If Breaking Bad can be compared to any genre of literature, it’s certainly tragedy. The TV series about Walter White is set on a downward spiral already in the pilot episode when Walt is diagnosed with cancer. From that point on, we know how this will end. However, these circumstances don’t necessarily make Breaking Bad a tragedy. Instead, it’s the actions that Walter takes after his cancer is diagnosed that sets tragic events into motion. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, we have a similar preface. A man, confronted with his fate, takes measures to deal with it, but ends up tainting and corrupting everything in his life. Given this similarity, it’s particularly interesting to compare the ways in which these two stories explore the effects of men becoming corrupt after coming face-to-face with their fate.
The first thing to look at is motive. It’s easier to discern the motives of Macbeth. He even says himself, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition” (Macbeth, 1.7.25-28), meaning that the only thing driving him to kill Duncan is his ambition. He doesn’t try to fool himself or anyone else into thinking that he is acting out of good intentions. He recognizes that his intent is purely selfish.
This contrasts with Walt, who seems a more morally ambiguous character. Throughout Breaking Bad, says that everything that he does is to provide for and to protect his family. But we can also see that his actions are driven by other things as well, especially by pride. Even when offered money for treatment by his friends, Elliot and Gretchen, Walter chooses not to accept their offer, solely because of pride. Later in season 5, if Walt were truly concerned with his family’s safety, he would have removed himself from the meth business when he was able to do so. However, he couldn’t do that, not because of his family, but because of his pride. If he was really doing it for his family he would be saving up all the money that he could for them. However, what does he do with the first bit of money he gets? He buys two new cars for himself and Walt Jr; completely superfluous and extravagant. At this point, it is safe to say that Walt is completely in it for himself. Still, at this point in the show, the question still remains of what made Walt get into the business in the first place? Was it pride or family?
A mark of a Shakespearean tragedy is hamartia, or the fatal flaw or action leading to a character’s downfall. In Macbeth’s case, it’s his ambition. After receiving the prophecy of the weird sisters, instead of just letting things happen, as his promotion to Thane of Cawdor happened, Macbeth assumes that he will have to take action and force events in order to make the prophecy come true. This results in him making the decision to murder Duncan and sends him on a corrupting downward spiral.
Walt’s hamartia is his pride. After years of feeling like he’s been cheated out of the life he deserves, Walt has a lot of pent-up aggression due to his pride. As soon as he begins down the path of making meth, his suppressed feelings begin to emerge more and more, eventually revealing the character of Heisenberg.
In both Macbeth and Breaking Bad, the protagonists suffer the consequences for their evil actions. In Macbeth, some of this is in the supernatural realm. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have hallucinations and visions after killing Duncan. Breaking Bad is more naturalistic and less supernatural, but even here Jesse hallucinates while consumed with guilt for killing Gale. While playing a first-person shooter video game, Jesse flashes back to the moment he pulled the trigger on Gale. His mental breakdown and the chaos around him at this point bring to mind Lady Macbeth after the murder of Duncan.
Through season 3 of Breaking Bad, the question is: Will Walt find redemption or will he end up as Macbeth did, alone with no one to mourn for him? Based on the similarities between Macbeth and the Breaking Bad, it certainly looks as if the series will end in tragedy.
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