The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life

The Introduction outlines the subject of Goffman’s study in general terms. Goffman is concerned with understanding the nature of the social relations that transpire whenever “an individual enters the presence of others” (1) and the way in which the individual and others infer information and meaning from their interactions. For Goffman, the entire presentation of self in everyday, or public, life is predicated on many inferences of meaning based on an individual’s conduct, appearance, prior encounters, or simply what the individual tells others regarding themselves. At the outset, however, Goffman introduces a distinction between two kinds of impressions that an individual can have in the presence of others: “the expression that he gives, and the expression that he gives off. The first involves verbal symbols […] The second involves a wide range of action that others can treat as symptomatic of the actor” (2). Goffman’s study focuses primarily on the second impression (expressions given off through indirect, nonverbal cues). With respect to both the individual and those in their presence, an attempt to define the social situation is always at work:

“When we allow that the individual projects a definition of the situation when he appears before others, we must also see that the others, however passive their role may seem to be, will themselves effectively project a definition of the situation by virtue of their response to the individual and by virtue of any lines of action they initiate to him” (9).