Goffman’s dramaturgical approach rests on the basic argument that individuals deliberately exchange their gestures that provide others with information about how to respond. Through exchange of gestures we develop a ‘definition of situation’ to carry out our social life in a cooperative manner. By constructing these definitions of situations individuals in their everyday life engage themselves in a series of performances. These performances are executed through gestures “to present one-self” in a particular manner as a person so as to get desirable and expected treatment.
Our life, in the dramaturgical model, is visualised as a series of performances. While I am standing here, I am engaged in a performance in which I am trying to convey not only information about Goffman to you, but information about me through the confidence in which I speak on the topic, the manner in which I do so; the mastery of speaking in front of others, and so on.
The roles that the individuals play thus are the images individuals want to project and the script is the content through which we communicate to others. The roles are being performed in a way so as to make an audience, who are the observers of the performance, to believe in what is being enacted before them. These roles are not merely insignificant performances but can truly be seen as important decisions that individuals take in their everyday life. These decisions range from dressing oneself to that of display of body languages in an interactional situation. For instance, individuals do think and take important decisions as to what should one wear casual or formal, what make-up to put on if occasions of formal and social gatherings, what kind of body language to display at formal and informal gatherings. Our choices, inevitably, influence how the things we say are perceived by others. Making eye contact and smiling as we compliment someone adds vigor to what we say. Therefore, people judge and accept the compliment to be genuine and do not get distracted while complimenting. These performances revolve around certain interrelated elements. And a discussion of these interrelated elements can help us in understanding the dynamisms associated with dramaturgical interaction that individuals perform in their everyday life. The following sections would elaborate on these key elements in the theory of dramaturgy.
1. The Performance
Goffman uses the term ‘performance’ to refer to ‘all the activity of an individual which occurs before a particular set of observers and in intended to exert some influence on others. The main elements of performance in dramaturgy are the strategies of impression management. It is oriented towards the maintenance of a single definition of the situation. As he puts it: ‘the key factor [in the structure of social encounters] is the maintenance of a single definition of the situation, this definition having to be expressed, and this expression sustained in the face of a multitude of potential disruptions’ (Goffman 1959: 225).
2. Impression Management
Central to Goffman's concern is his notion of impression management. It is mostly oriented to guarding against a series of unexpected action that might arise while interacting with others. These unexpected actions can be in the form of unintended gestures, inopportune intrusions, faux pas or intentionally making a scene. According to Goffman, we use various mechanisms, called sign vehicles, to present ourselves to others that is free from any disruption. “When an individual projects a definition of the situation and thereby makes an implicit or explicit claim to be a person of a particular kind, he automatically exerts a moral Demand upon the others, obliging them to value and treat him in the manner that persons of his kind have a right to expect (Goffman, 1959:24).” When trying to make a good impression, it is essential to present yourself in best manner possible as the majority of peoples’ first opinions will be judged on appearance. The clothing we wear and the specific style we present tells the audience a lot about what kind of person we are. For example, you are buying a stereo, the salesperson is attempting to construct a definition of the situation that will suggest that you need to have this high end and expensive product because you are an individual with good tastes, while you are trying to construct a definition which suggests that while you appreciate good music, you also have financial considerations but you don’t want to look too cheap either. So, it becomes somewhat of a struggle between actors in different situations. Furthermore, a good sales representative will try hard to persuade you that he is not really a salesman at all who only looks for profit rather he too knows to pay his sincerity to a person who is known to him. On the other hand, you are aware of the fact that he is a salesman thus you try to avoid providing him too much information that might go against you while bargaining for a product. In managing such kind of situation, we create impressions that Goffman calls sign vehicles which includes both our language as well as our body language. We create impressions by our expressions. However, he argues the expressions we show are the elements of our expressiveness over which we have less control because individuals are constrained by societal norms and values. What front we can put on and in what context these are mostly determined by the norms of society to a large extent and we don’t actually have that much choice while playing many social roles. A successful performance depends on involvement of both actor and the audience. Mystification is a technique mostly employed by the performers that entails maintenance of restricting contact between the performer and the audience. This social distance helps in probable disruptions in the performance by restricting the audience questioning the performance.
3. Physical Setting: The Stage
The physical setting, where a role is performed, in Goffman’s theoretical frame is relevant to understand the ways in which impression is managed in actual situations. For example, a high level corporate executive would expect to have a well-furnished exclusive office for himself, not a small cubicle right among her subordinate officials. Therefore, dramaturgy has a concern with the settings in which people perform their roles may be seen as reflecting their attempts to control the general social definition of situation (Johnson 2008:121) Every stage has two sides, one is the actual stage where the real performance takes place before an audience and the backstage, where rehearsals and preparations take place. ‘Front’ is ‘that part of the individual’s performance which regularly functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance’. Back stage on the other hand refers to a where informal behavior appears. In life also, there are two regions, each with its own set of behavioral norms. For example, a couple may have a fight, where they raise their voices and call each other names. But the minute their kids come home, they change automatically into their good and normal selves and address each other pleasantly and act as if everything is normal. This, essentially, is an act that is being put on for the benefit of their kids who are their audience in this example. In private, the couple’s displays of anger to each other are perfectly acceptable behavior, but in front of their children, their angry discussions are unacceptable so they often resort to the acting of loving parents. In this comparison, the role of the kids as the audience is also important as they are pretending to accept what their parents are trying to project before them even though they happen to know that they parent fight. However, this does not mean that Goffman is assuming that life is based on a set of scripts or cultural prescriptions rather these are highly performative and dynamic in nature. These performances are always emotionally loaded.
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