Exploring Erving Goffman's dramaturgical model of the self
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
— Shakespeare, as cited in Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), p. xi
Step 1 — Choose a Social Stage
According to Goffman, we constantly perform different "selves" for different audiences. Select a social context to see what mask you might wear there.
🏠Family dinner
📚Philosophy class
💬First date
💼Job interview
🎉Friends / party
📱Social media
Step 2 — Analyze the Performance
What is "impression management"?
Goffman argues we constantly manage the impressions others form of us — controlling information, gestures, and props. This isn't deception; it's how social life works.
Goffman writes that impression management involves the use of sign-vehicles: appearance, manner, and setting. We all engage in "front stage" performances tailored to our audience, while keeping certain aspects of ourselves in the "backstage." This is not lying — it's the constitutive structure of social interaction. The question is whether any performance reveals a "true self" underneath, or whether the self is nothing but the sum of its performances. (Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Ch. 1)
Is there a "true self" beneath the masks?
Descartes would say yes — the rational soul is the real you, independent of social role. Goffman is more ambiguous. Where do you land?
This is the central tension between Module 2 and Module 4. The Cartesian Package holds that the real self exists independently of social context. Goffman's dramaturgy challenges this: if we are always performing, if there is no audience-free backstage, then the very idea of a core self may be a performance too. Bruner's narrative identity theory offers a middle path: the self is constructed through the stories we tell — it's real, but it's social and linguistic in nature, not a Cartesian substance. (Bruner, Acts of Meaning, pp. 99–116)
Can you "misperform" your role?
Goffman describes "stigma" — when someone's actual social identity discredits the virtual identity others expect. What happens when the mask slips?
When a performance fails — you forget your lines, your backstage becomes front stage, or your actual identity disrupts expectations — Goffman calls this discrediting information. Stigmatized individuals face the constant work of "passing" or managing a spoiled identity. This has direct connections to the Social Existence Reflection assignment: some people are made socially invisible precisely because their actual identity doesn't fit the expected performance. (Goffman, Stigma, 1963)
Step 3 — Compare Two Masks
Select two different social contexts and examine how the same person performs differently across them. What does this reveal about identity?
Context A
Select a context above.
Context B
Select a context above.
✍ Reflect for your paper
Think of a time when you felt socially invisible. Using Goffman's concepts of front stage / backstage, impression management, or stigma — how would you analyze that experience? This can seed your Social Existence Reflection paper (Module 4 assignment).