Connection of House, M.D. and Detective Fiction Through Social Division

864 Words2 Pages

House shares multiple themes and parallels with different detective fiction stories. Some of the most familiar parallels are those between house and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes. Along with their names, the two characters have many other things in common, such as an addiction to some type of drug; House is addicted to Vicodin and Homes is addicted to cocaine. They also both have trusty sidekicks of Dr. Watson and Dr. Wilson, and the inept police force of Holmes’ stories are portrayed, as a team of specialists in House’s world. However, these similarities created by the writers are not why House has in a way become its own version of detective fiction. The television show may never be grouped with the detective genre, but the similarities of themes do attach it to the old forms of Edgar Allan Poe and many others. The setting of House M.D. introduces the mood and tone for the work of fiction, but it also depicts the social structure and separation of the different levels of workers in the hospital. Many detective fiction authors focused on the social prejudices and division of the society they were writing for, and the competition that it produced amongst the members of society. In spite of the United States citizens being equal, the actual equality of the different classes is debatable, and the difference is demonstrated in House M.D. depicting the social climate of separation and competition in the modern day that is similar to the separation 150 years ago.

Although it possesses many different settings, the main setting of the television series House, M.D. is the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. This main setting can be comprehended by all of the viewers because most everyone has been...

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... and fifty years ago.

House M.D. may never be considered a detective fiction series, but, in spite of its medical drama classification, the show will always share obvious and less notable similarity to the detective fiction genre. David Shore, one of the writers for the show, has created a setting in which the division of social classes can be recognized; this same concept inspired many detective fiction authors to show social division through the city structure. The connection between the television show and the detective genre also extend to the title character and his extreme similarities to Sherlock Holmes, including an addiction, a sidekick, and the similarity of the names House and Holmes. Detective fiction has slowly faded into a genre of literature that is not as popular as it used to be, however, the genre is still alive in the television series House M.D.

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