Walter White Character Criticism

In the Ancient Greek tradition, a tragedy includes Hamartia which is, Peripeteia, Nemesis and Hubris. Hamartia is the hero’s tragic flaws. Peripeteia is when the hero has a reversal of their fate, nemesis is the consequences of the hero’s actions and hubris is an overwhelming pride. An example of a tragic hero would be Walter White from Breaking Bad. Walter White goes from loving family man to a drug kingpin in a short couple of years, showing his ultimate undoing and demise.

Walter White is an average, everyday joe, he is a high school chemistry teacher with a family, pregnant wife, teenage son and loving brother and sister in laws. He is well liked and lives a quiet life, but little does he know, his whole world is about to change right around his fiftieth birthday. Walter passes out at his second job and is rushed to the hospital, tests are done and results come back that Walter has inoperable lung cancer. This is the beginning of Walters downfall, Peripeteia comes into play here when he goes from healthy happy man to sickly desperate man. Walter’s hamartia, hubris, is so strong and controlling that he refuses help paying for chemo and goes to an extreme to provide for his family and his treatments by cooking crystal meth. He is so good in fact, that he begins to take pride in the purity of his product because he is a chemist after all and knows his chemical compounds like no other meth cook around. This example of hubris is a perfect example because it shows exactly how