Erving Goffman's Dramaturgical Approach

Erving Goffman is one of the earliest interaction theorists. The bulk of his studies focused on the Dramaturgical Approach to imagining the self. Goffman essentially described the way humans interact and socialize with one another. He uses descriptions of front stage, back stage, unfocused, and focused interaction in his studies and writings to describe his beliefs. The foundation of Goffman’s explanation of dramaturgy is the fact that humans are active and knowledgeable. He states that humans have the brainpower to understand and decide as well as the willpower to act on those actions. Those actions help to shape and develop the society we live in. Goffman also believes that humans devise their own conduct. This means that humans decide for themselves the

My husband knows me better than anyone on Earth, yet I still feel like I am acting for him sometimes. It is not as though he is putting the pressure on me to be a certain way, but I have expectations of how I want to be perceived to him, and everyone else. By this, I mean I will try to uphold everything and juggle more than I mentally and physically can so that I am thought of as ‘Super Mom’ or ‘Super Wife’. I want others to think, “Wow, how does she do it?” I feel like I am always ‘on’, even when I am around my most trusted companion, my husband. I spread myself thin trying to do everything. My husband always asks to help with the dishes or help cleaning, or with whatever tasks I need done, but I always refuse. I feel it is my job to take care of everything myself without the help of others. This is because if I do accept help, then my mentality is that I will be seen differently. It does not seem to make much sense, but this ‘front stage act’ is because of my expectations for myself. My ‘back stage’ self, in this case would be actually allowing myself to be lazy and tolerate a mess or unfinished