On two diametrically
opposed ways to read the show’s female lead.
My weekend Guest
Poster is going to focus on Robin
Wright’s Claire Underwood, Frank Underwood’s wife, founder and director of
the non-profit Clean Water Initiative, and one of the more compelling
characters in recent TV history. She’ll be writing about issues of gender and
identity, family and motherhood, career and ambition, so I’ll leave those themes
in her capable hands and request that you make sure to visit on Saturday or
Sunday (or both!) to read her take. Today, I want to analyze how Claire
reflects—and indeed in many ways exemplifies—how open to interpretation the
show’s characters are, and more exactly how possible it is to interpret many of
them (with Claire at the top of this list) in contrasting and even opposed
ways.
Probably the more
obvious of the two opposed ways to read Claire is to think of her as Lady
Macbeth, not only wedded to the scheming ambitious Frank (he of the controversial Shakespearean
asides to the audience), but entirely supportive of—if not indeed the force
behind—his ploys and plans. The show provides multiple pieces of evidence in
support of this interpretation, including one of its most consistent motifs (Claire
and Frank smoking and plotting together at their window) and the incredibly creepy scene
in which Claire reveals why she accepted Frank’s marriage proposal. Seen in
this light, Claire’s lifelong work at CWI isn’t about water or the environment,
but instead offers her a vehicle through to complement Frank’s Congressional
efforts and help advance their shared ambitions as a result (which would
explain why she’s so intent on tying CWI to the sleazy and uber-powerful energy
company for which Remy Danton lobbies, SanCorp).
But I think it’s
equally possible to flip that script, and that paragraph, on its head—to begin
an interpretation of Claire with those lifelong efforts at CWI, and to read her
as willing to do whatever it takes in order to advance her company’s
environmental objectives (she says as much to the more idealistic activist Gillian
Cole, arguing that they want the same thing but are trying to pursue it in very
distinct ways). Chief among the pieces of evidence for this interpretation
would be Claire’s apparently long-term and evolving relationship with British
photographer Adam
Galloway (played by Ben
Daniels), a thoughtful artistic type who sees (and seems to bring out)
something far different in Claire than Frank ever has. Claire tells Galloway
that she could never be with him for life—but neither can she seem to leave him
or deny their connection. No more, that is, than she can leave Frank—suggesting,
as with so many things on House of Cards,
that both opposing interpretations are somehow inseparably true.
Last House
analyses of mine tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think?
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