“The ‘Odd’yssey: Mythology and House M.D.”
In ancient times mythology provided explanations for nature and natural events; it provided explanations for the origin of mankind. Most importantly, mythology provided a common thread that all members of a society could hold on to and use as a guide in becoming a part of that society. In today’s world, myth has been replaced by science as the thread that explains nature and the origin of man. The stories that used to explain these events have been pushed to the side, but they have not disappeared entirely. They have survived in the books that we read, the movies we watch, and the television shows streamed into our living room every day.
The effect of mythology on popular culture cannot be disputed. Many scholars have, at some point or another, analyzed its presence in and its effect on television, movies, books, and popular culture in general. Donald E. Palumbo, for example, has applied Joseph Campbell’s “Monomyth” to Star Trek (Palumbo 115). Star Wars, Firefly, Stargate, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Battlestar Galactica, have all likewise been analyzed with respect to their mythological origins (Perlich 9, Marek 99, Simpson 73, Cochran 145, Strain 51). But all of those examples have something in common besides their debts to mythology: they are all works of science fiction or fantasy. Myth in science fiction and fantasy is quite often easy to pick out; the twelve members of the Jedi Council have an obvious correlation to Jesus’ twelve apostles, and the Harry Potter books are packed with more mythical creatures, references, themes, and story lines than you can count (maybe even more than J.K. Rowling herself knows about).Plenty of work has been done with mythological themes in science fiction, as is evidenced by the works cited above, but it is not the only genre in which myth themes exist. While unexpected, and even a little bit odd, myth themes abound in modern realistic fiction as well. The myth themes in realistic media are necessarily understated and more subtle than those of science fiction and fantasy in order to maintain the realism. They are nonetheless important to find (even more so than those in science fiction) since the audience is able to relate to the situations and characters in realistic fiction more easily than with science fiction. A perfect example of realistic fiction that integrates realism and mythology is House M.D.
House M.D. is the story of Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie). He is a tenured doctor at Princeton-Plainsboro teaching hospital, the head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, and one of the foremost authorities in the field of communicable disease. He is also a deeply troubled individual with a scathing wit that infuses every episode with a degree of humor, honesty, and drama that make the show interesting to watch and even more interesting to think about. House M.D. is just one of the examples of modern story telling that draw on, and integrate mythological themes into their storylines. But what are the themes that have survived to rule today’s popular television shows, movies, and books? More importantly why do they still resonate so strongly with readers and viewers in today’s culture, despite being so far removed from early man, where the myths originated? The reason these themes still resonate so strongly with us is that they continue to shape our lives, just as the myths of old, though in more subtle ways.
Joseph Campbell and “The Hero’s Journey”
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell, an author best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology, traced the paths of heroes from all over the globe; from Hercules to Buddha, from Thor to Jesus Christ, and identified what he called “The Hero’s Journey,” which is basically an outline for every myth and tale ever told. “The Hero’s Journey” has three major parts. The first part of the journey is known as “The Departure.” “The Departure” always includes three aspects: the call to adventure, a herald, who delivers the call, and the hero’s acceptance or refusal of the call. In antiquity the herald was “often dark, loathly, or terrifying, judged evil by the world” (Campbell 44). This description does not always have reference to the herald’s physical appearance, but the Herald will always carry with him an air of that evil or darkness. In the tale of the frog prince, where the frog himself acts as the herald for adventure, the frog is loathly and undesirable. In the story of Beowulf, the herald is just a herald, but he brings with him the evil and terrifying news of the beast Grendel. In House, M.D. the concept of the herald works in exactly the same way as it did in these ancient stories. At the beginning of almost every episode of House, either someone exhibits signs of sickness or a case is presented to House by Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), House’s best friend and head of the Oncology Department; Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), the Dean of Medicine and House’s boss; or someone from House’s team. In an episode in season 4, aptly named “Ugly,” we encounter the stereotypical loathly and terrifying herald. A young man named Kenny comes to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, with a “Fronto Nasal Insephaloseal,” which is essentially a growth about the size of a grapefruit protruding from the skull. This is an extreme example of the herald, similar to the frog prince. Most of the heralds in House have more in common with the herald from Beowulf. They are not ugly or loathsome, but they carry with them something that is judged evil by the world: disease, if it is the patient who acts as the herald, or news of disease, if it is someone else who presents the case to House.
This may seem elementary, but once the hero has received the call to adventure he has the option of whether or not to accept it. In Beowulf, the request for help, delivered by the herald, is answered immediately and without hesitation by Beowulf. On the other hand, in the story of Achilles, he refuses the call by going into hiding on the Island of Scyros so that he might avoid his death while fighting in the Trojan War. In the end though, it is irrelevant to the story whether or not the hero accepts the call, since he will in some way be brought into the adventure (if he were not it would make for a boring story). Achilles is tricked into revealing himself and convinced to go to Troy by wise Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. What the refusal of the call does accomplish is to tell us something of the mindset of the Hero. If Beowulf had refused the call and later been talked into going on the adventure he would not have seemed like the courageous protector of his people as he does in the actual story, but rather like a scared and reluctant lord. If Achilles had simply accepted his fate and went to Troy, his story and his character, like Beowulf’s, would have changed.
Dr. Gregory House is unique in this company of heroes. Achilles receives one call to adventure, Beowulf receives three. House receives a call to adventure at the beginning of every episode: we get to witness the call to adventure and House’s response to it literally over one hundred times. In an ancient myth, a movie, or a book, it is rare that we get to see the same hero respond to multiple calls to adventure. Further enriching the experience for the viewer of House, M.D. is the fact that House does not respond the same way to each call. Beowulf is a relatively brief story, but within those pages we see him receive three calls to adventure (once for Grendel, once for Grendel’s mother, and once for the Dragon), and he responds the same way all three times: immediately, decisively, and without fear. This establishes his character and makes him a solid and readable archetype for a hero and a good example for the reader to follow.
House’s character is more complex and harder to pin down than Beowulf’s because his response to a call to adventure varies so greatly from episode to episode. In an episode titled “One Day, One Room,” the herald is a rape victim named Eve, who inexplicably forms a bond of trust with House and refuses to speak to the staff psychologist, Cuddy, or anyone else about her rape. Half way through the episode House is still refusing to take the case, but is thrown into it anyway by Cuddy, and by Eve’s persistence. This kind of refusal is not uncommon for House, but neither is his acceptance of cases. In contrast to this refusal to take cases, episode 17 of season 2 shows House leaving a Casino night at the hospital and actively pursuing a case in spite of Cuddy’s telling him to leave it alone (“All In”). So if Beowulf’s unwavering acceptance of a the call tells us that he is strong and courageous, and Achilles’ refusal of the call tells us that he is scared of death, what does House’s seemingly arbitrary selection of cases tell us about his character? He does not accept the call to adventure because of nobility like Beowulf, and he does not refuse the call out of fear like Achilles. House’s only motivation behind accepting or refusing a case is finding an interesting case, that he can obsess over… or to get out of clinic duty.
From the acceptance or refusal of the call, we cross the barrier into the second stage of “The Hero’s Journey,” “The Initiation.” There are many subcategories under “The Initiation”; we will deal with two of them: “The Road of Trials” and “The Ultimate Boon” (or “The Elixir”). In every story there is a series of tests and trials that the protagonist must go through. Hercules is given twelve trials to atone for the murder of his wife and three sons. Buddha has to endure temptation and intimidation on his journey toward enlightenment. House has to go through this same road of trials in each and every episode. Returning to the episode “Ugly,” after Kenny arrives at Princeton-Plainsboro, he begins to present with other symptoms. House’s road of trials consists of going through all of the symptoms and many possible diagnoses, trying to find the disease that fits. This is a theme that appears in every episode of House in one way or another, even “One Day, One Room” where the patient’s problem is psychological rather than physical.
Once the hero has passed through his road of trials, he will arrive at a penultimate moment and will receive some piece of knowledge, some weapon, or an elixir that will allow for the accomplishment of his quest. This is known as the “Elixir” or the “Boon.” The Elixir or Boon is an item or idea that will make the hero better, some other individual better, or the world in general better. Prometheus, after arriving at the summit of Mount Olympus, steals fire from the gods and gives it to man; this gives warmth and light to all of mankind. The princess, after developing a fondness for the frog, gives him a kiss; the frog becomes a prince and marries the princess. Jason and his Argonauts, after a long and perilous journey, charm the guardian of the Golden Fleece and take the fleece as their prize; returning home with this prize allows Jason to defeat his uncle Pelius and ascend to the throne of Iolcus. House, after spending days testing and looking for an answer, discovers Kenny is infected with Lyme disease. This realization is the Boon that allows House (the hero) to make Kenny (the individual that benefits) better. House’s team administers the vaccine to Kenny and not only is he cured of Lyme disease, but as a result can receive facial reconstructive surgery, and be free of both the “evils” that oppress him (“Ugly”).
This formula can be applied, in some way, to every episode of House M.D. At the end of his road of trials House always finds the answer to what is ailing the patient (with a very few exceptions), and more often than not finds a cure for that particular disease. In this case the medicine can be seen as an elixir for the patient. But the idea of the “Elixir” or “Boon” is not always so simple as: the patient is sick, House tests the patient, House identifies the disease, House cures the patient. In one episode, the person who receives the boon is not the patient at all, but Foreman (Omar Epps), a member of House’s diagnostic team (“House Training”). The same pattern is followed, but in the end Foreman treats the patient with chemo and the patient ends up dying from a simple staph infection, because the chemo destroyed her immune system. In this case the boon is not given to the patient, but rather to Foreman who learns a valuable lesson about confirming a diagnoses before you act, all because “he didn’t look both ways before he nuked” (“Family”).
After the evil uncle is deposed, or the frog turns into a prince, or the disease is cured, the third and last stage in “The Hero’s Journey” is “The Return.” Just like the other stages of “The Hero’s Journey,” “The Return” is broken down into sub-stages and just as with the other stages, House M.D. fits most or all of the subcategories perfectly, but we will only look at one, “The Crossing of the Return Threshold.” At the end of every Hero’s Journey there is a return from the world of the unknown, to the world of the known. Odysseus returns home to Ithaca after ten years of war at Troy and ten years on the seas at the mercy of the gods. After ejecting the unwelcome suitors from his home, he returns to a state of normalcy, more grateful for his home because of the experience. Little Red Riding Hood, after escaping the wolf in the forest, returns home to a state of normalcy, wiser for the experience. Beowulf, after defeating the dragon, goes down to his death bed, at peace, without regret for the experience. The crossing of the return threshold requires the reconciliation of the values the hero held before his adventure began, and the Boon or Elixir that the hero received during his quest.
In House M.D. it is easy enough to say that every patient that is cured fits this requirement. Just because it is easy to say, doesn’t make it untrue; Kenny is a better person and has a better appreciation for life after his ordeal in the hospital. The rape victim, Eve, is a better person for having confronted the psychological issues involved with her rape. But what is most interesting to watch in House M.D. is not the changes that the patients go through as a result of House’s efforts, but rather the very subtle changes that Dr. House himself experiences. Often the patients in House represent personality traits, ideas, or moral principles that, through the episode rub off on House and become a Boon to him personally, even though he may try to mask the effect.
The most striking and poignant example of integrating the lesson of the episode into House’s character is in an episode titled “Fetal Position” in season three. In this episode a pregnant woman named Emma has a stroke. House diagnoses the problem as Maternal Mirror Syndrome, which means that a problem that is killing the child is also killing the mother. House’s advice is to abort the fetus, but the mother refuses to let him do it. Emma and House go back and forth trying to decide what they are going to do, and finally House suggests a radical and dangerous surgery that requires operating on the baby while still in the mother’s womb. During the surgery House touches the baby’s hand and forms a connection with the unborn child, whom he has insisted on calling “the fetus” the entire episode. After a successful surgery House and Emma’s final conversation is:
Emma: So my kidney, liver and lungs are all fine, just like that?
House: Just like that.
Emma: That’s amazing.
House: What’s amazing is how blond your baby’s hair is.
Emma: (Emma laughs) My baby?
House: You know. The thing in your belly that tried to kill you.
Emma: You’ve never called him a baby before.
This signifies a massive change in House’s opinion towards the baby and towards life in general. The entire episode he has been arguing that the fetus is only a fetus, not a child, and now (whether consciously or not) his opinion has changed. This is beneficial for the viewer seeing that a massive change is possible, even though House, being who he is, represses this change, covers it up with callousness, and deflects any acknowledgement of it with sarcasm and wit. In fact, he starts to deflect immediately. The very next thing that happens is that he stares at Emma for a second, gathering himself from this realization and then asks:
House: Any pain? [Deflection]
Emma: Nothing I can’t deal with.
House: You can only get out of bed to pee, poo or shower. And absolutely no sex. So stop flirting with me. [Deflection]
Emma: Sorry. So this really worked. He’ll be… normal?
House: If you call being born twice, normal.
Emma: Hey, thank you.
House: Don’t thank me. I would have killed the kid. [Repression] (“Fetal Position”)
“The Hero’s Journey” is more than just a pattern that can be followed and identified in literature, television, and film. It is the way the human mind has been conditioned to learn, even though we usually don’t recognize that we are learning. When the viewers witness House accept or deny a case, or go through his many diagnoses and failures, or return to society after the case, it is easier to relate with because each of those events are part of a pattern they are already familiar with.
Jung and the “Process of Individuation”
The change that the hero experiences over the course of his journey brings us nicely to the next question we will deal with. The first question was what are some of the themes that have continued into popular culture? The question we will deal with now is why do these themes still resonate so strongly with us today? Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s ideas as to how and why mythology affects us center on the meaning of dreams and their similarities to myth. It was Jung’s theory that “the people and objects in your dreams do not represent the people they seem to be. Rather, they are symbolic figures that represent the struggle each of us undergoes throughout our lives to become a mature and complete person”(qtd. in Thury 507). This “struggle” to “become a mature and complete person” is what Jung calls the “Process of Individuation.” Of it Jung says:
…it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology. Individuation, therefore, is a process of differentiation, having for its goal the development of the individual personality. (qtd. in Frankle 115)
Individuation in dreams and in myth is moved along largely by the characters encountered by the individual or hero. The characters’ interaction with the hero is what causes the changes in the hero’s character. This change is what makes myth accessible to a modern audience. Jung broke down the individuals and objects that we encounter in our dreams and in myth into three primary “Archetypes,” or basic character types. These character types can be applied to different characters House M.D. (or whatever the subject of analysis is). The three archetypes are “The Shadow,” “The Anima,” and “The Self.” Each one of these archetypes must be considered from the perspective of the hero, since each one is assigned its role based on the character traits of the hero.
The shadow is the first archetype we will look at. It is the “same sex as the person [hero], but has the opposite personality and self-image”(Thury 509). The shadow can often appear threatening at first and may manifest itself as an enemy, a terrifying animal or maybe a neutral but not understood character. A classic example of the hero and his shadow is wise Odysseus and Eurylochus. Odysseus is the courageous, strong, bold, and clever king of Ithaca. Eurylocus is his first mate on the voyage home, and is everything that Odysseus is not; he is not daring, bold, or clever. In fact, by the end of their journey together he attempts to organize a mutiny to usurp Odysseus’s role if he will not stop at the island of Apollo. Once again House M.D. fits this mythological theme perfectly, though with a slight twist. In antiquity, heroes were most often virtuous and kind, hence their shadows were deceitful and mean. House is not virtuous (at least not in the traditional sense) and he is not kind. House is jaded, cynical, mean spirited, and childish. Because House is of a questionably virtuous nature, his shadow (counterintuitively) is a good person, his best friend Wilson, who is everything that House is not. Wilson is understanding, honest, good hearted, and (arguably) mature. The shadow is a means for the hero to learn about himself. It “represents the unknown or little known attributes and qualities of the ego” (Thury 509). When the hero comes into contact with his shadow, he begins to recognize the qualities that the shadow has, that he does not.
The fact that House has learned from Wilson is apparent in different episodes throughout the series, but none is quite as apparent as episode sixteen of season five, titled “The Softer Side.” In this episode House begins taking Methadone for the pain in his leg instead of Vicodin. On Methadone, the pain in House’s leg is gone entirely, relieving him of the need to be short with people in order to cover the pain. As a result of being pain free, he tries to incorporate himself into polite society. He chooses Wilson as his model. As this pseudo-Wilson he concedes to the patient’s wishes. He is kind to the idiots in the clinic. He does his job without giving Cuddy problems. He even asks Wilson for permission before he steals his food (“The Softer Side”). Seeing the hero incorporate character traits of his “shadow” allows the viewers to look at themselves and consider what traits they may be missing. The result is introspective, though probably not on a conscious level.
The next archetype is the “Anima,” “the personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in man’s psyche, such as vague feelings and moods, prophetic hunches, receptiveness to the irrational, capacity for personal love, feeling for nature, and-- last but not least-- his relation to the unconscious” (Von Franz 186). Once again The Odyssey serves as a perfect model for the Anima in mythology because of the many females who fit, in some way or another, the Anima archetype. The two most obvious Anima figures in The Odyssey are Circe and Calypso, who are goddesses and sisters who share not only the gifts of beauty, and a deep love of nature, but also the gifts of prophesy and a deep personal love for Odysseus.
In House M.D. the obvious Anima figure is Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), a member of House’s original team. Since House M.D. is a realistic television show, the gift of prophecy is played down, but still exists is Cameron’s ability (like House’s) to diagnose unknown illnesses. She is also an Anima figure due to her ability to demonstrate deep personal love for her deceased husband, random patients, her colleagues, and even House. This love is shown in a very obvious way in the episode mentioned before titled “One Day, One Room.” A sub-plot in the episode shows a homeless man coming into the clinic asking for a place to stay for the night, but in reality looking for a place to die. He refuses drugs or any kind of treatment. When Cameron insists on giving him drugs, he says, “I need you to remember me. I need somebody to remember me” (“One Day, One Room”). Cameron ends up staying the entire night with this man and watches him die just to fulfill his last request. The benefit of the “Anima” to the viewer is that the personification of feminine characteristics is able to help show the male hero the benefits and virtues of those same characteristics.
The third archetype is the “Self.” The “Self” is the same sex as the hero, and often appears as a wise old man or woman who acts as a guide to bring the hero to the next level of the quest. The Self represents a transcendent or elevated version of the hero (Thury 510). In The Odyssey one of the “Self” characters is Alcinous, king of the Phaeachians. It is he who gives Odysseus final news of his home and sets him on the final leg of his journey back to Ithaca. The “Self” figure in House is a bit more difficult to identify than in other media. Because of the expansiveness of a television series it is not practical to have the Self as a member of the regular cast since there is only so much the character can learn from one person. This necessity for multiple “Self” figures throughout the series also makes necessary the suspension of the same-sex rule. In House M.D. the “Self” is most often a patient, who could be male or female (and oddly enough in more then one episode is both male and female), and the patient has some character trait that makes him a degree higher than House in some way. Kenny’s superior trait is patience in tribulation. Eve’s superior trait is trust in a higher power. Emma’s superior trait is respect for human life. In the end of each of those episodes House has taken something away from the experience.
All of these archetypes come to bear in an aspect of myth called the “The Process of Individuation.” Jung saw myth and dreams as a way for an individual to come to know what character traits he lacks and what he can become, and to know his inner self through interaction with the archetypes. As he deals with the “Shadow,” the “Anima,” and the “Self,” he learns different things about himself from each. From the “Shadow” the hero learns what traits he lacks. From the “Anima” he learns what feminine traits he can integrate to his inner self. From the “Self” he learns what he can become. In episode fourteen of season five titled “The Greater Good,” it seems as if House is specifically trying out some of the lessons that he was supposed to have learned over the course of the show. In this episode, the expected roles of Cuddy and House are reversed. Cuddy is mad that, as a result of House’s antics, she has to come back early from her maternity leave. As payback, Cuddy starts playing practical jokes on House to make him miserable: she steals his cane and she strings a trip wire across the base of his door. Instead of getting even, House acts like a mature and responsible adult: he shows restraint and moderation. He even shows kindness to the patient (“The Greater Good”). It is possible that not responding to Cuddy’s pranks is just a power play by House rather than a genuine display of these traits, but either way it shows that House has learned from his experience with his “Shadow,” his “Animus,” and his “Self.” The benefit for the viewer is the same as it is for the hero. By seeing how different personalities and different character traits interact and collide, the viewer can choose (consciously or subconsciously) to take on the character traits displayed by the hero, House, or any one of the archetypes that reflect him. The “Process of Individuation” teaches the hero, and the viewer, how to become a better person.
It has been argued that the process of individuation is inconsistent with a series television show li.ke House M.D. Eva M. Thury and Margaret K. Devinney, for example, argue that “It may well be that the artistic norms of a particular period or genre are in conflict with the sincere search for personal meaning and value assumed by the Jungian model” (Thury 514). The “Process of Individuation” is, by its very nature, the progression of a flawed character to an unflawed character. The artistic norms of a television series, like House M.D., are in conflict with the “sincere search for personal meaning and value” because of the necessity to draw the show out over weeks, months, and years. If the hero evolves and becomes flawless, as he should to follow the process of individuation, the story is over. This argument is overcome in a number of ways in House M.D.:
First is Dr. House’s resistance to change. In spite of the many valuable lessons that he learns in his quest for personal meaning, it is not uncommon for him to ignore them completely. At the end of several episodes he has an opportunity to implement the lesson he just learned. In an episode titled “The Social Contract,” a patient comes to the hospital without the ability to filter his thoughts. As a result he cannot stop himself from insulting his daughter and demeaning his wife; he nearly loses his family over it. House learns the benefit of restraint as a result of this man’s near loss and even goes out of his way to arrange an unnecessary surgery to help him get his family back. But in spite of this, House is still insultingly honest with Wilson at the end of the episode. The fact that House does learn from patients and other characters fulfills the requirement of the process of individuation. The fact that he does not implement what he learns helps to retain the flawed aspect of the hero that a television series needs to continue.
Second, the writers of House allow other regular characters in the show to experience the process of individuation. Wilson loses his girlfriend Amber at the end of season four, and for the first half of season five he mourns her and cannot let her go. In the episode titled “The Greater Good,” Wilson has a very personal conversation with a colleague about moving past this experience of loss. The episode ends with Wilson finally washing a dirty glass with Amber’s lipstick on it that had been sitting on his counter since she died. This method allows the process of individuation to occur in the episode without having to focus so much attention on House himself.
Third, all of House’s patients provide their own individual stories, and their own personal progression. This is merely an extension of the second example, but one more step removed from House. In one episode a man who is happy and kind all the time ends up at Princeton-Plainsboro. It turns out that his excessive happiness is just a symptom of a disease, and at the end of the episode he is cured and becomes a complete person, the definition of the “Process of Individuation” (“No More Mr. Nice Guy”). Like the example before this, the patient experiencing his own change allows for the diversion of some of the focus from House. In this way, the medium of a television series can complete the requirements of “The Process of Individuation”, while maintaining the freshness that it needs in order to continue over many seasons of broadcasting.
Aristotle and “Tragic Catharsis”
Besides the fact that human beings appear to be wired to accept and even seek out the themes and story patterns used in myth and the character archetypes they use, there is yet one more reason why mythology affects the human mind so deeply. For the observer, witnessing “The Hero’s Journey” and hardship the hero endures, and witnessing the changes that the hero and the other characters go through by the “Process of Individuation” is cathartic. Of course, the idea of “tragic catharsis” predates both Jung and Campbell by over 1200 years. Aristotle said that, “…the proper function [of tragedy]... is to arouse the emotions of pity and fear in the audience; and to arouse this pity and fear in such a way as to effect that special purging off and relief (catharsis) of these two emotions which is the characteristic of Tragedy” (17).
Aristotle’s definition is that tragedy should imitate something that is real, and that that imitation is meant to evoke emotion not for the purpose of enraging or frightening the audience, but rather for the purpose of drawing those emotions to the surface in order to purge them. Seeing others experience hardship, seeing others experience change, seeing others experience tragedy, helps the audience cope with their own hardships, changes, and tragedy. Seeing the play Oedipus the King and witnessing the hardships that Oedipus endures, brings forth the emotions of pity and fear in the audience; pity for Oedipus and fear of his situation. But these same emotions help the audience learn how to avoid or cope with their own tragedies.
In the traditional sense House M.D. does not always classify as a tragedy since, more often than not, the episodes end happily: House cures the disease, the patient goes home, and everybody is happy… everybody is happy except House. There are other differences; House is not a king, House is not perfect. He does fit the description of the tragic Hero in other ways though: he suffers from the tragic flaw of pride, he does whatever is necessary to save the people he is responsible for (even if it is in his own convoluted way), and in the end, he loses. One reason House M.D. and shows like it are popular is that they allow the viewing audience to see how representations of real world problems play out in a representation of the real world filled with representations of real world characters. Viewers of House get weekly lessons on a variety of life issues. They learn how to deal with a difficult person by watching Wilson try to finesse House. They learn how not to deal with anyone by watching House deal with… anyone. More importantly, and more to the point, pitying the patients and fearing their diseases helps the audience learn to deal with their own fears of disease and ultimately death. While watching House we see others with sickness and become accustomed, or even desensitized to their suffering. The experience is cathartic: It allows us to relieve some fear of our deaths and the pain associated with it.
House M.D. is also cathartic in a very different way that Aristotle may never have considered. House’s immature actions, his awful temperament, and horrible treatment of other people are a voice for what happens in, but never leaves, the minds of people all over the world when someone does something stupid. I term this type of catharsis, “Housian Catharsis.” How often has someone made some asinine statement with no basis or merit, and you just wanted to say “You’re a moron”? How often has your boss asked you to do something you didn’t want to, and you just wanted to say “No. I have nothing better to do, but no”? How often has this happened and you could either not think of the words or were simply too chicken to do it? Chances are you have had those thoughts, but simply do not act on them.
House acts on them. House does not suffer those fears and he is not inhibited in the same way as the viewer. He says what he thinks, he does what he wants. Seeing House berate an idiot in the clinic who did not use a condom and cannot figure out how he caught an STD is cathartic. Seeing House over rule Cuddy’s decisions by proving her wrong or just ignoring her is cathartic. Seeing House break a rule to do what he knows is right, is cathartic. This is not catharsis in the sense of pity for a character or fear of a situation, as Aristotle theorized. This is catharsis of frustration and restraint. For the viewers, House is a cathartic medium for their frustration and restraint, just as Oedipus is for pity and fear. Seeing House do and say these things, even though we know that they are fictional, gets the impulse to do them ourselves off our chests. Aristotelian catharsis purifies society by relieving fear through a tragic medium. Housian catharsis perpetuates society by allowing social niceties to continue through an uninhibited medium.
Robert B. Ray and the American Hero
This idea of House as a rule and mold breaker actually speaks more to the current state of affairs of myth in popular culture than is at first apparent. In an essay titled “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert B. Ray comments on the modern American hero in the movies, but the idea applies to television as well. He says, “The dominant tradition of American cinema consistently found ways to overcome dichotomies. Often the movies’ reconciliatory pattern concentrated on a single character magically embodying diametrically opposite traits.” According to Ray, “The movies traded on one opposition in particular, American culture’s traditional dichotomy of individual and community that had generated the most significant pair of competing myths: the outlaw hero and the official hero.” To the American public the outlaw hero represents the spirit of individualism; the official hero represents the spirit of community and collective action. In American myth and today’s popular myth there has been a homogenization of these two hero types: an official with outlaw or individualistic tendencies. Davy Crockett, who tamed the west and ran the country as the President of the United States is a perfect example of the American hero type. This American mythological theme continues in many modern television shows. Jack Bauer, the main character in 24, is a rule breaking anti-terrorist agent for the U.S. Government. Cal Lightman, from the Fox TV show Lie to Me, is an expert in the field of lie detection, but he only participates in cases on his own terms.
House, like the other heroes mentioned, has aspects of both the outlaw hero and the official hero. As the outlaw hero, House often ignores his responsibilities at the hospital: he acts like a child, he is addicted to drugs, he is mean to patients, and he rejects all female relationships, even when he has worked to establish them. In season two House’s ex-girlfriend, Stacey Warner, comes to work at Princeton-Plainsboro as a lawyer. She has married since she left House, and while she shows him no animosity, she does make it abundantly clear that she has no interest in him at all. House spends the entire season pursuing Stacey, and at the end of episode eleven, she decides to leave her husband and be with House. She tells him,
Stacy: I'm going to talk to Mark tonight. And I'm going to stay here with you.
House (After a short pause): Don't do it.
Stacy: This isn't funny Greg.
House: I know.
Stacy: You (she pauses) spent all these months chasing me. Now I'm here and you start running? What the hell changed?
...
House: How do you think this is gonna end? We'll be happy for what? A few weeks, few months. And then I'll say something insensitive, or I'll start ignoring you. And at first it'll be okay. It's just House being House. And then at some point, you will need something more. You'll need someone who can give you something I can't. You know I'm right. I've been there before.
Stacy: Oh. Oh. It doesn't have to be.
House: It does. It does. I don’t want to go there again. I'm sorry, Stacy. (“Need to Know”)
Connection to a single woman represents a connection to society, which the Outlaw hero shuns. House’s pursuit and then rejection of Stacy shows the mixture of the Outlaw and the Official heroes. He wants to be happy, but not at the expense of his freedom.
House also displays aspects of the official hero: even though he shirks his responsibilities, he is never completely irresponsible with his patients, and even though he rejects relationships he keeps women in his life. During season five, Cuddy adopts an infant and takes time off of work in order to spend time with her (“Big Baby”). House responds in all his Oedipal glory. Cuddy leaves Cameron in charge of her day-to-day responsibilities, and House responds by making Cameron’s life a living hell. He asks to do the most extreme procedures he can think of to test his limits. When she approves the procedures he berates her for agreeing with him, saying she doesn’t have a backbone. When she refuses the procedures he berates her, saying that she is not doing what is in the best interest of the patient. These attacks are designed to poke at her deepest sensibilities, lack of control and caring for human life. House’s objective is to get Cuddy back by driving Cameron out. This effort to get Cuddy back, while juvenile and in that way partly representative of the outlaw hero, is also representative of the official hero since the effort is to get Cuddy, a woman, back in his life.
Erik H. Erikson says that “The functioning American, as heir of a history of extreme contrasts and abrupt changes, bases his final ego identity on some tentative combination of dynamic polarities such as migratory and sedentary, individualistic and standardized, competitive and co-operative, pious and free-thinking, responsible and cynical, etc” (qtd. in Ray 242). When applied to Ray’s essay, this means that the combination of the outlaw hero and the official hero (a “dynamic polarity” like the ones described by Erikson) is a hero tailor made to affect the American ego. That is yet another reason why heroes like House affect us in such a profound way.
Conclusion
Mythology guides our lives in more ways than we know. Just because we no longer need myth to explain earthquakes or why a crow is black does not mean it has no meaning at all. Just because we no longer need myth to explain the origins of mankind does not mean it is irrelevant. The popularity of House M.D. and the many other shows, movies, books, and plays that employ mythological themes shows that it is not merely good writing that draws in the audience. Mythology has always been used as a way to help us cope with and understand our world. Because myth exists in popular culture, entertainment can be more than entertainment; if we search for myth in television and work to understand it, Monday nights with House M.D. can become a spiritual and life defining experience that affects us to our core and changes us for the better. But, myth studies in realistic fiction is a field that is, unfortunately, largely unexplored. Realistic fiction is just as rich and ready for analysis as any science fiction movie or television show out there. In order to analyze realistic fiction, however, you must step out of the comfort zone of standard myth criticism. In realistic fiction we will we sometimes find symbols as simple as water symbolizing baptism or rebirth; or deserts symbolizing “spiritual aridity; death; nihilism, [and] hopelessness”(Guerin 189), but we can no longer rely on these standard symbols that have served us so well for so long. Instead we must rely heavily on the archetypal images found in the fiction and compare them to the characters in ancient myth. Through this we can provide a link between realism and myth that has yet to be truly explored. If we are willing to put aside some of the conventions of myth criticism we will find that there is a whole different level of meaning to be found, and a whole new genre to be explored in our studies of myth in popular culture.
Works Cited
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