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"Why do you need to negate everything?"- A study of House and Cuddy as characters, not as a couple
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Powerful words spoken from an emotionally devastated Cuddy from the latest episode of House MD called “Joy”. A lot of talk has been going on about “Joy” because frankly House and Cuddy are an interesting topic, especially for nuts like me who like to over analyze everything and though the episode was about Cuddy’s potential adoption, it had strong under currents of Huddy. From reading, god knows how many reviews of “Joy” and seeing heaven knows how many interpretations of the characters, I have learned to appreciate the episode far more, for the literary genius it was along with the depth to the characters of House and Cuddy. I decided to focus this article on both House and Cuddy’s emotional problems with relationships and how that ties into the baby arc. House As has been pointed out by many people, many times, House’s emotional and social development is stunted at that of a child. House deepest fears mirror those of the child who doesn’t want to be left alone. He fears rejection, betrayal and as stated before being left alone. His sarcasm and harsh treatment of others serve as a façade to hide behind. He feels the need to measure his relationships with the people he is close to by measuring it in how much crap they can take. House: I didn't. [takes out his chequebook and starts writing a cheque] Just wanted to see if you could give it to me. I've been borrowing increasing amounts ever since you lent me 40 dollars a year ago. A little experiment to see where you draw the line. Wilson: [dumbfounded] You're [splutters] you're trying to... objectively measure how much I value our friendship?!
Daddy’s Boy, season 2, episode episode 5 This conversation shows House literally measuring how Wilson values the relationship, but very often House uses his acid tongue to judge how much HE should value the relationship. This is essentially why he pushes the ones close to him further away, because he needs to know how much he can depend on them. If he sees that whatever he does won’t push that person away, he knows that there is a less chance of him being hurt and left alone. You could say that this mind set resulted from a combination of his abuse as a child and Stacy’s “betrayal” when she left him. Emotionally immature anyway, from the abuse, when Stacy left him, House was suddenly thrust into an unknown world. Just when he needed someone the most, just when he truly needed to depend on someone, that someone was gone. I’m sure that the pain of being rejected and left alone only amplified the pain in his leg and left him bitter and un-wanting to trust people again. Despite House’s attempts to be left alone, people always manage to break through. His old team, Wilson and Cuddy have all managed to do that. I group the old team into one because, to me, in regards to how House views them, they serve the same purpose for House. They are forced to be near him, they work(ed) for him. He can say whatever he wants, do whatever he wants and act however he wants and they will always come back tomorrow. They are a source of reliability, no matter how superficial, which is why House reacted in the way he did to them leaving at the end of season 3. JAMES WILSON: Three years ago, you hired a team. What's changed? GREG HOUSE: I've become a man of principle. I've gotten smarter. What answer will make Socrates shut up? JAMES WILSON: [Dr. Phil-son] What's changed is, you hired a team. You connected with a team. You worked with a team. And you lost a team. GREG HOUSE: [looking at the monitor] Damn. There's no abnormalities in her pancreas.
JAMES WILSON: You fall in love, you get married. Fifty percent chance it'll end in misery. Hiring employees can be even tougher. Because you know, eventually, they're gonna leave. GREG HOUSE: There's increased T2 signal on her hepatic capsule. [looking at Wilson] If you know what I mean. JAMES WILSON: You got hurt. Get over it Alone, Season 4, episode 1 House is beginning now to form an attachment to his new team, his strongest one being with 13 since they share similar qualities. Wilson and Cuddy, again for me, are the people that keep House going. Wilson seems to be House’s conscience while Cuddy seems to be his armor. Because Wilson and Cuddy “protect” him to use Wilson’s words, House pushes them the hardest, because he values them the most. House on many occasions, pushes those two characters in ways that many of us would never take. He says hurtful, but never the less, truthful things that force those characters to re-examine themselves. Wilson and House are an interesting relationship. Many people think it is one of a homosexual relationship, personally I do not think that, but sometimes they do set themselves up. I actually think that their relationship, rather than that of a homosexual one, is actually mis-interpreted. It’s a relationship of dependency. Both characters suffer from deep rooted problems of neediness. House, as Cuddy put it, is “the long distance runner of neediness” and is ironically, seeking approval through his sarcasm. Wilson accepts House as what he is and who he is,
Cuddy as I said before serves as House’s armor, better than Wilson does. Cuddy protects House from the normal things like law suits, going to jail, angry patients etc but she, more importantly, protects him emotionally. As was confirmed in a recent interview with Lisa Edelstein, Cuddy has known House from college. Therefore, like Wilson, she has been a constant source of “friendship” (to use to term loosely) for House. After Stacy left, Cuddy gave House another shot at life, by literally saving his life as a doctor, but also by hiring him at PPTH and creating a new diagnostic department for him. She protected him from himself and his self pity and allowed him to move on from his betrayal. SHE finds cases for him, SHE forces him to do clinic duty in a hope he will build up his faith in humanity and SHE forces him to look at the human side of science and sometimes reflect on the
“Joy” and “Lucky 13” serve to show the viewers quite plainly House’s vulnerability and his fear of being alone, but that will be discussed after Cuddy. Cuddy I have always thought that Cuddy was by far the most miserable character on the show. House is the obvious misery, his social distance and leg pain often make him the subject of pity. Cuddy’s misery on the other hand is far more subdued since she is not the focus of the show. Funnily enough though, the writers give us plenty of hints toward her misery, House comments on it frequently, as a character she has cried more times than the others and truly nothing ever works out for her. Her misery is most often showed through the baby arc, but like stated above that will be talked about after a look on her fear of relationships. Truth be told, Cuddy is as messed up as House is when it comes to giving herself completely to someone else, even as a friend. I read an article recently that stated that Cuddy doesn’t have any friends and it seems that she is only ever
Ironically, what Cuddy wants now more than anything is love, but has no idea how to give it. She uses online internet dating as a route to finding love. But even this is a step back from commitment. Like House, Cuddy is so afraid of being rejected, or in her case failing, that she doesn’t look for a man in her life, or a stranger in the coffee shop she “clicks” with. Rather she goes online, puts up a profile, talks with the person and then sometimes goes out on a date with them. She needs to be in control, she needs to know that the person will like her before going out on the date so that it has a chance of succeeding. House sums her up pretty well in this conversation: HOUSE: Actually, your eyes tell us nothing, 'cause we're looking at your boobs--Which tell us that you're desperate to have
No More Mr. Nice Guy, season 4, episode 13 She’s desperate for human contact, or physical contact to maybe compensate for her lack of love which is why she almost sleeps with Don on the first date, and as House points out, why she wears extremely low cut tops. But it seems that Cuddy may have given up on her hope for love between a partner and has gone for the “unrelenting love” of a baby. She sees this as a way of acquiring the love she so desperately needs but can’t get because of her fear. As I mentioned above, Cuddy is in my opinion the most miserable character. House not only points it out in “No More Mr. Nice Guy” but also in “Humpty Dumpty”. House: Now would the world be a better place if people never felt guilty? Makes sex better. [points to Stacy with his cane] Should have seen her in the last months of our relationship. Lot of guilt. Lot of screaming. I know this wasn’t just because it was your roof. Cuddy…you see the world as it is and you see the world as it could be. What you don’t see is what everybody else sees. The giant, gaping chasm in between.
Cuddy: House, I’m not naïve. I realize— House: If you did, you never would have hired me. [Cuddy doesn’t answer.] House: You’re not happy unless things are just right. Which means two things. You’re a good boss. And you’ll never be happy. Humpty Dumpty, season 2, episode 3 Cuddy views the world differently than most of the characters in the show, she sees what it could be and what it is and strives to make it that way. In that way she is far more idealistic than Cameron is, whoose empathy is often mistook as idealism. Cuddy is an idealist and a perfectionist, these two traits together help us understand her fear of rejection. She sees what her love should be, what she should be and then sees her present situation. She sees what she doesn’t have and tries to fix it pragmatically. What she doesn’t see is the “gaping chasm in between” which is reality and will always hold her back from her dreams, in “Joy” this “chasm” is embodied by the mother of the child. The baby arc So down to why this article was written in the first place, the baby arc. As stated above, both House and Cuddy find it very difficult to form relationships with people because of the deep insecurities. But the baby arc is quite special, it was/ is Cuddy’s way of finding love, and in House’s opinion a loss of one of the relationships he has worked so hard to measure. When House first found out about Cuddy’s desire to become a mother in “Forever” and “Who’s Your Daddy” he became Cuddy’s confidant by default since it was easier to use House rather than to have to include someone else on her mission
House of course ruined this, when he used Cuddy’s failure to conceive against her when he was angry at her taking him off his pills. He hurt Cuddy very deeply and she would think twice about asking for his help the next time her biological clock’s ticking got too much for her. “Lucky 13” was the result of the ticking, Cuddy had decided to give up on the invetro and decided this time upon adoption. Wilson invites House to crash the “baby shower” as Cuddy is picking out a crib and he learns about the new path her life is taking. As the viewers and Wilson and Cuddy look on expectantly waiting for some sarcastic comment about her ass or her boobs, we and they are given something that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. House’s face, for once, is devoid of any mask, any wall he may have put it is suddenly broken
House is incredibly hostile towards the baby idea throughout the episode of “Joy”. As many people have said, there have only been a handful of times I have ever wanted to slap House and this episode makes up most of them, he was a particular bastard to Cuddy this episode, but upon reflecting on his actions, they were stemmed from a deep fear of loosing another relationship he valued. He tries all of his usual games with Cuddy, he tosses baby vomit on her clothes, breaks her lamps, talks about all of the ways Cuddy is not prepared to be a mother but nothing works. Wilson: You’re just mad because Cuddy is moving onto high school while you’re stuck repeating the 8th grade. Joy, season 5, episode 6 No matter what House tries, Cuddy is determined to become a mother. But cruely, her world
House and Cuddy are both emotionally tormented by self doubt and fears for the future. Though House and Cuddy go about trying to solve their misery in different ways, both suffer from similar insecurities. The baby arc and “Joy” play with House and Cuddy’s deep need for relationships and the ironic flaws in their personalities which will forever doom them to solitude.
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OMG om this was great!!
I loved how you analyzed them as characters and not as a ship!
*cheers*
I wish I could do something as awesome as it is!!:)
anyway, this got me thinking... I had this impression early on this show, that these 'acomplished', brilliant doctors - apart from Wilson who was married back then - were all lonely. I remember Foreman eating dinner alone and reading an article; Cuddy rolling on her big bed, House on his piano, etc. And now, everybody is alone - even Chase and Cameron aren't "together" as we are about to find out. So, not only my first impression of these doctors as people who sacrificed their personal lives for their careers was confirmed but, but now we know that ALL of them (even the new team, altough we don't have enough data on Skutner) have serious issues with relationships. But then again, don't we all?
xoxo
i like this analysis stuff, makes me feel ignorant, but afterwards I'm less ignorant ;)
And yes 221Bs I am extremely crazy and bored, basically procrasinating. I'm glad I'm make you feel less ignorant :)
LOL! Ok I'll stop with my alien theories now.
I felt such a sadness for Cuddy when i read that part in your article about her truely being the the most miserable character on the show. I just wish for once something would go right for her..
Still, i really enjoyed reading this OM! :D
i agree with m86's theory about you being an alien hhah
yeah Hc somehting good has to happen to cudddy!!!!
*coughhousesbabycough*
am asking for to much?
That was amazing! Are you sure you're not a psychologist?
Well done,I'm at loss of words!!!
*is speechless*
Your analyzis is awesome and I agree with everything you've said.
...
*is still speechless*
Really, really amazing job...
I love how well you analysed this and I was nodding along so much my head nearly fell off.
I don't know how you manage to write so much and so brilliantly...I feel so lazy...
*continues nodding*
Well done! Awesome awesome awesomeness! =D
*head falls off*
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