Gregory House
Gregory House, a fictional character portrayed by Hugh Laurie, is the protagonist of the television medical drama House M.D.. He is a maverick medical genius (often quoted as "medicine's most brilliant mind") who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He has been called a misanthrope and a curmudgeon—in fact, "curmudgeon" was named one of the top television words of the year in honor of the character.[1]
Ironically, however, a curmudgeon is someone with (among other things) 'stubborn ideas or notions,' and a careful analysis shows that House does not fit the archetype of a curmudgeon in this sense. He is much less opinionated than he is deductive, since he has very few principles of his own, and uses his astute reasoning skills to point out the inconsistency or unfoundedness of the opinions of others.
His crankiness is commonly attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in one or more of the quadriceps muscles in his right thigh) for which he requires the aid of a cane, leading some to assign him the archetype of a 'damaged person.' However, according to former girlfriend Stacy Warner, he was "pretty much the same" before the infarction, another subtle but essential deviation from an archetype. His disposition is more likely due to a profound and innate disappointment in the fallibility/inferiority of other people, which he commonly expresses in various entertaining ways.
House takes Vicodin frequently for the pain in his leg (and usually while dealing with a case that wastes his time or annoys him); whether he takes it too frequently was the subject of an entire episode ("Detox"). He agrees that he has an addiction, but when his boss, Cuddy, interprets this to mean he admits to having a problem, Dr. Wilson has to explain the difference to her. House claims the addiction is not a problem because it does not interfere with his life.
Biography
House was born to John and Blythe House either on June 11, 1959 (according to a hospital identification bracelet seen during House's hallucination in the second season finale "No Reason"; this is the actual birth date of Hugh Laurie, the actor who plays House), or during the late fall or early winter (according to references to House's birthday occurring during "The Socratic Method", though this earlier episode suggests that this newer date violates canon); the previous date was given as December 21. He may have been born in Ohio (according to his listed social security number (295-13-7865) on the hospital identification bracelet in "No Reason").
House's father (played by former Marine R. Lee Ermey) served as a Marine Corps pilot, and moved bases during much of House's childhood (cf. "Daddy's Boy"). It was during these travels that he presumably picked up his affinity for languages, showing some level of understanding of Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Hindi over the course of the series. One of these stations was in Egypt, where House discovered a passing fascination with archeology and treasure-hunting, a fascination which led him to keep his treasure-hunting tools well into his adult life (cf. "Clueless").
House is still close to his mother, but hates his father, John House, whom he claims has an "insane moral compass". His father is and always has been incessantly straightforward and honest (which House still finds infuriating). After receiving his undergraduate degree, House studied for a time at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His stay there was cut short, however, when he was caught cheating off of Phillip Weber's exam by Weber himself (cf. "Distractions"); this action embittered House against Weber, especially since Weber's paper had had the wrong answer. Following his expulsion from Johns Hopkins, House applied and was accepted to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he graduated with his M.D.. His future boss, Lisa Cuddy, studied in the University of Michigan around the same time, but she was still an undergrad while House was already a legend (cf. "Humpty Dumpty"). It has not been revealed where he undertook his residency training, but Dr. House is "double-boarded," having completed training in two different sub-specialties of Internal Medicine: Infectious Disease and Nephrology.
Some time before the series started, House was involved in a long-term relationship with a woman named Stacy. During this relationship, he suffered an infarction in his right leg, which caused his quadriceps muscles to become necrotic. Because the infarction blocked distal blood flow, it was possible that House might require amputation of his right leg, below the level of the damage. House chose to have the dead muscle bypassed in order to restore circulation to the remainder of his leg, accepting the possibility of organ failure in a portion of the muscle; he was willing to endure excruciating, unstoppable pain as a trade-off for retaining the use of his leg. While getting this treatment, House was put into a chemically-induced coma and Stacy decided to override House and choose a safer surgical middleground between amputation and a bypass involving removing just the dead muscle. This resulted in a partial loss of the use of his leg, and left him with a lesser, but still serious, level of pain for the rest of his life. House could not forgive Stacy for making the decision, and Stacy was obliged to leave House as a result (cf. "Three Stories"). She eventually married a man named Mark Warner (cf. "Three Stories" and "Honeymoon"). Following this relationship, he fell even deeper into his pre-existing cynicism and misanthropy. Also due to his infarction, House became addicted to the painkiller Vicodin, a habit which continues to this day.
Personality
As a protagonist, Gregory House exemplifies many qualities of a postmodern anti-hero; many aspects of his personality are the antithesis of what might be "expected" from a doctor. House never seems to miss an opportunity to exercise his cunning and biting wit, often in phrases which have become known as "House-isms" to the series fandom. This is not necessarily a good trait, as House also exercises a great deal of time picking people apart and mocking their weaknesses. He confounds patients with an eccentric bedside manner and often unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. In one episode, House diagnosed an entire waiting room full of patients on his way out of the hospital clinic. He does not suffer fools gladly; as a corollary, he seems to regard most people as fools, and is on record that, in his opinion, "everybody lies." However, in the first season finale, House remarked that he was lying when he said that.
It would seem that House's powers of deductive reasoning are not limited to medicine. Rather like the character's inspiration, Sherlock Holmes (see below), House appears to enjoy deciphering—with startling accuracy—people's motives and histories from aspects of their personality and appearance. This is useful both for unravelling patients' conditions and, apparently, for his own amusement and displays of intellectual superiority. He showed a natural affinity for the game of poker in the second season episode, "All In".
Dr. James Wilson once stated that while "some doctors have the messiah complex— they need to save the world. You have a Rubik's complex— you need to solve the puzzle." The term "Rubik's complex" has become a cult term and is associated with House.[citation needed] (cf. "DNR")
House could be said to possess a strong non-conformist or anarchistic streak to his personality. Throughout the series, he displays sardonic contempt for figures in positions of authority (although not exclusively by any means), from senior doctors, politicians, and businessmen to nuns and even God Himself. In the episode "Kids", House berated a young man, who was applying for Cameron's job, for believing himself non-conformist, and to be "cool": growing his hair long and having a tattoo of an Asian character on his arm, which—House argued—showed that he was as conformist as the next 20-year-old white male. House himself shows an almost constant disregard for his own appearance, dressing informally—often in jeans—and without the standard white lab coat, and possessing a permanent stubble.
Despite House's sense of humor and charisma, he is almost entirely devoid of friends due to his perpetual unpleasantness. He dislikes mandatory politeness in all its forms (claiming that people are cowards, and to say what they really mean would risk "mutually-assured destruction"). He also has nothing but contempt for naive or optimistic outlooks and sometimes goes to unusually brutal lengths to prove that humans are in essence selfish, lying, predictable morons and that any kind gesture or intent is meaningless. This misanthropic outlook frequently puts him at odds with his most good-natured employee, Dr. Cameron, whom he frequently tries to bully or berate into seeing his way on things.
Television shows House has shown interest in include General Hospital, The O.C., SpongeBob SquarePants, The New Yankee Workshop (of which he says, "It's a complete moron working with power tools—how much more suspenseful can you get?"), Monster Truck Jams, 24, The L Word (which he watches muted), and Blackadder (which Hugh Laurie starred in from 1986 to 1989). He is fond of playing portable video games, notably from the Metroid series on multiple platforms (Metroid: Zero Mission a Gameboy Advance SP and Metroid Prime: Hunters on a Nintendo DS). In one episode, he even proved a patient to be in a comatose state by placing the speaker of the Nintendo DS he was playing next to their ear.
House is quite obsessed with monster trucks, supposedly spending $1,000 to get all access passes for James Wilson and himself to a local rally. Though Wilson later declined to go, House still had an enjoyable evening at the rally with Allison Cameron, even though she didn't know what a monster truck was. In one episode "Distractions", House attended the lecture given by his rival, Dr. Weber, while donning sunglasses and a trucker-style baseball cap bearing the logo of the Grave Digger monster truck to remain incognito. House uses sports metaphors on occasion, a trait Cameron seems to hate. There is also a possibility that House is an ice hockey fan and, more specifically, a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, as mentioned in the episode "Distractions", when Wilson tells House that "You get distracted by pain, leaves less room for the things you don't want to think about, like the Flyers sucking or the price of gas..." Of course, there are other sports teams named the Flyers, but the possibility it references the Philadelphia hockey team is higher considering the show is based in central New Jersey. Also, House may have at one time been a lacrosse player or at least a lacrosse fan, hinted at in the first season episode "Paternity". Near the very end of the episode, House attends his former patient's lacrosse game and stands off beside the bleachers. He starts to softly coach the boy as he plays, giving him advice with a slightly glazed look in his eye, as if remembering a past athletic ability or interest. He then clutches his cane like a crosse (the proper name for a lacrosse stick) and stares at it sadly. In the episode "Euphoria, Part 1", House is twice shown using his cane in a crosse-like fashion, first knocking up a large ball and catching it in the hook of the cane, then later launching the ball against a wall and catching it as one would in a game of lacrosse. He also does this in the episode "Informed Consent."
The Holmes connection
Series creator David Shore has said in an interview that House's character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes. [2] The name "House" is a play on "Holmes" (a homophone for "homes").[3][4]
Both Holmes and House are experts who are brought into cases that have proven too difficult for other investigators. Both characters have remarkable powers of observation and deduction, a tendency to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of the circumstances, drug use (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House, morphine for both), and only one real friend (Dr. Watson and Dr. Wilson, respectively), who connects the detached hero to human concerns. The two characters also share an unconventional personality and, to an extent, a brusqueness of manner, especially when occupied in an interesting case. Actor Hugh Laurie has remarked that House's obsession with television, video games, and popular music is meant to echo Sherlock Holmes' habit of listening to classical music or reading dull monographs for hours on end in order to relax his mind while pondering a case. [citation needed]
While House uses large quantities of Vicodin for pain management, Holmes used drugs in an experimental, often research-driven modality; some episodes imply that House at one time also used drugs in this experimental fashion before he developed his current dependency on Vicodin, making references to experiences with LSD and cocaine. In the episode "Distractions", House used LSD to treat a self-induced migraine headache. Because LSD is an uncommon drug, it can be assumed that House already had the substance in his possession.
House's dependency on Vicodin as a substitute to his cases has recently been touched upon at the onset of Season 3. Without the intellectual stimulation of diagnosing patients, House falls into a stark depression, even when his leg is supposedly "cured" and pain-free (see "No Reason"). House requires either the high of a confirmed diagnosis or Vicodin to function. The similarity between his and Holmes' own addictions (Holmes only required drugs whenever there wasn't a case at hand) is another bridge between them.
The patient in the pilot episode is named Rebecca Adler. Holmes is outwitted by Irene Adler in the first Sherlock Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia". The man who shoots House in "No Reason," has the surname Moriarty, echoing Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty (however, the name is never mentioned in the episode, merely derived from the credits). Also, in one episode, House's apartment number is revealed to be 221B, Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street address.
The character of Sherlock Holmes was originally based by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, on Joseph Bell, a doctor noted for his love of deductive reasoning and skill with both ordinary diagnostics and forensic medicine (which was quite new at the time); the character of House can thus be seen in a way as taking the idea of Sherlock Holmes full circle.
Relationships
Wilson is House's closest friend (his only friend, according to Stacy Warner and Dr. Lisa Cuddy) and his most trusted confidant. He is also one of the few individuals who can make House laugh. Wilson has known House since before House's infarction, although it is not clear exactly how long ago they met.
He is the originator of the bet Cuddy makes with House in the episode "Detox", which is intended to get House to fully realize his addiction to Vicodin. Later, Wilson goes out on a professional limb to protect House's job in the episode "Babies and Bathwater", a move that causes him to lose his job, almost permanently.
At the end of the episode "Sex Kills", he moves into House's apartment after learning that his wife has had an affair. Wilson stays with House for a few episodes before moving out to live with a patient with whom he had become involved.
Many fans feel their close relationship goes beyond friendship and therefore slash them in fanfiction and in their commentary of the episodes. House himself has made jokes about the idea - when Stacy asked him in "The Mistake" "What are you hiding?" he dryly replied, "I'm gay. Oh, not what you meant. Does explain a lot, though. No girlfriend, always with Wilson, obsession with sneakers..."
When Hugh Laurie was interviewed on "Inside the Actors Studio" in May 2006, he was asked who he thought House would become romantically involved with: Lisa Cuddy, Allison Cameron, or James Wilson. Laurie responded, "If the show runs long enough, he's going to run through all of them." Laurie also added that while Robert Sean Leonard "may have something to say about [a House/Wilson pairing]," he was "game." (The show aired on Bravo in July 2006.)
Cuddy is House's boss at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and fellow University of Michigan alumna. She seems to have a special relationship with House, in that she is, aside from Wilson, probably the only person who House can call an ally.
Cuddy is able to withstand House's many taunts (often about her breasts or other such provocative topics) while having the wit to retort or laugh him off. She seems to have almost limitless patience with House and his unconventional methods, though not afraid to step in when House steps too far out of line.
Cuddy also seems to have a strong emotional attachment to House, as well as a level of comfort with him that he does not have with anyone else except Wilson. House seems to have an unusual knowledge of details of Cuddy's personal life, such as where she keeps her spare keys and the timing of her menstrual cycle; this has led many to believe that they once had (or even currently have) a relationship, but both seem to deny this.
Recently, House has become involved in Cuddy's mission to have a child through sperm donation, giving her hormonal injections and advising her on her choice of sperm donors. At the end of the episode it is hinted that Cuddy was going to ask House for a sperm donation.
In the pilot episode, House reveals that his limp is the result of a misdiagnosis, which is covered in more detail in the episode "Three Stories." He exhibited only leg pain, and the doctor failed to realize that he had an infarction that led to muscle necrosis. Unwilling to have his leg amputated, House recommended a potentially fatal treatment for himself that would fix the infarction but not the free-floating potassium and cytokines in his system, which he underwent. However, the pain from this treatment did not subside, and he requested to be put in a chemically-induced coma.
While House was unconscious, Stacy (his girlfriend and medical proxy at the time) decided to have the dead muscle removed. While she believed this treatment would probably save his life, it left House crippled and in chronic pain. Some viewers speculate that free rein House receives from Cuddy is caused by guilt from this event. House has not fully forgiven Stacy for what he views as a betrayal. However, in spite of these events, Stacy maintains that House always had an antisocial personality, and that his being crippled was not the reason he became such a bugger.
Following his brief affair with Stacy, House tells her to go back to her husband, further proving his need to be miserable (at least according to Wilson).
House had said in the pilot episode that he hired Cameron because she was extremely pretty, like "a piece of art in the lobby." A major subplot of the first season dealt with Cameron's growing attraction to House. House has admitted to at least being physically attracted to Cameron, but has been unclear regarding any personal feelings towards her. House took Cameron on an informal date to a monster truck jam in the episode "Sports Medicine."
After his infamous speech regarding Edward Vogler's "new" drug, House was told he would have to either fire Cameron or Foreman. Cameron took the decision out of House's hands and went to his house to resign her position that same night. She later returned to her fellowship, on one condition—that House take her out on a date. The date was a disaster, mostly due to House's observation that Cameron was attracted to him because she considered him "damaged" emotionally and physically, much as she fell for her dead husband because she knew he was terminally ill. In the second season premiere, an inebriated House observes that he could have had Cameron if he wanted. At the start of the third season, when House is able to walk without a cane and actually talks to patients, Dr. Cameron rushes to oppose him and try to steer him back towards his old self, possibly a further indication of her attraction to him being based on "damage".
Though this storyline wasn't featured prominently in Season Two, House's subconscious portrayal of Cameron in the season finale "No Reason" may show a possible sexual attraction.
Dr. Foreman is a neurologist and has a notable rivalry with Dr. House, which began in the first episode, when House admitted that he specifically hired Foreman because of his criminal record. Unlike Cameron or Chase, who more or less suffer under House's quips, Foreman frequently locks horns with his manipulative boss and strongly dislikes being toyed with. On one occasion, Foreman even sought retribution against House by going behind his back and reporting him to Dr. Cuddy. As of season 3, Foreman's patience for House's insulting remarks has not improved.
Cameron suggests in "Poison" that the reason Foreman and House don't mix is because they are so much alike. When Foreman temporarily assumes House's position as diagnostic department head in "Failure To Communicate", Chase insinuates that Foreman is obsessed with appearing "just as good as House," but "nicer".
Because Foreman is unafraid to speak candidly to House, they have a slightly more familiar relationship than House has with Cameron or Chase. Foreman often takes House aside to speak to him on an informal level, and never hesitates to tell House what he thinks of him at that moment. This means that House can always count on Foreman for an honest opinion (perhaps the reason he hired him in the first place). House, for his part, is never seen rebuffing Foreman completely, implying that he might appreciate his candor more than he lets on. Because of this, Foreman could be interpreted as being House's "right-hand man".
For five episodes during Season One, the writers introduced a nemesis for House in the form of a new hospital chairman—billionaire Edward Vogler. Vogler was a businessman who donated $100 million in hopes of advancing research into life-threatening diseases. However, as the episodes featuring Vogler advanced, it became clear that he may have had several ulterior motives, including unethically profiting from the hospital's promotion of his drug company.
Vogler, acting in his new position as Chairman of the Board, declared that he was "going to run Princeton-Plainsboro as a business." High on his list of expense cuts was House and his Department of Diagnostic Medicine. The department, as constructed in the show, serves far fewer patients than any other hospital department and appears to function to allow House to take those particular cases that interest him because they are far more complex and difficult to diagnose than any others, in other words being House's "vanity project" (as Vogler terms it), and brings little money into the hospital aside from the PR generated by House's victories.
Vogler later offered House a Hobson's choice: fire one of his team members and take on more clinic hours or risk losing the entire department; how this choice plays out was the focus of several episodes. In the end, the hospital board of directors votes Vogler off the board after Vogler effectively forced them to vote to remove House and Wilson, and threatened to do the same to Cuddy.
Out of the current three fellows under House, Dr. Robert Chase has been working there the longest. He is Australian and an intensive care specialist. In the first season, when Vogler put his job at risk, Chase was shown to be willing to do whatever it took to stay working with House, even if that meant betraying the man himself. While on paper Chase stayed morally spotless, merely reporting Diagnostic department's activities to a superior, he blatantly betrayed House's trust in him.
This was found out and there was tension between House and Chase for a time, but it is generally believed that by season two, the entire department had put the incident behind them, as can be seen in the transition from Kids, to Love Hurts, and it is barely ever referenced again.
While House has said he believes Chase "loves" him, there has been no outward reciprocation or particular attachment on House's part. Although, one could make the argument that in the finale of season two, House was distinctly ruffled by the idea of not being able to depend on Chase, which could imply that there is some level of respect or trust.
Dr. Phillip Weber
Regarding House's fellow student at Johns Hopkins who "ratted" on him for cheating on an exam: in the episode "Distractions", House exacted his revenge against the doctor who was touting his new treatment for migraines. House referred to the "snitch" as "Dr. von Lieberman", although his real name was revealed to be Phillip Weber. When asked about this discrepancy, House said that he calls him "von Lieberman" because it's "way eviler."
House surreptitiously invites the "snitch" to speak at the hospital and, at the lecture, proceeds to heckle him, questioning both his research and competence. Later, Weber storms into House's office with news that his drug had been withdrawn by the FDA after House contacted them via e-mail, complaining about Weber's poor research and ineptitude in mathematics. At one point in this confrontation, House tells Weber, "I know your math skills. They blow!" At the end of the scene, House declares the score settled.
Jack Moriarty
Jack Moriarty is a vengeful individual who shoots House in the second season finale, "No Reason." His wife was once a patient of House, and in the process of investigating her illness, House pressured Moriarty to tell him the absolute truth. Moriarty revealed to House that he had had an affair; although this fact was medically irrelevant to her illness, House told Moriarty's wife nontheless. Consequently, the wife committed suicide (how much of this is true is open to debate, for this information is revealed to the audience during House's hallucination).
In the hallucination that results from Moriarty's attack on House, Moriarty is wheeled to the same intensive care unit House is in. There, Moriarty proceeds to psychoanalyze House, though it turns out at the end that this is actually House conversing with his subconscious. It is revealed in the episode, "Meaning", that Moriarty was never caught for shooting House.
It must be noted that the name "Moriarty" is never used in the episode itself; rather, the name appeared only in the press releases and script for the episode.
"Moriarty" is also the name of Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. |
- In a phone interview, producer Matt Witten said whenever Hugh Laurie (who is British) is on the set, and the whole day he is performing, he only speaks in his American accent, including at the office or at read-throughs. Laurie has confirmed this in an award show interview. [citation needed]
- House rides a Honda CBR1000RR Repsol replica motorcycle.
- During season 1, House is prone to diagnose patients with vasculitis right away.
- During season 2, House is prone to diagnose patients with lupus right away.
- "Humpty Dumpty," House uses Spanish to communicate with the patient's mother.
- In the episode "Hunting," House catches a rat that he then names Steve McQueen. Steve has a second appearance in the second part of "Euphoria."
- In the episode "Autopsy," House is seen chopping Diphenhydramine aka Benadryll with a razor blade, and proceeds to snort it, a la cocaine. This presumably is another reference to Sherlock Holmes's own addiction.
- In the episode "Distractions," House is seen reading Hindi, with occasional reference to a translation dictionary. He can presumably speak at least a couple of phrases, though he may have only recently learned the language as a step in his quest to humiliate Dr. Weber, whose work was published in Hindi.
- In the episode "Sleeping Dogs Lie," it is revealed that House has at least a working knowledge of Mandarin (albeit badly spoken).
- House frequently jokes about employing the services of "hookers." In the episode "Distractions," however, he actually does hire a prostitute, who bears a close resemblance to the recently departed Stacy.
- In the satirical TV show The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert has made frequent references to House. He views him as a "hero who is larger than life, and who shapes the United States." (Part of the joke is that Colbert doesn't realize that Hugh Laurie is British, not American.)
- In the episode "Clueless", House and Wilson are seen looking at House's list of recorded television shows, which included Blackadder, The New Yankee Workshop, SpongeBob Squarepants, The O.C., as well as a Monster Truck Jam. Hugh Laurie starred in Blackadder, and, in previous episodes, it has been revealed that House enjoys both The O.C. and monster trucks. House described his interest in The New Yankee Workshop by saying "It's a complete moron working with power tools. How much more suspenseful can you get?" The "moron" that House refers to is the show's host, Norm Abram, who is incidentally well known for his work on the PBS television show This Old House. The episode "Forever" mentions that House also likes to watch recorded episodes of The L Word, but "only on mute."
- In the episode "Sleeping Dogs Lie" House is asleep on the floor of his office when Dr. Wilson enters and tosses a book on the ground awaking Dr. House. The book House is asleep on is a copy of Gray's Anatomy. ABC airs a "competing" medical drama, Grey's Anatomy.
References
- ^ http://www.languagemonitor.com/wst_page11.html
- ^ [http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271%7C92770%7C1%7C,00.html Zap2it � TV news � Building 'House' Is Hard Work]
- ^ http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7518037
- ^ http://8763wonderland.com/2006/01/16/hugh-laurie-wins/
External links
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