Gregory House
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Gregory House MD, a fictional character portrayed by Hugh Laurie, is the protagonist of the television drama House. Dr. House is a 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 is arguably misanthropic and a genuine —in fact, "curmudgeon" was named one of the top television words of the year in honor of the character[link]. Some of his crankiness can possibly be attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in his right thigh muscle) for which he requires the aid of a cane. He takes Vicodin frequently for the pain (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 in the first season (Episode 1.11 "Detox").
Biography
Gregory 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 "No Reason" [Episode 2.24] this is the actual birthdate 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" [Episode 1.6]). He may have been born in Ohio (according to his listed Social Security number on the hospital identification bracelet in "No Reason") or in Illinois (in one episode he jokingly said he was born in a log cabin in Illinois). His father John served as a United States Marine Corps pilot, and moved several times between bases during House's childhood (Episode 2.5 "Daddy's Boy"). It was during these travels that he presumably picked up his affinity for world languages, showing some level of understanding of Spanish, Portugese, Mandarin, and Hindi over the course of the series. One of these stations was in Egypt, where Greg 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. (Episode 2.15 "Clueless")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 fellow student Phillip Weber's exam by Weber himself (Episode 2.12 "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 (with fellow student Lisa Cuddy, who would later become his boss) where he graduated with his M.D., specializing in infectious disease and nephrology.
Some time prior to the series opening, House was involved in a long-term relationship with a woman named Stacy. During this relationship, House suffered an infarction in his right leg, which caused his quadriceps muscles to become necrotic. Following treatment, he found it difficult to live as a cripple, causing Stacy to leave him; she eventually married a man named Mark Warner (Episode 1.21 "Three Stories", Episode 1.22 "Honeymoon"). Following this relationship, House 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. There's some indication, towards the end of Season 2, that either the pain from the infarction is increasing or he's becoming inured to the Vicodin; the latter would be consistent with drug addiction.
House is a tenured doctor and head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. There he leads a team of elite doctors charged with diagnosing and treating the diseases that other doctors cannot diagnose and treat properly.
Character
Dr. 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. 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 season one finale, he remarked that he was lying when he said that.
Dr. James Wilson, Dr. House's closest friend, 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.[[Citing sources citation needed]] (episode 1.9, "DNR")
House's character is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes: both characters share an ability to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of the circumstances, their drug use (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House, morphine for both), and the fact that each character has only one real friend (Watson and Wilson, respectively) who connects the cerebral hero to human concerns. Each character also has a nemesis named Moriarty. 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 painkillers, making references to experiences with LSD and cocaine. Both Holmes and House are experts who are brought into cases that have proven too difficult for other investigators. Also, in one episode House's apartment number is revealed to be 221B, Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street address. The character of 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 Holmes full circle. And lastly, even the characters' names (Holmes and House) are homophonically-related synonyms.
Television shows he 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). House is fond of playing portable video games, in one episode even attempting to wake a patient by placing the speaker of the Nintendo DS he was playing next to their ear. 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.
Character relationships
Dr. James Wilson
Dr. James Wilson is Dr. 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.Wilson was the originator of the bet Dr. Cuddy made with House in "Detox" (Episode 1.11), which was intended to bring House to a realization of his addiction to Vicodin. He also went out on a professional limb to protect House's job in "Babies and Bathwater" (Episode 1.18), a move that nearly cost him his own job. At the end of "Sex Kills" (Episode 2.14), Wilson moved into House's apartment after learning that his wife had had an affair. He stayed with House for a few episodes before moving out to live with a patient with whom he had become involved.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Lisa Cuddy is House's boss at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and fellow University of Michigan alumni. She seems to have a special relationship with House in that she is, along with Dr. Wilson, probably the only person who House can call a friend. She is able to withstand his many taunts (often about her breasts or other such provocative topics) while having the wit to retort or laugh them off. She seems to have almost endless patience with House and his unconventional style of medicine, though is not scared to step in when House steps too far out of line.She 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 also 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 her mission to have a child through sperm donation, giving her injections and advising her on her choice of sperm donors.
Stacy Warner
In the pilot episode, House reveals that his limp is the result of a misdiagnosis, which is covered in more detail in the episode entitled "Three Stories" (Episode 1.21). He exhibited only leg pain, and the doctor failed to realize that he had an infarction that led to muscle necrosis. Unwilling to let them amputate his leg, House recommends a potentially lethal treatment for himself, which he undergoes. The pain from this treatment does not subside, and he requests to be put in a chemically-induced coma. While he is unconscious, Stacy Warner (Sela Ward) (his girlfriend and medical proxy) decides to have the dead muscle removed. While this treatment probably saved his life, it left him crippled and in chronic pain. The free rein that House receives from Dr. Cuddy is likely 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, Dr. Cuddy maintains that House always had an antisocial personality, and that his being crippled was not the reason he became such a curmudgeon.
Following his brief affair with Stacy, he tells her to go back to her husband, further proving his need to be miserable (at least according to his colleague and confidant Dr. Wilson, played by Robert Sean Leonard).
Dr. Allison Cameron
A major subplot of the first season dealt with Dr. Allison Cameron's (portrayed by Jennifer Morrison) growing attraction to House. House has admitted to being physically attracted to Cameron, but has been unclear regarding his feelings towards her. In the episode "Role Model" (Episode 1.17), he became jealous when Wilson made an offhand remark that he "put the moves on her" and he took Cameron on an informal date to a monster truck jam, which both seemed to enjoy, in "Sports Medicine" (Episode 1.12).After his infamous speech regarding Vogler's "new" drug, House was told he would have to either fire Cameron or Foreman (Chase being protected by Vogler). 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 for a date. Despite an uncharacteristic show of romance from House, the date did not go well in part due to House's observation that Cameron considered him "damaged," and was attracted to him because of his numerous character flaws. In the second season premiere, an inebriated House observes that, "I could've hit that." Though this storyline wasn't featured prominently in Season Two, House's subconscious portrayal of Cameron in "No Reason" (Episode 2.24) may show a possible sexual attraction.
Edward Vogler
For five episodes in season one, the writers introduced a nemesis for Dr. House in the form of a new hospital chairman—billionaire Edward Vogler (Chi McBride). 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 the businessman 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, also declared that he was "going to run Princeton-Plainsboro as a business".High on his list of expense cuts was Dr. 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 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 Dr. House and Dr. Wilson, and threatened to do the same to Dr. Cuddy.
Dr. Phillip Weber
Regarding House's fellow student at Johns Hopkins who "ratted" on him for cheating in an exam: in season 2, episode 12 ("Distractions", aired February 14, 2006), House exacts his revenge against the doctor who's touting his new treatment for migraine. House refers to the "snitch" as Dr. von Lieberman, although his real name is revealed to be Weber. When asked about this discrepancy, House says that he calls him von Lieberman because it's "way eviller".
House surreptitously invites the "snitch" to lecture at his hospital and, at the lecture, heckles him, questioning both his research and competence. Later, his former nemesis is shown storming into House's office with the news that his drug has been withdrawn by the FDA after House contacted that agency via email, 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 (Elias Koteas) is the vengeful individual who shoots House in the Season 2 finale ("No Reason"). His wife was once a patient of House, and in the process of finding the cure for her mystery illness, Moriarty revealed to House that he had had an affair. Although the fact that he had an affair was medically irrelevant to his wife's illness, House revealed this information to the wife. 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. Moriarty psychoanalyzes House, though it turns out at the end that this is actually House conversing with his subconscious.
Trivia
- In the episode "Sleeping Dogs Lie" (Episode 2.18) it is revealed that Dr. House has at least a working knowledge of Mandarin.
- In the episode "Humpty Dumpty" (Episode 2.03), Dr. House used Spanish to ask the mother of the patient to find where the patient goes on Saturdays.
- In the episode "Distractions" (Episode 2.12), Dr. House is seen reading Hindi, with occasional reference to a translation dictionary. He can presumably speak the language as well, though his fluency in it is unknown as he only says a couple of phrases.
- House frequently jokes about employing the services of prostitutes (usually referring to them as "hookers"), even bragging about how often he uses the money he constantly borrows from Wilson expressly for this purpose. Initially it was never clear if House was merely being facetious in order to augment his outrageous and misanthropic persona or if he in fact does (or did) indeed sleep with prostitutes. In episode 2.12, Distractions, however, he actually does. Having just broken off his brief liaison with Stacy, House hires a prostitute who superficially bears a strong resemblance to Stacy, rather joylessly greeting the young woman at his door and requesting that she does not talk while she fulfills her duties. It nevertheless remains unclear whether or not this is actually the first time House has hired a prostitute or if, as his jokes claim, it is (or has been in the past) a habitual indulgence.
- In the episode "Paternity" (Episode 1.02), it would appear that House played, or at the very least enjoyed, the sport of lacrosse before his infarction. He is seen by the viewer observing a game, coaching the players under his breath. It is soon revealed to the viewer that he is actually in an open field and has been imagining the game, or perhaps lingers long after it finishes. He then clutches his cane like a crosse (the proper name for a lacrosse stick) and stares at it longingly. In the "Euphoria (Part One)" (Episode 2.20), 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.
- House is also prone to diagnose patients with vasculitis right away.
- In the episode "Hunting" (Episode 2.07), House catches a rat that he then names Steve McQueen. Steve has a second appearance in the second part of "Euphoria" (Episode 2.21 ).
- The most notable (presumably) Holmes-inspired namings are:
- * The patient in the pilot episode is called Rebecca Adler (Robin Tunney). Holmes is outwitted in "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Irene Adler.
- * Dr. Wilson, as a counterpart to Dr. Watson.
- *Vicodin is made by Watson Laboratories.
- * House's address is 221, apartment "B".
- * David Shore has admitted that the name "House" is a pun on "Holmes" ("Homes").
- * The man who shoots House in the season finale, "No Reason" (Episode 2.24), has the surname of "Moriarty".
- In "Clueless" (Episode 2.15) it is revealed that House spent part of his childhood in Egypt when his father was stationed there with the U.S. military. While there, he developed a fascination with treasure hunting, even going so far as collecting a kit of treasure-hunting equipment which he kept into his adulthood.
- In the satirical TV show The Colbert Report, the host Stephen Colbert has made frequent references to Gregory House. He views him as a "hero who is larger than life, and who shapes the United States." He puts him in the same hero category as president George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Colbert's views on the show are often sarcastic, so whether his praise of the show is authentic or not is up for the viewer to decide.
- In "No Reason" (Episode 2.24), his hospital identity band lists his social security number as 295-13-7865, indicating that he was born (or received his social security number) in Ohio. (Although in "Detox" (Episode 1.11) he says he was born in a 'log cabin in Illinois' - probably a joke.)
External links
| HOUSE | |
| Main Page | Episode Guide | Awards | |
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Gregory House | Lisa Cuddy | James Wilson | Eric Foreman | Allison Cameron | Robert Chase
| |
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