Breaking Bad and Morality

I finished my studies at university with a masters thesis about breaking bad and morality. After watching the series for three times and studying philosophy as my second subject, I found that Walter and Jesse go through a significant change in morality and general life situation:

Walter is portrayed as a very rational and strict person in the beginning. He’s cowardish, obeys the rules and relies way too much on his thinking all the time. It is as if his life is guided by rational principles how things are ought to be done. From what we can see in the beginning he appears as if any emotional passion is absent and only his thinking takes care of basically all decisions. Immanuel Kant thought that a perfectly moral Person would live like that: following principle ethics which derive only from pure thought and rationality. Let us therefore assume Walt symbolises a Kantian approach to life in general.

Jesse, on the other hand, is, simply put, not moral whatsoever. He enjoys life to the fullest (remember the first scene he’s introduced, when he falls out of the window?:)) he appears to be the EXACT opposite of Walt in the beginning. A person who’s only seeking the thrill of the moment, shagging girls, taking and producing drugs etc.

During the series however, both undergo a significant change in behaviour and morality. In the middle of the series Jesse tries to persuade Walt into killing the two mobsters who killed the little drug dealing kid on the bike. He states that the world would be a better without them in it - very clear a utilitarian, consequentialist way to approach the situation. After all, Walt really kills both of them.

Skip to the end of the show: Walt is only driven by his passions and shows no signs of morality anymore. He’s become a drug dealing, passion driven person. See Jesse on the other hand: he’s trying to get out of the whole situation, because he knows everything he’s done is in principle wrong. He even throws the money away and tries to leave the situation to become a caring father within a small family.

To conclude: Walt and Jesse juxtapose each other in the beginning and in the end from both a moral and a general perspective (family vs passions). During the mid series they meet at the closest point possible, consequentialism. What do you think?:)

Submitted May 02, 2018 at 04:25AM by badabang3000 https://ift.tt/2FzQxbu