The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

1. Life as a Stage: The Dramaturgical Perspective

The perspective employed in this report is that of the theatrical performance; the principles derived are dramaturgical ones.

Social interaction as theater. Erving Goffman introduces the dramaturgical perspective, proposing that individuals in everyday life are like actors on a stage, constantly performing for an audience. This isn't to say life is fake, but rather that we strategically present ourselves and our activities to others, guiding the impressions they form of us. Our actions are tailored to the "parts" we play, and the "audience" (other interactants) simultaneously plays its own part while observing ours.

Impression management. The core idea is that individuals are motivated to control how others perceive them. Whether the goal is to gain approval, maintain harmony, or even deceive, we mobilize our activity to convey a desired impression. This involves both "expressions given" (verbal symbols, intentional communication) and "expressions given off" (non-verbal cues, often unintentional but interpreted by others).

Defining the situation. When we appear before others, we project a "definition of the situation," influencing how others will act towards us. This initial projection is crucial, as it sets the stage for the interaction. Others, in turn, project their own definitions, leading to a "working consensus" – an agreement on whose claims about the situation will be temporarily honored, even if true agreement is absent.

2. The "Front": Crafting Your Persona

It will be convenient to label as “front” that part of the individuars performance which regularly functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance.

Expressive equipment. The "front" is the standardized expressive equipment an individual uses to define the situation for their audience. It's the persona we adopt, comprising both the physical environment and our personal presentation. This front helps observers quickly categorize the situation and respond appropriately, drawing on their past experiences and stereotypes.

Components of front:

• Setting: The physical backdrop for the performance, like furniture, decor, and physical layout. It tends to be fixed, requiring performers to come to it.
• Personal Front: Items intimately identified with the performer, following them wherever they go. This includes:
  • Appearance: Stimuli conveying social statuses (e.g., clothing, age, sex, racial characteristics).
  • Manner: Stimuli warning of the interaction role the performer expects to play (e.g., posture, speech patterns, facial expressions).

Coherence and consistency. We generally expect consistency between these elements – a high-status appearance should align with a dominant manner. However, inconsistencies can occur, creating intrigue or awkwardness. The abstract and general nature of fronts means many different routines can use the same front, allowing observers to navigate diverse situations with a limited "vocabulary of fronts."

3. Dramatic Realization & Idealization: Performing the Ideal Self

When the individual presents himself before others, his performance will tend to incorporate and exemplify the officially accredited values of the society, more so, in fact, than does his behavior as a whole.

Making the invisible visible. Performers must dramatically highlight and portray facts that might otherwise remain unapparent or obscure. This means infusing activity with signs that vividly convey claimed qualities. For some roles (e.g., prizefighters, surgeons), the core tasks are inherently dramatic. For others (e.g., medical nurses, undertakers), significant effort must be diverted to dramatize the work, making invisible costs or complex processes apparent.

Presenting an idealized view. Performances tend to offer an idealized version of the situation, incorporating and exemplifying society's officially accredited values. This is evident in social mobility, where individuals adopt "proper performances" and maintain a front to ascend or avoid descending the social hierarchy. This idealization can be seen as a "ceremony," reaffirming community values.

Concealing inconsistencies. To maintain this idealized front, performers must forgo or conceal actions inconsistent with these standards. This often leads to "secret consumption" of inappropriate pleasures or economies, or the concealment of "dirty work" – tasks that are physically unclean, semi-illegal, cruel, or degrading but necessary for the performance. Errors, tedious labor, and unofficial qualifications are also hidden to project an image of infallibility and ideal motives.

4. Maintaining Expressive Control: The Fragility of Impression

The crucial point is not that the fleeting definition of the situation caused by an unmeant gesture is itself so blameworthy but rather merely that it is different from the definition officially projected.

The delicate balance. The impression of reality fostered by a performance is fragile and can be shattered by minor mishaps. Performers must exert "synecdochic responsibility," ensuring that even instrumentally inconsequential events convey a consistent impression. A single "note off key" can disrupt the entire performance, highlighting the importance of expressive coherence.

Types of unmeant gestures:

• Loss of muscular control: Tripping, belching, yawning, scratching, accidental physical impingement.
• Inappropriate concern: Stuttering, forgetting lines, appearing nervous, inappropriate laughter or anger, showing too much or too little involvement.
• Inadequate dramaturgical direction: Disordered setting, improper timing, embarrassing lulls.

Bureaucratization of the spirit. Society expects a certain "bureaucratization of the spirit," where individuals maintain a homogeneous performance, regardless of their internal moods or energies. This social discipline helps hold the "mask of manner" in place. The constant need for expressive control underscores the discrepancy between our "all-too-human selves" and our "socialized selves," as we strive to embody a fixed, ideal character.

5. The Art of Misrepresentation: Truth, Lies, and Social Norms

When we think of those who present a false front or “only” a front, of those who dissemble, deceive, and defraud, we think of a discrepancy between fostered appearances and reality.

The spectrum of honesty. While we often distinguish between "true" and "false" performances, this distinction is often blurred in practice. Many performers sincerely believe in their act, but even honest performances involve a degree of contrivance. The "realness" of a performance is often a statistical relation to reality, not an intrinsic one.

Types of misrepresentation:

• Impersonation/Fraud: Playing a part without the legitimate right to do so (e.g., a fake doctor). The more convincing the impostor, the more threatening it can be to the moral connection between authorization and capacity.
• Barefaced Lies: Deliberate falsehoods with unquestionable evidence of deceit. These can destroy one's "face" and reputation.
• White Lies: Untruths told to protect others' feelings, often considered less egregious.
• Strategic Ambiguity/Omissions: Conveying false impressions without technically lying, using innuendo or selective disclosure.

Social definitions of deceit. Society's view of misrepresentation is inconsistent. Impersonating a sacred status is culpable, but impersonating a disesteemed one less so. Concealing personal flaws (e.g., ex-convict status) might elicit sympathy, while misrepresenting for collective gain (e.g., a union) is viewed differently than for private gain. Even "decorative" modifications (like hair dye) can shift from misrepresentation to acceptable practice over time.

6. Teams and Backstage: The Hidden World of Preparation

I will use the term "performance team” or, in short, “team” to refer to any set of individuals who co-operate in staging a single routine.

Collective performances. Many performances are not individual efforts but require the intimate cooperation of a "team" of individuals. Each team member may play a distinct role, but their combined efforts create a unified "emergent team impression." This teamwork often cuts across formal status divisions, fostering cohesion within an establishment.

Backstage reality. A "back region" or "backstage" is where the impression fostered by the performance is knowingly contradicted. Here, performers can relax, drop their front, and step out of character. It's where illusions are openly constructed, props are stored, and team members can engage in informal behavior inconsistent with their public persona. Examples include:

• Hotel kitchens where staff behave differently than for guests.
• Radio/TV studios where off-camera antics occur.
• Private offices where executives relax their formal demeanor.

Control of regions. Control over backstage access is crucial for impression management. Keeping the audience out of the back region prevents them from seeing the "dirty work" or the informal behavior that would discredit the performance. Conversely, performers may avoid their own "stage" if its fixed setting conveys an unflattering impression. The boundary between front and back is often a site of tension, as seen in the struggle over open kitchen doors in the Shetland Hotel.

7. Discrepant Roles: The Unseen Players in the Social Drama

Some of these peculiar vantage points are so often taken and their significance for the performance comes to be so clearly understood that we can refer to them as roles, although, relative to the three crucial ones, they might best be called discrepant roles.

Beyond performer, audience, outsider. While the primary roles are performer, audience, and outsider, social interaction is complicated by "discrepant roles" – individuals who have unexpected access to information or regions, challenging the simple congruence between function, information, and place. These roles often involve a false guise or privileged knowledge.

Key discrepant roles:

• Informer: Pretends to be a team member, gains backstage access and destructive information, then betrays the team to the audience.
• Shill: Appears to be an ordinary audience member but secretly aids the performers, often by modeling desired audience responses.
• Spotter: Acts as an ordinary audience member but is actually an agent checking the performers' standards on behalf of the public.
• Shopper: A competitor's agent who observes a performance to gather intelligence.
• Go-between/Mediator: Learns secrets from opposing sides, giving each the impression of loyalty while facilitating agreement.
• Non-person: Present during interaction but treated as if not there (e.g., servants, children), often having access to backstage information.
• Service Specialist: Helps construct, repair, or maintain a client's front, gaining intimate, often discrediting, knowledge of their performance.
• Confidant: Receives confessions from performers about the true nature of their impressions, accepting information without a fee.
• Colleague: Presents the same routine to the same kind of audience but not simultaneously, sharing a "community of fate" and backstage solidarity.

Information control. These roles highlight the constant challenge of information control. Destructive information, whether dark secrets, strategic plans, or inside jokes, must be managed to protect the fostered impression. The existence of these roles underscores the complex, multi-layered nature of social reality.

8. Communication Out of Character: The Undercurrents of Interaction

The presence, then, of communication out of character provides one argument for the propriety of studying performances in terms of teams and in terms of potential interaction disruptions.

Beyond the official script. Despite the "gentleman's agreement" to maintain a working consensus, individuals constantly engage in "communication out of character." These surreptitious communications, if openly acknowledged, would contradict the officially projected definition of the situation. They reveal that performances are not always spontaneous or all-consuming, and that performers can simultaneously entertain other realities.

Forms of out-of-character communication:

• Treatment of the Absent: Backstage derogation of the audience (ridicule, gossip, code-names) or, less commonly, secret praise. This reinforces team solidarity and compensates for the need to be polite frontstage.
• Staging Talk: Discussions among teammates about performance problems, audience reception, and future strategies. This "shop talk" reveals the shared dramaturgical experience.
• Team Collusion: Secret communications among teammates (or with shills) that do not threaten the audience's illusion. This includes:
  • Staging Cues: Secret signals for information, assistance, or timing (e.g., foot-buzzers, code words).
  • Derisive Collusion: Secretly mocking the audience or teasing teammates, often through knowing looks or subtle exaggerations.
• Realigning Actions: Unofficial communications (innuendo, jokes, veiled hints) that subtly test or shift the social distance and formality between teams, or invite a new set of roles. This includes "putting out feelers" and "double-talk."

The dual involvement. Performers are typically involved in both official and surreptitious communication, requiring careful management to prevent official projections from being discredited. This dual involvement highlights the dynamic tension between the presented self and the underlying realities of social interaction.

9. The Performer's Toolkit: Loyalty, Discipline, and Circumspection

Loyalty and discipline, in the dramaturgical sense of these terms, are attributes required of teammates if the show they put on is to be sustained.

Defensive measures. To successfully stage a character and avoid disruptions, performers must possess and express specific attributes, which form a "toolkit" for impression management. These are defensive measures aimed at saving their own show.

Key attributes:

• Dramaturgical Loyalty: Team members must not betray secrets, exploit front regions for personal shows, or denounce the team. They must accept minor parts and believe in their performance enough to sound sincere. This often involves creating high in-group solidarity and dehumanizing the audience backstage.
• Dramaturgical Discipline: Performers must be affectively dissociated from their presentation, able to cope with contingencies without being carried away by their own show. This includes:
  • Remembering one's part and avoiding unmeant gestures or faux pas.
  • Discretion in not disclosing secrets.
  • "Presence of mind" to cover for teammates' mistakes.
  • "Self-control" to suppress inappropriate emotional responses.
  • Poise to transition between informal and formal settings.
• Dramaturgical Circumspection: Exercising foresight and design in staging a show, preparing for contingencies, and exploiting opportunities. This involves:
  • Selecting loyal and disciplined team members.
  • Choosing audiences that will cause minimum trouble (e.g., middle-class students over lower/upper-class).
  • Adapting performances to information conditions (e.g., prostitutes working in dark parks).
  • Planning and rehearsing routines to avoid confusions and lulls.
  • Briefing the audience on their expected responses (protocol).

The art of control. These attributes and practices are essential for maintaining the delicate illusion of a performance, allowing performers to navigate the treacherous waters of social interaction with a semblance of control and grace.

10. Audience Tact: The Unsung Heroes of Social Harmony

Since the dependence of the performers on the tact of the audience and outsiders tends to be underestimated, I shall bring together here some of the several protective techniques that are commonly employed although, analytically speaking, each protective practice might better be considered in conjunction with the corresponding defensive practice.

Cooperative silence. The audience plays a crucial, often underestimated, role in maintaining a performance through "tact" or "protective practices." This involves actively helping performers save their show, often by ignoring discrepancies or offering excuses. Without this cooperation, many performances would quickly unravel.

Forms of audience tact:

• Respecting boundaries: Voluntarily staying out of uninvited regions (backstage) and giving warnings (knocks, coughs) before entering.
• Tactful inattention: In public spaces, acting uninterested and uninvolved in others' interactions to provide effective privacy.
• Holding one's own performance in check: Avoiding contradictions, interruptions, or demands for attention that might disrupt the main performance.
• Avoiding faux pas: Inhibiting acts or statements that could embarrass the performers.
• Avoiding a scene: Prioritizing social harmony over confrontation.
• "Not seeing" slips: Overlooking minor discrepancies between fostered impressions and disclosed realities, or readily accepting excuses.
• Collusion during crisis: Tacitly joining performers to help them through embarrassing moments, such as patients easing up on staff during a death.
• Extra consideration for beginners: Showing leniency to new performers who are more prone to mistakes.

The unspoken agreement. Audience tact is often motivated by identification with performers, a desire to avoid awkwardness, or even to ingratiate oneself. This cooperative silence highlights the shared responsibility in constructing social reality. However, if performers become aware of being tactfully protected, it can lead to a momentary breakdown of team separateness, revealing the underlying dramaturgical structure.

11. The Inevitable Breakdown: When the Performance Falters

Life may not be much of a gamble, but interaction is.

Sources of disruption. Despite all defensive and protective measures, "incidents" – performance disruptions – are inevitable. These include:

• Unmeant gestures: Inadvertent acts conveying inappropriate impressions.
• Inopportune intrusions: Outsiders accidentally witnessing backstage activity.
• Faux pas: Unthinking intentional contributions that discredit a team's image (gaffes, boners) or the other team's image (bricks).
• Scenes: Intentional actions that destroy or seriously threaten the polite appearance of consensus, forcing a new drama (e.g., public criticism, "having it out," criminal trials).
• Humiliation: When an unguarded claim or request is refused, leading to deep personal discredit.

Consequences across levels. When a disruption occurs, its consequences are felt simultaneously across three levels of social reality:

• Interactional: The social interaction halts, the situation becomes undefined, and participants feel awkward, flustered, and embarrassed. The "minute social system" disorganizes.
• Structural: The reputation and legitimacy of larger social units (colleague-groupings, teams, establishments) are tested and potentially weakened.
• Personal: The individual's self-conceptions, built around their identification with a part or group, become discredited, leading to feelings of shame or alienation.

The human condition. The constant possibility of embarrassment or humiliation is an inherent part of social interaction. This "dramaturgic element of the human situation" means that behind every mask, every character, lies a performer privately engaged in a difficult, treacherous task, often feeling unwarranted shame or wariness of others.