"Round the decay: of that colossal wreck": Pride and Guilt in Breaking Bad

Résumé

This article aims to explore the motivations fueling the behavior of the Breaking Bad’s characters, especially the two protagonists: Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. The discovery of Walter White’s cancer serves as a catalyst (a particularly appropriate chemical term) for him to unveil his true ‘inner self’. The serious nature of his disease, the associated medical costs, and his feeling of failure as both a father/husband and in the professional sphere, are established as the driving force behind his infamous behavior from the very start of the series. In the case of Jesse Pinkman, despite his roguish character, we soon discover his addiction to drugs, his dysfunctional relationship with his parents, and his need to be recognized and loved. However, beyond the strategies that underlie the initial sympathy that viewers usually tend to feel for this ‘ordinary American guy’ and his meth-making partner, Breaking Bad divulges other keys that allow us to understand the different emotional and moral paths that Mr. White and Jesse Pinkman follow. As we will explore, the progressive moral and criminal decline of Walter White is spurred on by the contradictory tension between two radical emotions that become ‘rationalized’ in order to justify his actions, which become increasingly less defensible: an intensifying pride, and a guilt that fades as the narrative unfolds. Even when remorse emerge in Walter White’s soul (specially during the last eight episodes), these two emotions play a crucial role defining Walter White’s last and deeply tragic actions. A similar internal struggle can be found in Jesse Pinkman during the five seasons of Breaking Bad. He acts as an inverted mirror for Mr. White. His moral boundaries are more problematic than Walt’s because guilt – even morbid guilt sometimes – becomes a powerful counterbalance for Jesse’s pride.