The Hamartia of Macbeth, Walter White, and Peter Pettigrew

If you know about Walter White, from the TV series Breaking Bad, and Macbeth then I'm sure you can notice similar characteristics in the two. I'm still in the process of reading Macbeth and haven't watched a single episode of Breaking Bad, but I've been told about the character development of Walter White and the two do seem the same. If you haven't watched or read either and know nothing about one or both it's no big deal, I'll explain how they're similar and give a popular example (Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter series). From what I've been told, Walter White starts off as an innocent man and becomes corrupt as he gets deeper into his drug business. Walter, when he commits his first murder, feels remorse for the man he is killing but after he's killed a few more people later on it's as if killing isn't as big of a deal as it once was for him. The same goes for Macbeth except without the drug part; Macbeth finds out he will be king and tries his hardest to not let anyone get in the way of that. Macbeth not only kills the current king but also kills others he thinks are a witness so he isn't caught in the act.

As my literature class was comparing these two characters I thought of Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter. Peter, when he was younger, was close friends with Lily and James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black. But as Peter grows older he turns against his friends and joins the side of the Dark Lord, Voldemort. The point where Peter turns against his friends is when he reveals the location of Lily, James and their new born son, Harry, to Lord Voldemort. When Voldemort is at Lily and James' home he kills them and even attempts to kill poor Harry. That point for Peter is his hamartia; his downfall as a character. Not only does he do that to Lily and James, but he also tries killing Sirius and Remus many years after the murder. Once he turns on his friends he only gets worse as a person and even becomes Voldemort's servant doing all his dirty work.

The way I see all three of these characters being in some way related is that they all become corrupt with some kind of power. They get a taste of what it's like and they let it get to them, change who they are and turn them into cold-hearted killers.