In the hit TV series Breaking Bad, the color purple is used symbolically throughout the show’s five seasons. Show creator Vince Gilligan and his team of writers used colors to represent different concepts and themes. The color purple is particularly meaningful and appears repeatedly in connection with lead character Walter White.
Purple is most commonly associated with royalty, ambition, and corruption in Breaking Bad. As Walter White transforms from a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher into a ruthless drug kingpin, the color purple comes to embody his descent into moral decay and thirst for power. Purple becomes a key part of White’s transformation into his criminal alter ego “Heisenberg.”
In Breaking Bad, purple represents:
- Royalty and ambition
- Corruption and moral decay
- Danger and death
By examining key instances where the color purple appears throughout the series, we can gain a deeper understanding of its symbolic significance and how color is used in Breaking Bad to develop themes and characters.
Purple as Royalty and Ambition
One of the most iconic uses of purple is in Walter White’s wardrobe, especially his shirts and underwear. As he becomes more entrenched in the meth trade, he begins wearing darker purple shades that represent his growing ambition and sense of empowerment.
In the pilot episode, Walt wears a pale lilac dress shirt. But as he becomes more ruthless, Walt switches to deeper grape and plum colored shirts. After eliminating his first major rival in season 4, Walt triumphantly dons a dark, royal purple shirt, symbolizing his ascendance in the drug world.
The trend culminates in the final season when Walt buys himself a deep purple sports car, showing his inflated sense of pride and wealth.
Purple as a royal color also appears in other aspects of the show:
- The logo of the superlab Walt helps build is a crown over the letters L and W (for “Long Live Walter White”)
- When Walt and Skyler looking to launder their drug money, they tour a car wash named “A1A Car Wash.” Its logo is a crown over the letter A.
- One of the show’s most iconic images is a drawing of Walter White in a crown with the words “The King” underneath.
All of these moments visually link the color purple with Walt’s ambition to be the unquestioned ruler of his empire.
Corruption and Moral Decay
As Walt becomes more corrupt, purple also comes to represent his moral decay. Two major examples of this symbolism occur in season 3.
First, when Walt and Skyler are looking to buy a money laundering business, Walt becomes obsessed with a car wash called “The Crystal Palace.” The logo is designed with a lavender crystal, linking the business to Walt’s growing drug money and moral corruption.
Later in the season, Marie Schrader attempts to take in Hank while he recovers from a shooting. She decorated his hospital room in various shades of purple, thinking it will promote healing. But to Hank, the purple represents how uncontrolled and unjust his life has become due to Walt’s crimes.
In these examples, Walt does not directly choose the purple symbolism, but purple represents the devastation his actions have caused anyway. The color exemplifies how immersed Walt has become in the criminal world.
Danger and Death
As Walt becomes more dangerous, purple also begins to foreshadow threats to his family’s safety. Two major examples involve purple clothing that precede death and murder.
Early in season 2, Walt’s wife Skyler wears a purple shirt on the same day Walt makes his first drug sale. Purple hints that Walt’s criminal activities will put his family at risk.
Much later in the final season, Todd wears a bright purple t-shirt on the same day he murders Andrea in cold blood. The purple represents the deadly threat Todd poses to other characters.
Purple clothing in these key scenes links the color to the peril Walt has brought upon his family and community through his crimes.
Specific Shades of Purple
Show creator Vince Gilligan was very intentional about which shades of purple were used and when. Lighter purples tend to represent Walt’s earlier crimes and ambitions, while darker shades match his later moral corruption.
Here are some key purple shades and what they signify:
| Purple Shade | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Lilac | Naivety |
| Lavender | Deceit |
| Plum | Criminality |
| Eggplant | Corruption |
| Magenta | Revenge |
Lighter purples like lilac and lavender represent Walt’s early crimes and lies, while darker shades like plum, eggplant, and magenta emerge as he becomes more morally bankrupt.
Purple in Other Characters
While purple is most commonly associated with Walt, it also appears prominently with other characters engaged in criminal activity.
Most notably, eccentric drug kingpin Gus Fring wears a purple shirt when he takes Jesse on a field trip to Mexico to show him why he must never disobey Gus’ orders. Purple here highlights Gus’ own ruthlessness and ambition in the drug business.
Marie Schrader also wears purple throughout the series as an expression of her stubbornness and unconventionality. However, purple takes on a more sinister tone when she is caught stealing from department stores, linking her to criminality.
For both Gus and Marie, purple represents their capacity for wrongdoing, even if they aren’t as morally compromised as Walt himself.
The Final Episode
In the final episode, Walt goes to confront his former business partners Elliott and Gretchen, coercing them into putting his drug money into a trust for his children using laser pointers making it look like sniper rifles. When he says goodbye to his family, he is shown wearing a dark purple long-sleeved shirt under his jacket, showing his ambiguous morality to the end.
However, in his final moments in the meth lab, Walt is wearing a green jacket and yellow safety mask. Purple is finally absent in these last shots of the show, perhaps indicating Walt’s moral reckoning and letting go of greed, pride, and ambition as Heisenberg.
Conclusion
Throughout its five season run, Breaking Bad used the color purple meaningfully and intentionally to symbolize themes of corruption, ambition, and the consequences of moral decay. As Walt slipped deeper into criminality, purple came to represent the danger and darkness he brought upon himself and his family.
Vince Gilligan’s masterful use of color is just one technique that makes Breaking Bad such an iconic, layered show. The multifaceted symbolism of the color purple is a compelling example of how color can profoundly enrich a work of visual storytelling.
