Walter White is a great example of a person living a double life. Not only does Walter deal with his double lives intersecting with one another, but he also ends up hurting those close to him and changing into a completely different man. This blog will include spoilers for the series, Breaking Bad, and I highly recommend watching the show before reading further if you have not seen it. This blog does contain some sensitive topics such as death.
The Path of Madness
In the beginning, Walter White is an average family man. Walter may not be living the most luxurious life, but he has a peaceful life supporting his family as a high-school chemistry teacher and working part time at a local carwash. Although Walter has a loving family and friends that are more than willing to support him, it is evident he is unhappy with his life. It is clear that Walter is desperate for change. On Walter’s 50th birthday, he was diagnosed with cancer. This moment is what led Walter to want to find purpose within his life. Walter wanted change. He wanted something interesting to happen; he wanted to do more with the time he had left. In a gesture of good faith, Walter’s brother-in-law, Hank, a DEA (Drug Enforcement Apartment) agent, takes him on a ride along which leads Walter to begin his path.
The First Steps on Walter’s Path
The ride along with Hank is what led Walter to making crystal meth with a former chemistry student, Jesse Pinkman. And so, Walt begins to live a double life. At first, Walter has trouble balancing his life with his family and friends and with his other life of crime. Walt would begin to justify his double life by saying the money he earns is for his family once he is gone. Walter struggles because he knows that what he is doing is wrong and that by living this other life, he is lying to his family. The situation worsens for Walter when suddenly a misunderstanding between him and the distributor of his crystal meth, Krazy-8, leads to Walter and Jesse holding him captive in a basement. This event is the first big cross road for Walter and his double life because Walter struggles with the question of what to do with Krazy-8: whether he should let him go or kill him. Walter knows that once he kills a man, he will never be able to undo his actions. Walter has to choose between doing something that he knows would be beneficial for his double life or doing the morally right thing that he would normally do. Walter decides that he can not murder Krazy-8 and is in the process of letting him go when he realizes that Krazy-8 plans on killing him as soon as he is released. In response, he kills Krazy-8 in an act of self-defense. Walter is in shambles. Although he did it in self-defense, Walter knows that he can never take back the action of killing a man and now has to deal with the mental self-torment he inflicts upon himself.
Halfway Down the Path
After the incident with Krazy-8, Walter begins using an alias, Heisenberg, and this is when he begins making the clear distinction between his double identities: Walter White and Heisenberg. Heisenberg uses a fedora as a way to distinguish himself from the other criminals. Later in the series, in about season 3, Heisenberg has no problem killing people or threatening those he does not like. Walter is constantly lying to his family and trying to make sure they do not find out about his secret identity. This Walter is already completely different from the Walter in season 1 with how little he cares for the people he kills compared to the Walter that was devastated about killing Krazy-8 in self-defense. Not only is Walter killing without remorse, he is also effortlessly manipulating people into doing whatever he desires. A moment in which Walter is at a crossroad with his Walter White life and Heisenberg life is when Hank, his DEA agent brother-in-law, asks Walter to drive him to a location where he suspects meth is being made. The double identity of Walter works at the suspected meth lab location that Hank wants to visit. The old Walter that had nothing to hide would probably have felt uncomfortable about the situation but still have done it, and so, a problem arises. In this moment, Walter is faced with a conflict of allowing Hank to figure out his other identity or to do something to protect his double life. Walter makes his decision and decides to protect his secret life by purposely crashing the car, endangering not only himself but also Hank. Walter made the decision that his double life is more important than his and Hank’s own well being.
The End of Walter’s Path
By the end of Walter’s double life adventure, Hank is dead, his family despises him, and innocent people were hurt or killed. Walter is no longer the person he once was. Walter’s double life had consumed him entirely. Walter worked with Neo-Nazis and orchestrated precise assassinations. Walter’s double life had been nothing but successful: owning a car wash to launder money, having associates at disposal, a lawyer with plenty of connections to help him with whatever, etc. But, as retribution, Walter’s home life and original life had been falling to pieces with his wife finding out and hating him, his children no longer being able to stay in the same home as him, and pushing all those around him to the edge. Walter’s story ends with him dying not because of his cancer, but because of work he needed to finish as Heisenberg. In the beginning, a baby was born and named Walter White, raised to be a family man with socially acceptable morals, but a man named Heisenberg took over, turned Walter into an ego maniac, and he died by the consequences of his own actions as a result from his double life.
End of the Line
On the surface, Walter White was seen as a normal high school chemistry teacher that lived a semi-boring life that had good friends and an even better family. In reality, Walter White was consumed by his alter ego, Heisenberg, and was a ruthless, manipulating, murdering, drug kingpin. While at first, Walter may not have been very interesting, he was at least admirable in the fact he was working two jobs to support his family but the Walter at the end of the show has no redeeming qualities. Walter is still able to love and show care for people but the lives he ruined, people he manipulated, trauma he put others through, etc. are inexcusable. The Walter in the end of the show admits that he may have started making crystal meth to earn money for his family but that as time went on, his goal was twisted into a sense of pride and the benefits of the job outweighed his moral compass. Walter’s double life and alter ego all came crashing down onto him, forcing him to face the actions of his consequences and much like the Yellow Wallpaper, the audience follows along watching the slow descent into madness.
Sony Pictures Television ; High Bridge ; Gran Via Productions ; produced by Karen Moore … [and others] ; created by Vince Gilligan. Breaking Bad. The Complete First Season. [Culver City, CA] :Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2009.