Elliot

J.D.'s relationship with Elliot is probably one of the most complicated ones in the television show. Every season, one falls in love with the other while the other despises or feels nothing for the first. This "emotional rollercoaster" is not as uncommon as Scrubs might lead you to think. Catullus' relationship with Lesbia at times almost mimics J.D.'s with Elliot. In this post, I'll reflect on J.D.'s jealousy of Elliot's relationships.

In one season, Elliot is dating a man named Sean while J.D. is secretly in love with her. Every day he watches the couple, envying and hating Sean every second. Catullus feels almost the same way in poem 51, when he describes his feelings while watching Lesbia who is sitting and laughing with her husband. He describes her laughter has robbing him of all feelings when he says "dulce ridentem, misero quod omnis eripit sensus mihi." Simply watching her hurt him because she was with another man.

Catullus' poems demonstrate that his ideas and emotions from the first century A.D. apply to people of all places and times. Unrequited love or love just simply ignored hurts whether you are from Ancient Rome or from contemporary America.

Turk

J.D.'s life in Scrubs is marked by his love for his best friend Chris Turk. He plays with the standard boundaries of friendship, causing others to think them homosexual, when in reality, they aren't. This may or may not be the case with Catullus and Licinius, but the parallels are clear. In Carmen 50, Catullus talks about his writing verses with Licinius, which mirrors the nights J.D. and Turk spend together just hanging out. Catullus further explains how he cannot sleep nor eat because he cannot stop thinking about him. This love can also be seen in Scrubs when J.D. celebrates when Turk finally returns from his honeymoon and they spend 10 minutes running around the hospital trying to find each other.

Throughout all of J.D.'s relationships with women, Turk has always been there. The way Catullus portrays Furius and Aurelius in Carmen 11 is in this same idea. He asks them to "nuntiate meae puellae non bona dicta," to "send my girl not good words." Even though, he has problems with women, he knows he can count on his best friends Aurelius and Furius to be there for him.

The love shared by Turk and J.D. is simple "guy love." There is nothing more to it than meets the eye. His relationship raises eyebrows just like many of Catullus' relationships with men do to us today, but it's just a cultural issue in our modern world. Just like a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets describe his love for men, Catullus’ poems and Scrubs show a level of love between people of the same gender that is not commonly seen.

De Bloge

In his works, Catullus demonstrates many types of love for various people in his life. Scrubs follows John Dorian in his life working at a hospital with strong focus on his relationships with others. In this blog, I will compare the love Catullus shows to the love J.D. shows.