moved on, as Sally slams THE DOOR in Betty's face. (It's too late!)

Note: Last Season Betty's Cancer scare referenced The Christmas Carol twice: First with this line to Henry, "I feel like I’ve been given a gift, like Scrooge seeing his tombstone,” and because Betty actually envisions an alternate reality where she has died. 


And briefly wanting to mention Megan, her role and over all identity as a actress in the soup opera also mirrors the "exaggerated" and/or melodramatic feel the series has more and more taken.

The episode also moved around in time (which was something that started happening last season) and all of these homeless children, motherly deaths, and new characters that have familiar appearances/dialogues/situations relating to the other characters all make the episode feel like some crazy trippy manic time warp. Something like, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". It's a future filled with super narcissism and lack of sentiment running rampant like a runaway train, and like a good Ayn Rand or Dante work, you might be left wondering how does one escape escapism? And is there a line that one can cross and never come back from? Is life really a one way street? And Is There Light At The End of the Tunnel???

Be back next week after 6x03 "The Collaborators" airs and see what it has in store for us!



Food For Thought - Allusions to LOST?









Plane crash (Mohawk/Oceanic) in association to death (Pete's father/Christian)
Island/Beaches (California, Hawaii, Korea -All locations relate to LOST)
Purgatory/Hell/Heaven - (Figurative + Hawaii "the jumping off point")
Doctor specializing in field (Surgeon: Heart/Spinal)
Main Male character in denial/spiritually confused/in the dark ('lost')
Main Male character struggles with his alcoholic/theological views of his father & Fathers Death.
Characters with Military backgrounds
Tapestry of pop culture beautiful woven together
Metaphysical.
Alternate Realities/Multiple Universe? -Dream sequences, and "trips" have been presented, it remains to be seen if my theory is right. If so, then we might see Main Male character come "full circle" through space time  (Corporeal time travel & Ethereal time travel)

Note: Don's pitch with Kodak - "It's a Time Machine" = many J.J. Abrams-esque ideas, as the Island on LOST could literally be perceived as a time machine. In Felicity the character Ben Covington says the same thing about a film (Gold Rush) - "It's A Time Machine". Additionally Felicity featured both Sean recording their lives (hand held video recorder), Felicity receiving and passing messages to and from her friend SALLY (audio recorder), and Felicity time travels via magic spells and experiences 3 alternate realities by the series end.

Fever Dream - Mad Men Dream Theory Pg 1.

Hello! And welcome to a blog about Mad Men! (The TV Series)

First, let me get this out of the way and warn people about what I plan present in the next (who knows how many words) essay in a series of blogs! I'm going to purpose a theory that about a third of Mad Men is a dream. It's true I have said this about other shows before, and so far, (some of those are still in progress however) I have been wrong. If by chance you're someone who is completely against the possibility of such an idea, then please let me not waste your time and tell you probably won't want to read this. (and in return I hope to not get negative/off hand comments about how you don't believe so, and/or assume I'm someone who will be disappointed if I'm wrong. There's a 50/50 chance! And there's first time for everything!)

Before I get started with that crazy idea, let me explain why I think Mad Men is so genius. There is surely an audience out there that watches Mad Men and it's blatant 1960's culture and thinks, Yes. I want to to be these people and I want to live their lifestyle, but really Mad Men is a rather lengthy add about why we shouldn't want to live this lifestyle.

It's not really just confided to the 1960's either. It's smart in that has a large cast of characters of all different ages which come from different backgrounds, and thus allows the bias to go beyond sexism, but all kinds of double standard situations, as generation, class, upbringing, sex, ethnicity, physique, and occupation all play role, which is only furthered by a time of great movement and change in American culture.

In addition it looks at the double edge sword of art and how it can be used and defined. The idea of how selling our ideas, or expressions, our hopes and dreams might be like selling our souls, especially when one might consider art a medium for expressing desire and/or fantasy and not always an honest reality, but more over, what happens when your willing to sell your principals, or when your not willing to play fair? Where do find value and meaning?

"Is This What You Want, or Is this What Others Expect of You?"

It's this idea presented by Anna that I think mostly defines the series, as it is this line of thinking that purposes the struggle to be human, as being apart of the society/family/culture/work place requires a compromise, but in an ever changing world, and complex characters like Don Draper, this becomes much more of a challenge if you keep denying who you are (and others around you.)

The series is heavily infused with 1960's culture (and beyond) as well, although most notably off the hinges of the 1950s'. Alfred Hitchcock, Ayn Rand, The Twilight Zone, & Walt Disney are some of the most heavily referenced/alluded to (Outside of the companies campaigning for adds), again playing mostly on science fiction and fantasy aspects. In fact by the time we get to the end of season 4 and into 5 the atmosphere of the show becomes more and more surreal and this is where I begin my basis for a dream-like sanario that is presenting the viewers with an alternate reality.

As briefly mentioned above, Don Draper is a character who is lost and trying to find himself, but the truth is, he's not alone, or rather perhaps he doesn't have to be alone if he would just face the truth.

Don's story is really about stolen identity and stolen childhood dreams. A boy born from a prostitute and an already married farmer, Dick Whitman experiences the hardships of continuously loosing parental figures, strict double standard philosophy, while watching his alcoholic father struggle through the depression era until he dies.

Dick runs away to the army during the Korean War in which he briefly meets the original Don Draper and in ill twist fate, not from combat, but from lighting a cigarette around flammable substances, Don and Dick are thrown back, as Don is unidentifiable and the army assumes Dick is Don and Dick accepts and steals his new identity as Donald Draper.

Don builds a future for himself starting out as a car salesman, but not before long when the former Don's widow finds Dick and tracks him down, but Anna Draper couldn't be more interesting, as an intuitive spiritual  life force. Don makes sure Anna is well taken care of, gets a divorce from her, they become good friends even though they live on opposite coasts and Don continues on building a life, eventually getting married having kids and joining an advertising agency.


Don's life becomes one full of contradictions and hypocritical irony, as he hides his secret from his wife, helps promote one of the biggest cigarette campaigns for the brand Lucky Strike, has an affairs with a [con]artist, and Jewish women who manages her father's department store--who challenges and spiritually awakens Don.

This all leads to surprise run with his half brother Adam, whom Don had left behind in search of new life. Don fears loosing everything he thinks he has worked for to try and escape that life, and it includes pushing his brother away. But Adam is persistent for at least one meeting, but Don, doing what he is good at, tries to buy Adam off, but Adam didn't want Don's wealth, he wanted to be apart of his brothers life, as he explains he has no where to go and nothing to do. This results in Adam committing suicide by hanging himself.

Don initially deals with the fall out with his brother through Pete, who finds family photos Adam sent to Don's office, as Pete tries expose Don to owners of the company Roger and Cooper, who don't actually care about the fact that Don once had a different name. Don relieved having a change of heart calls his brother at the hotel he was staying, only to learn second hand that Adam was dead. However, Don's fears about exposing himself eventually are justified, as when his wife Betty finds out, uses it as an excuse to get a divorce and pursue a love interest on the backlash of learning about Don's infidelity.

This all leads to two other important plots or stories told in Mad Men. One deals with Don's relationship with secretary turned copy-writer Peggy Olsen, who often is written to parallel Don, as she is a type of protege'. Don even at one point explains that sometimes (and he admits wrongly) he sees Peggy as an extension of himself which comes with both it's good and bad points. One bad being the need to take out his hardships on her, representing a type of emotional self mutilation. But the thing about their relationship is that it has never become romantic and both characters often speak their minds and become brutally honest with each other. It's a real friendship. Additionally Peggy, like Don bares a secret that originally only Don knew about, but both characters never tell each other the whole truth about their situations, and for Don, more than Peggy, it becomes crux of Don's over all fear and continuous unlucky strike outs from making bad choices.

The second plot, although more of subplot that gives the show and Don it's back bone is Don's relationship with Anna. Like Peggy, it never became romantic, but Don being in moment of existential crisis visits her in Pasadena, California and through brief time spent with Anna's niece, he learns the truth that Anna has cancer and doesn't have long to live. At first Don feels compelled to do something, as Stephanie and Stephanie's  mother have expressed him not to say anything and that they believe Anna doesn't know. The thing about Anna is that she is a genuine spiritual person, who seems to have gifts of insight, and even though we may never know for sure if she knew that Don was actually responsible for her husband's death would change her perception of Don, it seems unlikely as she plays the big sister, aunt, and/or mother figure he never had and accepts Don and gives him words of wisdom. She believes he is a good person, despite all of his mistakes or misgivings. In fact some of the advise or inspirational messages she gives are almost like that of a brave person who knows they're going die, their conversation related a lot to look to young people and future-it's what gives you 'life back'. Don decides he can't really deal with the idea of Anna's death as he fixes up the house a bit to make it like she wants, but not before long that he says he has to leave.

Don continues to ignore it, as he has to deal with major company changes that happened in his absence, but it comes rushing back on Peggy's birthday with a phone call he refuses to return from California. During the whole episode Don is exceptionally controlling of Peggy, not letting her leave work to meet her boyfriend who's throwing a surprise party with Peggy's family waiting at the restaurant. Ultimately Don's destroy's Peggy's relationship, but honestly I think it's one Peggy didn't really want. It results in an almost all-nighter where Peggy and Don candidly open up to each other about their lives/upbringing, but because Don is so drunk, Peggy is somewhat forced to look after him. Eventually they end up back in office, a confrontation with Duck, in which Don really fights on behalf of Peggy and results in Don falling asleep in Peggy's lap. Don however wakes up at one point and sees (allegedly) the ghost of Anna who is smiling upon this pairing.

The next morning Don calls Stephanie back and learns that Anna had in fact just died, and as Don looks for compassion, Stephanie, also not being able to deal with it, doesn't really give him any as she tells him not to come to California and doesn't really want to talk to him long.

It's at this point the show more clearly is about loss and/or death in the wake of facing existentialism (not just for Don, but so many of the characters) and IMO is the turning point of the series that starts to really use it's science fiction and fantasy references/allusions in more direct way, as the show becomes increasingly strange as we move through the fifth season.

The fifth season more heavily plays to Disney Princesses (sexism both ways), Delusional states of alternate reality (Fever Dream, LSD, Anesthesia, Pills Sally takes) and/or time displacement (episodes started dancing around in event order), Don and his identity juxtaposed through Lane forging his signature and his new secretary Don, all ironically again going back to the lives Don has stolen, as being a car sells man is ironic considering this season marked getting the Jaguar (car) account, all leading to a non sympathetic, hypocritical, and paranoid Don dismissing Lane, leading him to hang himself in his office during the Holiday season, which mirrors Adams death, as no doubt Don sees 'the ghost of Adam' while having a "tooth ache" in season 5 finale, which not only features the profound question we all ask ourselves, "are you alone?", but now his second marriage and second company-rehash, and being responsible for for two hanged deaths is all furthered by James Bond theme song, "You Live Only Twice".

Really when you think about it, spiritual themes have been here all along. Between Don's strict Theological up bringing of  being a farm boy and eventually having a brother named "Adam", To Don getting tarot card readings from Anna and attempting to cleanse himself in the ocean (Anna's house - the beach signifies the idea of "paradise"/Baptism), to this crazy add for Snow Ball, which Don plays up to his devil's advocate persona by leaving Gingsberg's idea in the cab, while he presents his sardonic "Snow Ball's Chance in Hell" add, one might be able to see where this is going.

To be continued....