Antihero Walter White essay
Many TV shows represent iconic heroes who demonstrate the best traits of their characters to become trustworthy and well-intentioned in social life, but some TV series “feature antiheroes who test the limits of society” (Landau 27). Many antiheroes are described as rule-breaking characters. Walter White from Breaking Bad show (2008-2013) by Vince Gilligan is one of them. Initially, he was a mild-manners high school teacher, but eventually he turned into a powerful drug lord. In other words, the Antihero of Breaking Bad show is Walter White. According to the plot of the show, Walter White is “a mild and beaten down high school chemistry teacher who finds himself diagnosed with lung cancer” (Martin 53). He was improperly insured, had problems with providing for his family and failed to become a scientist. Once he was a promising chemist, one of the founders of the multi-billion dollar company Gray Matter Technologies, but he had to leave, selling his shares in business for $5,000. He became an unhappy man and dissatisfied high school chemistry teacher. He makes a decision to start manufacturing methamphetamine in order to ensure his family’s financial support after his death. According to critics, “the underlying project” Vince Gilligan had in mind was ‘a radical extension of the antihero trend that had by then become the signature of the decade’s TV” (Martin 53). The major goal of this paper is to explore the character of Walter White and prove that he is an antihero in the show Breaking Bad.
To start with, it is necessary to define the term “antihero” in order to find some characteristics that can be applied to Walter White’s role. Antiheroes presented in various literary works, or films, or TV shows are not simply “the antithesis of the hero”. According to Christopher Vogler, “antihero is a slippery term that can cause a lot of confusion”(Lively 44). In other words, an Antihero cannot be regarded as the opposite of a Hero, because an Antihero is a “specialized kind of Hero” (Lively 44).
Walter White is represented as an antihero because his behavior, his actions and his ideas characterize him as a specialized kind of hero. According to VanDerWerff, “the blackness in his soul seeped out until he was ranting at his wife over the phone, a ploy to get the police off her back that conveniently also let him yell about how everyone around him had failed to recognize his greatness” (1). As a matter of fact, Walter White acts as an antihero in many series, performing the victim of his circumstances, including family, society, job, career, addiction, etc. Walter White can be regarded as an agent of free will.
Antiheroes should possess some iconic characteristics, both positive and negative. According to critics, “this polarity provides all series with the right amount of dramatic heat to sustain it over many seasons” (Landau 31). Let’s apply this polarity to the case of Walter White in Breaking Bad series. First, Walter White starts his career in the crystal meth drug trade as a green band. However, he is also a well-trained, highly professional expert chemist who possesses unique professional skills. Thus, the audience evaluates Walter White’s character as “simultaneously naïve and smart” (Landau 31). Second, throughout many series, Walter White demonstrates his strong leadership skills that help him to solve various problems, but, at the same time, he becomes increasingly paranoid. As a result, he has no trust in other people’s ideas. His inability to trust others makes him “a lone wolf”(Landau 31). Third, Walter White is represented in the show as a loving and kind family man, who values his family and who would never protest against his family’s decisions in order to keep his family together. At the same time, Walter White’s actions, decisions and behaviors become “more and more dangerous and reckless,” and he is ready to place his wife and his children into danger in order to achieve his self-interested aims (Landau 31). Finally, Walter White can be characterized as a greedy man who is focused on powers of authority. Nevertheless, he leads a secret double life that makes him change his decisions and his true face, throwing off the mask each time he comes to his family. According to Neil Landau, he has no opportunity to show his enormous power, his potential and wealth, “despite his growing ego and fortune, he continues to live small” (31). So, Walter White possesses both positive and negative characteristics, which make his an antihero.
As a matter of fact, Walter White has become an antihero because of his diagnosis that makes his feel the fear of the coming death. According to critics, “the motivation that got him off his keister in the first place to becoming a criminal was the fear of imminent death” (Landau 37). Walter White faces serious life problems and ponders over the meaning of life. Once, he said to his brother, “You know, I used to worry about everything; it used to keep me awake at night. But since, I got my cancer diagnosis, I sleep like a baby” (qtd. in Landau 37). Walter White is ready to start producing crystal meth in order to become a powerful man. He uses his chemistry knowledge, being involved in the life of crime. In other words, Walter is a man dying of cancer, but he himself can be regarded as a cancer.
Conclusion
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that Walter White is an antihero in the show Breaking Bad. In the series of Breaking Bad show, the audience has an opportunity to evaluate Walter White’s progress from the so-called white knight family man into a black soul monster. The audience watches how the main character of Breaking Bad series demonstrates his light and dark impulses. Although Walter White can be characterizes as an antihero, he also acts as a survivor. The audience evaluates his failures and successes, and his desire to never give up. In general, Vince Gilligan has created a complex character because Walter White is an antihero in the show. Walter White, a loving father and a loving husband, who works hard to provide his family members with everything they need, without violating the law, suddenly, makes a decision to sheer off the path of goodness and becomes a monster. Walter White makes a choice to be a bad man than nobody. His decision to become a criminal gives him the power he needs and the relevance he will use in his decisions.
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