The incredible dignity of Marie Schrader, one of Breaking Bad’s most hated characters

Acclaimed by audiences and critics as one of the best TV series of all time, Breaking Bad has forever changed the history of television series like few other products of the small screen, thanks above all to impeccable writing of all its protagonists and the surprising evolution of the same. In fact, even the characters considered secondary enjoy their own narrative arc with attention to the smallest details, hiding under the surface a complex symbolic and psychological universe that is sometimes essential to better understand the show in its entirety. This is the case of Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), one of the least appreciated characters of the series created by Vince Gilligan and on which we hardly tend to dwell, decidedly in the background compared to the other members of the family protagonist of the story; yet Marie is fundamental in the interpretation of Breaking Bad, unsuspected and accurate reflection of the protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), with whom he shares much more than one can imagine. Both characters are in fact mainly moved by the same spasmodic ambition: the one of be someone else.

As we well know, for Walter White this desire emerges especially after the diagnosis of lung cancer which deprives him of the possibility of control over his own future, of the opportunity to provide for his own family and, consequently, of his own masculinity governed precisely by that possibility of maintenance of loved ones. More than the limitations of the disease, it is the perception that the outside world has of him come“man who cannot provide for his family” to hurt his ego more, as is evident already from the fourth episode of the first season Cancer Man (An uncomfortable disease in Italian), in which he sets fire to a car he had just before ignored his presence taking his place in a supermarket car park. An analogous and parallel situation had occurred to Marie in the previous episode …And the Bag’s in the River (Radical consequences) in a shoe shop, from which the woman comes out with shoes that are not hers after having felt judged not economically up to it for that purchase from the saleswoman. Both struggle with the need to be seen by others as they perceive themselvesstarting to break the law as a response to the common feeling of not having one’s worth recognized.

Marie represents the evolution of Walter White on a small scale, the reinterpretation light and almost grotesque of the protagonist’s drama, the way through which the creator of Breaking Bad offers us a reflection on the central question of the series: what drives us towards evil?

The unconscious desire to overcome the barriers of one’s personality by becoming someone else it shows up more and more over the course of the episodes; Walter takes it pseudonym of Heisenberg and Marie, on the other hand, pretending to be interested in buying a house, presents herself each time with a different name (and life) to the various real estate agents. This overcoming of the boundaries of one’s being is also expressed by the woman through hers cleptomaniathus crossing the barrier between “what is mine” e “what is yours”. Walter and Marie, albeit in different ways, both bend the world to their will, fueling that inflated and fragile ego that leads them to over-evaluate themselves. The woman’s egomania is also symbolized by the purple color characteristic of her character; purple is in fact a symbol of royalty and nobility, the way through which Marie expresses and underlines to the outside world her feeling special and important, underlining the image she has of herself in her imagination through clothing.

The oversized egoimpulsivity, spitefulness and the urgent need to be considered and recognized, the feeling of being more than what one is: Walter and Marie are two sides of the same coin, traveling in a parallel way throughout the whole TV series never meeting except in those insurmountable boundaries that both constantly cross. In the fifth season, not surprisingly, both try to kidnap little Holly from her mother Skyler (Anna Gunn), crossing the limits of a morality that exists only outside their own world. Marie and Walt are in fact both pathological liars, especially towards themselves, telling each other a distorted truth in order not to admit their real feelings and their real sensations of dissatisfaction with their lives, thus showing a profound hypocrisy in the judgment they reserve for others compared to what they have for their own crimes.

The hypocrisy is thus ingrained in the characters and, consequently, in itself Breaking Bad to become an integral part of the viewers themselves, internalizing it to the point of ending up telling himself the same altered truth as his protagonist, judging Skyler’s infidelity or Marie’s kleptomania more deplorable than the heinous and unforgivable crimes committed by her country’s biggest drug trafficker. And it is precisely in this that lies the dignity of Marie schrader: while sharing the same characteristic traits of Walter White never comes to harm others. Marie is the answer to the question posed previously about what drives individuals towards evil, she is proof that it is not only circumstances that separate good and evil, but the will to remain anchored to the good side while being able “breaking bad” or turn towards evil. Despite the countless similarities, Marie’s strength is in the only elements in which she differs from the protagonist: the devotion to her husband Hank (Dean Norris), the support received from these, the empathy and the closeness she shows to her loved ones in times of need.

It’s the connection to others that keeps us connected to our best side, and it is the dignity of knowing which borders to cross and which to consider insurmountable to truly define ourselves as human beings.