Is Frank Underwood a good person?
Have you ever heard the saying that “Two wrongs don’t make a right”?Frank was betrayed by President Walker at the very beginning of House of Cards — Frank was supposed to be serving on the cabinet as Secretary of State in exchange for using his influence over Congress in the House to sway support for the president-elect. Walker wins the election, and leaves his Chief of Staff to let Frank know that he won’t be serving as Secretary of State, but that they’d like his help to choose his replacement.Sure, Walker and Vasquez were very malicious in cheating Frank.But does that justify his actions which follow?Killing innocent people for political gainBlackmailing and harassing those who oppose himStaging a fake war in order to cling to powerUsing the NSA to spy on the electorate and influence the electionCome on, does that sound like a good guy to you?The road to power is full of hypocrisy, and casualties. Never regret.
What is the meaning behind Frank Underwood's ring, and his signature double tap?
Frank Underwood's ring is his class ring from the military academy he went to. Frank seems to have a love/hate relationship with this institution as we see in the episode where he goes back. He hated it but still recognizes that it shaped his character, there is also the alleged intimate relationship he had with one of his classmates. The double tap, as he explained to Raymond Tusk is from his father. It both serves the purpose of knocking on wood and strengthening his knuckles. So even though he acknowledges that many opportunities come from luck, he doesn't rely on it and still keeps ready to fight if threatened. Those are two small details that contribute to making Underwood a more complex character. It's worth noting that Underwood himself probably created this habit in order to create his unique persona. It also makes Frank seem to be quite a nostalgic, despite him denying it. We saw that in the way he handled the news about his great great grandfather, and similarly the double ring tap is a constant reminder of where he comes from.
Is Frank Underwood a psychopath?
I would like to argue that F.U. does not have antisocial personality disorder nor is he a psychopath.That being said, I think he is even more dangerous and successful because he is not affected by these disorders.F.U. has the best of both worlds, if you like. He has core psychopathic traits, such as egoism, ruthlessness, manipulative tendencies, remorselessness, charm and coolness under pressure. But they do not seem to originate in pathology. Frank’s inner workings do not seem to be governed by the common levers found in psychopaths and sociopaths. The way Frank’s nervous system presents itself does not hint at psychopathy.The emotions Frank does exhibit do not seem to be tied pathologically to his ego as they should in order for him to be a psychopath. He does not have emotional blind-spots for control, domination nor is he constantly on the look out to position himself as top dog in every situation. He rarely acts in ways that are not the result of a conscious inner discourse. That is to say, he does not victimize because he needs to, because it feeds his ego in relevant ways, but because it is the most effective course of action.It is hard to pinpoint what has made Frank be Frank. Politics is after all an environment that encourages behaviors such as the ones we see in Frank. It could be that the environment dictates his philosophy. He is a perfectly adapted politician. Everything about him makes him brilliant for his job. It could be that he reacted to his early environment and that facilitated the development of certain marked traits rather than an overall balanced personality, but at this point I’d like to point out that Frank Underwood is a fictional character and it could be that he was thought out through the lens of what it means to be a successful politician. Maybe the authors never intended to build a psychopath. If they did and this was the result, they were not quite good at it, because he does not make sense as a psychopath. He lacks the motivations, the eccentricities, the deficits, or a coherent unifying theme.
On the Netflix series House of Cards, why is Frank Underwood a Democrat?
There are probably a few possible answers; one of them is that it's more interesting and surprising to have a Democrat be totally conniving and scruples-free because it's not consistent with the stories usually told about our political systems (see The West Wing as a good example of the opposite story -- Democrats as virtuous). What I would argue is the authoritative answer is:My dad’s side of the family is from South Carolina, and I know that accent well, and then it got me thinking about what Frank Underwood’s story might be. The American mythology is that anyone could be president — you could be from a town called Hope and be president — so I thought him coming from a small town and coming from nothing is a much more American tale, as opposed to coming from aristocracy, which is much more a British political trajectory.And so I asked my dad if there is a small town in South Carolina that would be appropriate and he mentioned Gaffney, which, of course, is perfect. It was represented for years by a Democrat, John Spratt. Underwood is in no way like Spratt, but the fact that a Democrat represented a mostly rural district in a mostly red state is fascinating.From an interview with Beau Willimon, the head writer and showrunner of the show. The interview is posted on Salon.com: Why was Francis Underwood a Democrat?
Why does Frank Underwood in the series House of Cards always knock a desk twice in quick succession with his hand right before he leaves a conversation?
"Something my father taught me. It's meant to harden your knuckles so you don't break them if you get into a fight. It also has the added benefit of knocking on wood. My father believed that success is a mixture of preparation and luck. Tapping the table kills both birds with one stone."-Frank Underwood's answer when Raymond Tusk asked him the same question that you did.
What on Earth is going on with Frank Underwood’s "wh" pronunciation?
Everyone used to pronounce it that way.The first word in Beowulf, the most famous work in Old English, is Hƿæt!, or, to use a more modern spelling, hwat. Though it served a different purpose in that context, it’s the ancestor of our modern word “what”.Not only was it spelled “hwat” back then, it was pronounced that way, too: say /hwat/ with a short “a” and you’ve got almost the exact pronunciation. Likewise, “where” was said like hwar, “when” was hwenne, “white” was hwit, and “whine” was hwinan. If you can think of a word that starts with wh-, chances are it used to be spelled hw-. (Not all, though: some words, such as whole, never were, and were only mistakenly given the spelling.)So why would it change? Well, there’s a funny little thing called metathesis. It sounds complicated, but it just refers to when two sounds or letters switch places, as in “iron” as “iorn” and for the spelling of “-er” as “re”. It isn’t uncommon linguistically; in some languages, such as Fur, it’s a regular part of the grammar.Due to metathesis, people started to swap the letters in “hw” when writing, turning words like hwæt into “what”, hwit into “white”, and so on. However, though the spelling changed, they were still said “hwat” and “hwit”……until the /h/ was dropped from the pronunciation. This probably started around the 13th century, but it wasn’t until the 1700s that it spread to formal speech. Today, “whine” and “wine” are pronounced the same in almost every English dialect.Almost every, that is: some varieties, most notably in England and parts of the US, haven’t lost the /h/ yet. For example, listen here for how “wine” and “whine” are said in a New England accent.Frank Underwood, Kevin Spacey’s character House of Cards, is from South Carolina, where the pronunciation of “wh” as /hw/ is retained. If he’d asked the question, it would have begun “Hwat on Earth…?”
Why did Frank Underwood only start his "road to the presidency" after being snubbed for Secretary of State by President Walker?
He is going to start his road anyway. What do you think he will run for after Secretary of State and after 2 terms of Walker Administration. Of couse, President of the United States.But when Walker didn’t nominate him for SecState. Frank want revenge and this open a new road to power for him too.After all, he will become president at some part of his life.But sadly, we won’t see Frank anymore :(Cheers,
Does Kevin Spacey's southern accent in "House of Cards" sound convincing to a real southerner?
To my ear, the accent sounds sounds authentic but not the cadence. He clips along a little too briskly to be an authentic Southerner. On a related note, Colin Firth stars in upcoming drama about West Memphis Three as Southerner private investigator. Now that is stretch but I've seen the trailer and he sounds at least as convincing as Spacey.