“The Wages of Sin is Death:Breaking Bad as the New

American Tragedy”

SELECTED CLASS NOTES

“The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide.” (Mere Christianity, p. 11)

Selective quotes from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity:

“People who take [the materialist view of the universe] think that matter and space just happen to exist, and always have existed, nobody knows shy; and that the matter, behaving in certain fixed ways, has just happened, by a sort of fluke, to produce creatures like ourselves who are able to think…. The other view is the religious view. According to it, what is behind the universe is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know. That is to say, it is conscious, and has purposes, and prefers on thing to another.” (Mere Christianity, pp. 21-22)

“Wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way.” (Mere Christianity, p. 44)

“Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness.” (Mere Christianity, p. 44) 

“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” (Mere Christianity, p. 122) “Pride is essentially competitive--is competitive by its very nature--while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” (Mere Christianity, p. 122) “There is nothing makes a man feel so superior to others as being able to move them about like toy soldiers.” (Mere Christianity, p. 123)

“Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.” (Mere Christianity, p. 125) “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.” (Mere Christianity, p. 132)

Characteristics of tragedies:

1) The major characters are not commoners or ordinary people. They’re heroes, kings, and gods.

2) A tragic flaw, significant personal error, or bad decision, usually revealed by conditions beyond the protagonist’s control and often outside of his direct action, brings about his downfall.

3) Conditions for the protagonists and associated characters go from good to bad.

4) The protagonist brings down others in his fall.5) The purpose of a tragedy is to bring catharsis,

cleansing the soul of viewers of fear and pity.

Tragedy term list:

• Hamartia (tragic error, missing the mark)• Hubris / Hybris (violent transgression,

excessive self-pride)• Anagnorisis (tragic recognition or insight)• Nemesis (retribution)• Peripateia (plot reversal)• Catastrophe (turning downward of plot)• Catharthis (emotional discharge)

“Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…through pity [eleos] and fear [phobos] effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions.”

-- Aristotle, Poetics

“Tragedy implies the weight and worth of its central figures. Tragedy is never the fall of simple victims or villains: these falls are dramatically uninteresting and untragic. Tragedy implies the fall of someone who is responsible and significant—a person of substance…. In fact, tragedy implies the fall of someone who is naturally great but whose greatness has been compromised and finally crushed by a mix of forces, including personal agency, that work together for evil in a way that seems simultaneously surprising and predictable, preventable and inevitable. A tragic figure is, in some intricate combination, both weak and willful, both foolish andglitzy. We therefore want to accuse him and also to sympathize with him. (Think, for instance, of Shakespeare’s King Lear and his featherheaded demand that his daughters declare their love for him.) In tragedy, sin is surely one of the forces at work, but it is by no means the only force and sometimes not even the most obvious one.”

-- Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, page 140

“Everyone is born with a mind, but it is only through this act of introspection, of self-examination, of establishing communication between the mind and the heart, the mind and experience, that you become an individual, a unique being—a soul. And that is what it means to develop a self.So what does college have to do with it? College helps to furnish the tools with which to undertake that work of self-discovery. It’s very hard, again, to do it on your own. The job of college is to assist you, or force you, to start on your way through the vale of soul-making. Books, ideas, works of art and thought, the pressure of the minds around you that are looking for their own answers in their own ways: all these are incitements, disruptions, violations. They make you question everything you thought you knew about yourself.”

-- William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, page 84

Writing review:

• exploration / explication / analysisvs.

• description / survey / summary

• Titles!

Possible focuses for blog posts:

• a particular piece of music• a particular image/photo• a particular connection/comparison/contrast

to another cultural work (see partial list of page 3 of syllabus)

• a particular connection/comparison/contrast to another television show (The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men…)

1) Are Creon’s and Antigone’s actions justified or not?

2) What’s the difference between rightful and unjust authority? When is civil disobedience justified?

3) What’s the relationship between man’s law and God’s (or the gods’) law?

4) Where should our highest loyalties lie? What duties do we have to family? To natural law/religion? To the state/government?

5) How does the play use the terms “friend, “enemy,” “traitor”?

6) Analyze Antigone based on Wheeler’s article and the categories in Freytag’s pyramid: anagnorisis, hamartia, hubris, nemesis, peripateia. How would you “map” Antigone with these categories in mind?

1) Compare Antigone and Breaking Bad, esp. the character of Antigone.

2) Compare Antigone and Breaking Bad, esp. the character of Creon.

3) Compare Antigone and Breaking Bad, esp. God’s (or the gods’) law.

4) Discuss the various perspectives on duty to family seen in Breaking Bad to this point. With which perspective are you most sympathetic?

5) Who in Breaking Bad doesn’t see themselves and situations around them rightly?

6) Analyze Breaking Bad based on Wheeler’s article and the categories in Freytag’s pyramid: anagnorisis, hamartia, hubris, nemesis, peripateia. How would you “map” Breaking Bad with these categories in mind?

Evaluate Walt and Skyler in Episodes 301-305

• Why do you think there’s a divergence in Walt-scores and in how Walt and Skyler are evaluated by various viewers?

• Both Walt and Skyler say that they’re motivated by “family” in what they say and do. What do they mean by “family?”

• What do you think of their use of “family?” • What strikes you as true/genuine about how

they use this word? • What strikes you as false/blind?

Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)

16 There are six things that the LORD hates,    seven that are an abomination to him:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,    and hands that shed innocent blood,18 a heart that devises wicked plans,    feet that make haste to run to evil,19 a false witness who breathes out lies,    and one who sows discord among brothers.

Galatians 5:16-26 (ESV)

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Mark 7:20-23 (ESV)

20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

“The Seven Deadly Sins” (or “Capital Vices”)

• Lust• Gluttony• Greed• Sloth• Wrath• Envy• Pride

Questions on Oedipus the King

1) How does Oedipus’ character change over the course of the play? How would you describe him at the beginning, in the middle, and the end of the play?

2) What are the vices and virtues illustrated in Oedipus the King? Does Oedipus have a “fatal flaw?” If so, what is it?

3) What role do religion and piety play in Oedipus the King? In the cultural context of the play’s original setting, would Oedipus be seen as a pious figure? Why or why not?

4) To what degree are the vices and virtues illustrated in Oedipus the King similar or dissimilar to those often noted by Christians? Does Oedipus the King and Sophocles’ other plays have anything to teach Christians?

5) What’s the place of sight and blindness, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance in Oedipus the King? What explains Oedipus’ ability to see certain things and not others?

6) To what degree is the conclusion of the play the result of fate and to what degree is it the result of Oedipus’ free will?

Sophocles Shakespeare Plantinga you (497-406 BC) (1564-1616) (b. 1946)(b. 1992-5)|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Jesus of Nazareth Lewis Gilligan(2 BC-AD 33) (1898-1963) (b. 1967)

Questions about comparative views onthe nature of human evil / wrong-doing / sin:

1. Is it real? objective? universal?2. Does it originate from the inside or

outside? from internal or external factors?3. What’s the solution to it?

themes / developments in Eps 306-310:

• relationship between cousins / cartel & Gus• relationship between Walt & Skyler• relationship between Walt & Gale• relationship between Walt & Jesse• relationship between Walt & Hank• relationship between Hank & Marie• relationship between Walt & Gus• family• truth-telling and lying• danger and safety

Two questions Shakespeare poses for us (from Dr. Smith’s lecture):

• Do humans have free will?

• What is a man? What is it to be masculine?

Discussion questions on Macbeth, Acts 1-2:1) There are numerous references to things natural and

unnatural. Where do we find these references? Why are they in the play?

2) Compare Macbeth (as we know him through Act 2) to other major characters, including Banquo and Lady Macbeth.

3) Pinpoint key moments through Act 2 in Macbeth’s transformation.

4) Select a handful of revealing or memorable lines spoken by major characters, and tell us why you chose them.

Questions on Eps 311-402:

1) Why is the Georgia O’Keeffe painting used in the teaser of Ep 311 (Abiquiu)?

2) What’s the relationship between Jesse and children in these episodes?

3) Why does Skyler want to get involved in Walt’s business?4) Who is strong/brave and who is weak/scared in Ep 312 (Half

Measures)?5) What do we learn about Mike, esp. in Ep 312 (Half

Measures)? What motivates him?6) What do we learn about Gale in Ep 313 (Full Measure)?

What kind of person is he?7) What are Walt’s, Jesse’s, and Gus’ motivations in Ep 313

(Full Measure)?8) Why does Gus kill Victor in Ep 401 (Box Cutter)?9) How do Walt and Jesse respond to Victor’s death?10) Why does Jesse start partying in Ep 402 (Thirty-Eight Snub)?