Mad Men:
Season:     3     / Episode:     3    
My Old Kentucky Home

The first draft of "My Old Kentucky Home" appeared in Stephen Collins Foster's workbook under the title "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night. It was published in 1853 by New York's Firth, Pound, and Company. According to folklore, Foster was inspired to write the song when, while traveling from his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to New Orleans, Louisiana, he stopped in Bardstown, Kentucky to visit his cousins, the Rowan family, and saw their magnificent Federal Hill mansion. However, while Foster's trip to New Orleans is well-documented, his stop in Kentucky has not been conclusively substantiated. Also problematic is that the lyrics refer not to a mansion, but a "little cabin". Also, Foster's trip took place in 1852, after the first draft of the song had already been written. Foster's only documented trip to Kentucky occurred in 1833 when his mother took him to visit relatives in Augusta and Louisville. Another explanation holds that Foster was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was published in 1851.

Written in the early part of his career, this is one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays. It is about two "star crossed lovers" whose untimely deaths unite their feuding families. Today, the characters symbolize young love.

Orgon's family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon's help). Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak with divine authority, and Orgon and his mother no longer take any action without first consulting him. One could even say Orgon has a single-minded obsession with Tartuffe, as clearly demonstrated in Act I, Scene 5.. Tartuffe's antics do not fool the rest of the family or their friends; they detest him. The stakes are raised when Orgon announces that he will marry Tartuffe to his daughter Mariane (already engaged to Valere). Mariane is, of course, very upset at this news and the rest of the family realizes how deeply Tartuffe has embedded himself into the family. In an effort to show Orgon how awful Tartuffe really is, the family devises a plan to trap Tartuffe into confessing to Elmire his desire for her. As a pious man and a guest, he should have no such feelings for the lady of the house, and the family hopes that after such a confession, Orgon will throw Tartuffe out of the house. Indeed, Tartuffe does try to seduce Elmire, but their interview is interrupted when Orgon's son, Damis, who has been eavesdropping, is no longer able to control his boiling indignation and jumps out of his hiding place to denounce Tartuffe.