Don's Tragic Flaw

One element of a Hero that I may have touched on, but didn't explore in the last post, is the tragic flaw.  Now this isn't necessarily the case for all heroes, however as we know most protagonists face consequences of their poor choices along the way.

A good example of a tragic flaw is Achilles weak heel.  Achilles is the strongest, most fearless, and charismatic leader in the Mediterranean.  Unstoppable except for his human heel, that becomes the death of him.

King Midas' tragic flaw is the golden touch, which helps him and then destroys him and turns his family to gold statues.

If we consider 'flaws' first as poor choices, Don has plenty of qualifiers.  Buying prostitutes, poor business ethics, cheating on his wife, alcoholism etc.  However these flaws aren't necessarily the tragic flaw.

The tragic flaw is an element of the story that exists all along, but eventually defeats the hero.

I believe Don Draper's tragic flaw is ego.

We know that Don is arrogant from the beginning of the show.  In the first episode, Don takes a report on cigarette smokers and throws it in the trash calling it "some psychology bullshit", in front of the researcher who wrote it.  Like many Ad Men of the time, he believes in his work so deeply, he will yell at clients in order to convince them of the same.  But Don's confidence also gets him what he wants.  It's functional for him to be an arrogant ad man, because people love his work. Don's lover, artist, and heroin addict friend Midge once said "there's that ego people pay to see."  

Ego is the root of all of Don's problems.  He sleeps with women while married because he believes he deserves everything he wants.  He yells at Peggy because he believes he's always right.One of Don's top egotistical moments was when he replaced his idea instead of Ginsberg's at the last minute just to prove his was better.  Everyone in creative agreed that Ginsberg's idea was best, however Don wanted to put the young copywriter in his place.  Ginsberg later told Don on the elevator "I feel sorry for you" to which Don replied "I don't think of you at all."

Mostly, Don uses his ego to his advantage.  But at times during the show, his ego-induced actions come back to haunt him.  When he drives to the beach house with Bobbie Barrett and crashes his car after having too much to drink. Peggy comes to his aid with discretion and bails him out of jail and takes car of Bobbie.

When Don stays late at work on the night of the Ali v. Liston fight, Duck Phillips wanders in to relieve himself in Don's office.  Don attempts to sucker punch him with negative consequences; Duck topples him and threatens to beat his ass.  Peggy got Duck out of the office and stayed with Don until morning when he found out Anna died.

In either case, Peggy comes and saves Don when his life becomes out of balance.  She's a reliable, caring, helper for Don's journey.  This is the role of the helper in mythological stories.  They save the hero in times of adversity.  Like Sam Wise saves Frodo from the giant spider.  Or when Toto and friends save Dorothy from the Wicked Witches castle, the helper helps bring the hero out of the darkness.