What is your analysis of Walter White from Breaking Bad?
07.06.2025 01:55
Skylar’s prompt leaving, the death of hundreds on the plane through his actions, Jesse’s guilt and depression, and also his son’s efforts to try and help him are too much for Walt to bear. Whilst his family tries earnestly to help and support him with what they have, he has destroyed all sense of values that he wants to impart and is forced to live with that.
As he expresses to the doctor who interviews him, he wants escape from the pains of his reality, and he wants to do so by embracing a fantastical but absurd existence in which he is essentially alone.
His fear of accepting his life as it is and in accepting that he brought upon this life leads him to descend into crime and violence under the false mask of providing for his family. It’s key to note though that if he actually cared about such things he would have taken up the Elliot’s offer. What made him deny their generosity was his own self hatred and inferiority complex, something he projected the responsibility of onto them.
It’s unique to note that while ‘Heisenberg’ is at its fullest here, there are still elements of Walt left behind. He doesn’t want to lose his relationships, but there is no equality in them any more. Everything is all about him and his need to keep people in his shadow, something which leads to many cruel casualties. It’s why he surrounds himself with racists and bigots, because while he doesn’t share their values the sense of bias and pride they support conforms with his own twisted worldview at this point.
He didn’t do bad things, but he was still a narcissist, just one without the strength of will to impart his presence into the world. I mean just one look at his dynamics tells you everything you need to know. The man is a genius who lets himself get walked all over by his own high school students, and is surrounded by a family he is not at all proud of. A scene in a later season portrays his vision for his family as big, but his only son is a cripple and his daughter an accident. His wife is someone with notably less ambition than his last partner, and also distinctly younger.
Heisenberg is Walt’s way of emulating what Gus represents, and he repeatedly tries to assert himself as someone of that ilk to the people around him. Regardless of what it does to his relationships, he needs to be seen as the figure of power and capability he has come to define his life by. As has been pointed out by many, he adopts the features of the people he kills.
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He already felt a loss of control when he gave up this life, but now he feels that his life in and of itself is losing value. He is concerned about his impact on the world that it starts to bleed into his familial relationships. His connection with Jesse is an encapsulation of his purpose. Despite the things he does, he wants his life to matter, and Jesse is someone who sees that. It’s why he can’t let him go, and why he unintentionally lets his feelings for Jesse slip out on his son’s birthday.
To avoid weakness he embraces ego. He discards his sentimentality and becomes a monster equivalent to Gus. But while Gus is ruled by practicality, Walt forsakes these things to become entirely his own man. In another story this might have been portrayed as an Overman-esque awakening, but here it’s a moment of confliction.
He chose this path for his own sake, and the people he loves do not deserve to be burdened by that path, and so he frees him. With that action, he submits to death, surrounded by the grim and empty consequences of his actions.
There is no justification or righteousness that can excuse him letting a (relatively) innocent and also deeply troubled young woman die, and by doing so he destroys the life of another family. This is not a Tuco situation where it’s done in self defense, but a legitimate allowance of death.
He is just as weak to falling into his old ways as he was before, and this cripples him. His greed leads to him falling for Jesse and Hank’s trap and his vindictiveness compels him to reveal to Jesse the truth about Jane in order to make himself feel better about his own losses.
After all, he’s going to die anyways….so why not die on a high note. Why not carry the burdens of his family upon his back like some sort of martyr and in turn find pleasure in doing so.
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This leads to him losing his relationship with his wife, missing his daughter’s birth, and most importantly…letting Jane die. A lot of people cite that moment as the point where “Walt became Heisenberg.” I disagree that there is a specific moment, as Heisenberg is simply his ‘shadow’ which becomes prevalent over time. That being said, if there was an instant in which he really did transition it would be this one.
When he is put into a position where he feels to seize that power is the best choice, he takes it. He is drawn to a false reality that emphasizes life and choice as relating purely to control. He is afraid of facing the negative consequences of his actions any longer and he does not want to find fulfillment in his last chapters through connection but instead through cementing himself as someone of competence, so that he can potentially absolve himself of the weight of his past cowardice and mistakes.
At his heart though, he is ultimately a man who does really care about his family. He does really care about Jesse, but it’s too late to make amends. He can’t fix things or go back to the way they were, and it’s this belief that hinders his attempt at retribution. People’s actions have weight, and without confronting sin it cannot be overcome.
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It’s a Jungian idea that everybody has a ‘shadow’, or a darker side. This is not bad, because it embodies one’s unconscious instincts. For Walt it’s his desire for dominance, and it’s brought out not by fate in a way that leaves him unable and also unwilling to address it healthily. He lets it consume him and fascinatingly becomes addicted to the rush he gets from power.
Before I touch on that though, I’d like to bring up a scene from season 4 episode 10, Salud. He reveals here to Walt Jr the influence his father’s death had on him. He recalls his only memory of him being one where he was weak, and that’s something he cannot tolerate.
It’s important to note that Walt never really had a positive masculine influence in his life as far as we know, and this may have contributed to his meekness and sensitivity. These things are not bad of course, but when not balanced can lead to the development of unconscious striving for masculinity.
Jesse is also his son. Not by blood, but in the fact that he is the only who can inherit and see his truest self, and he doesn’t want to tarnish that relationship.
The episode Bit By a Dead Bee is amongst the most key to understanding Walt as a person. Just like how the loss of pants represent his plunge into danger, him naked in the store encapsulates his mental state. He is an anomaly to the world and to his family. His exposed and truest self is not congruent with the world around him, and his perspective is distorted by self made isolation.
He cannot let go of his bond with Jesse nor his desire to be a father figure to him. As a teacher it is one of the few aspects which remains a positive element of his personality. He wants his will and existence to be inherited positively, unlike Gus, someone wrapped up in business and vengeance. That desire leads him to disagree with Gus, and places him in a situation where is not valued any longer as important.
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All right, I’ve got the talking pillow now. Okay? We all, in this room, we love each other. We want what’s best for each other, and I know that. I am very thankful for that. But what I want, what I need, is a choice…. Sometimes, I feel like I never actually make any of my own–choices, I mean. My entire life, it just seems I never, you know, had a real say about any of it. Now this last one–cancer–all I have left is how I choose to approach this…. Skyler, you’ve read the statistics. These doctors talking about surviving. One year, two years, like it’s the only thing that matters. But what good is it to just survive if I am too sick to work, to enjoy a meal, to make love? For what time I have left, I want to live in my own house. I want to sleep in my own bed. I don’t want to choke down thirty or forty pills every single day and lose my hair and lie around too tired to get up and so nauseated that I can’t even move my head. You cleaning up after me? Me–some dead man, some artificially alive, just marking time? No. No. And that’s how you would remember me. That’s the worst part. So that is my thought process, Skyler. I’m sorry. I just–I choose not to do it."
Regardless of emotion, one should conduct themselves in a way that supports one’s family. That is what it means to be a man, and this concept of masculinity binds Walt and allows him to further exercise his ego.
The story of Walter White is among the most influential and referenced arcs ever, and for good reason. It’s a brilliant exploration of how man can become corrupted by power, and one that is so potent cause of the surprising realism within Walt’s descent into sin.
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Obviously he wants Jr. to have a positive opinion on him, but most importantly, he can’t stand the thought that his son potentially sees him as weak.
He has surrounded himself with people who are ‘lesser’ than him, but due to his own lack of agency is unable to have the life that he wants. The first fifty years of his life are in essence….a disappointment. Despite being surrounded by people who should be inferior he is unable to have control or bring what he wants out of his relationships, and so instead they serve as a reminder of his failures and shortcomings in life. No greater example of this is there then Walt Jr., someone he named in his image, but who is ultimately a negative reflection (in his eyes at least) of his impact on his family.
The course of Season 1 only reflects this, as we see his gradual evolution into a man of competence. My favorite scene in the season is the ‘talking pillow’ discussion, where he verbalizes the rationale that drives him going into his last stage of life.
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He wanted to be Jesse’s savior, but when Jesse gives him thanks and then announces his intent to move on he feels undermined and wounded. His feelings are further reinforced by Gus’s speech to him, where he distances him further from his family and confines him more into the role of a provider.
As the asker of this question, Mugen Dai Guren Jigoku already mentioned, Walt at the start of the story can be seen as ‘The Last Man.’ This idea is one created by philosopher Nietzche, and it describes a person who lives their life safely and harmlessly. While a lot of people like to characterize Walt’s arc as one of “good to evil”, it’s important to distinguish that Walt was never ‘good.’
He shaves his head, becomes more aggressive and assertive, and also more comfortable with violence. After all, when exercising oneself sometimes people getting hurt. However…he’s able to mask this under the guise of altruistic intentions and also escapism.
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Probably the biggest irony is the fact that the fault of him not making his own choices is ultimately his fault. Even more interesting is that it’s really not true. He made the decision to leave Gray Matter as a result of his own ego, as well as the choice to surround himself with people who boosted that ego. Walt’s biggest flaw however….is his victim mentality. He externalizes his problems and places responsibility upon the broader world, which is why he feels as if he is powerless.
Season 4 can be encapsulated by its middle episode….Cornered. Walt is like a rabid animal here, driven by fear of death at the hands of another and of being replaced. It’s that terror that drives him to embrace the personality of Heisenberg. The ideal that he strives towards.
This is done not only as a means of subconsciously denying his regret, but also to subsume himself further into the larger then life persona of Heisenberg. This persona is not simply one individual, but a collection of many with him at the center. He wants the world to reinforce him, and when it starts to slip away he can’t take it.
It was this moment that marked his descent into a person defined by an archetype, that being a provider. To wash away the guilt and shame of his personal choices he resolves to take a path in which he be seen as a symbol of inspiration for his family to look towards. He wants to use his last hours to be an ideal provider and fulfill some masculine duty that he feels will immortalize his legacy for his family.
This very clearly consumed Walt’s life and led him to a point where he came to associate his former qualities and the state he saw his father in as weakness.
Gus is the ideal self that Walt wants to be. Someone completely in control, a businessman who is more symbol than person. When Gus tries to connect with him on the premise of being a family man later on it falls short because that’s not what Walt values in him. What prevents him from emulating Gus however, is his sentimentality.
The conclusion to Walt’s character is a sobering one. Redemption is impossible, but he decides that even if he can’t save himself he can imbue meaning into the people around him. His pride and sins are inescapable, but he does still have his family left.
Pool related imagery is often associated with Walt because it represents the conventional image of american wealth. A pool for the family to enjoy. Only in his very last hours does it become about the people in the pool.
The only person who actually challenges him is his brother in law, Hank. Hank is an overtly masculine and boisterous presence within his community, and despite his lack of ‘potential’ in contrast to Walt he has much power and often unintentionally exercises it over him. Walt’s feelings towards his in law are ones of both envy and admiration, but he is of course too meek to voice these feelings.
Even when Hank dies he tries to ignore and not deal with the weight of what just happened, only for this to blow up in his face even more. It’s only when he realizes the fact that he might potentially taint his newborn daughter with his selfishness that he gives up. The people around him aren’t tools for him to use, and he won’t let Holly become corrupted by him.
The scene of his remission being revealed is one tainted by the fact that he cannot have a certain death in which he buries himself in his isolation. He has to live with the weight of what he has become and continue dealing.
The first half of season 3 sees him trying to move on in his life. Here he is at his most conventionally “pathetic,” because he is essentially submitting himself back to a life of no agency. The world does not comfort him again however, as Skylar cheats with Ted to get revenge and he sees the people around him leaving him in the dust. He is not the center of attention, and Jesse trying to get back in the business on his own terms makes him feel unwanted and insignificant.
He has become someone untethered to idols or idealizations. He is the ideal. He is the king. Even if the crown comes burdened with sin and he is destined to go to hell, he is fully prepared for this consequences because he’s just too drunk on himself and his desires. From this point on it’s no longer about the family….it’s entirely about him.
To touch a bit further on the fly episode, it essentially serves as a captivating examination of the mind of Walter White and is self hatred. He hates the man he is becoming just as much as he hated his old self, but his pride and lust for power are too strong for him to resist. He is on a train that leads to the image of a single man..Gus Fring.
The tragedy of Walter White is that in the end….he never chose to love himself. He hated himself and he was obsessed with himself, but he never had the courage to accept his flaws and find value in life despite them. He could never just be ordinary. He was always trying to escape and to have an impact, and he achieved what he wanted. But in the process he became like his own father. His daughter now has only stories of him to traumatize her, and can never know his guidance or the good things about him. Out of all the sad things about Breaking Bad, that’s perhaps the worst, but also the most inevitable.
He pursues power with even greater fervor in the second half of season three, but not without a subconscious need to stamp out his guilt (as shown in the Fly episode). He wants to be absolved of it through doing things right this time, and he brings Jesse back to insure to himself that he will overcome his guilt.
This loneliness is reflected in his relationships. The people around him begin to distrust and dislike him because of his self absorption, and he treads a path in which he is slowly proceeding towards a death in which he is reflected upon, but not understood. Its only when he is revealed to actually be recovering that he is brought back.
Unfortunately, it comes to a point where he feels he must choose between caring for Jesse as a person and instead prioritizing his ego.
This inability to accept weakness is what pushes him despite how many times he fails. He continuously tries to impart his masculinity on women and on people around him, but often fails. This season pronounces that failure all around, and prompts him to make a key decision.
It’s only when he’s presented with the threat of cancer that he slowly is forced to take action. No longer does he have the option to safely sit back, because the universe has presented him with a deadline on his life. It’s with this deadline that he becomes truly alive, or as he puts it….’awake.’
Season 5 is one of the most captivating and yet also uncomfortable seasons of television I’ve ever watched. It is the undoing of a great man by his own hands. The self destructing train he is on reaches its destination.