Alter Egos

Individuals begin to feel isolated when they pretend to be someone they are not. In the modern age, individuals feel the need to be someone they are not in order to fit into the mainstream. Turkle states, “After an evening of avatar-to-avatar talk in a networked game, we feel at one moment in possession of a full social life and, in the next, curiously isolated in tenuous complicity

Word count: 1588 Humans by nature, as suggested by Aronson, are a highly socialable species and care a lot about what others think of them. This has lead to the existence of a belief in public appearance or the sub-conscious development of self presentation. This is the foundation for Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts” (William Shakespeare). This essay

Theme of Deception in Much Ado About Nothing Each of the main characters in Much Ado About Nothing is the victim of deception, and it is because they are deceived that they act in the ways that they do. Although the central deception is directed against Claudio in an attempt

In Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, identity is connected to one’s social standing. The characters behaviour and personalities are ways for the characters to not face their actual selves. Jonson gives the characters “double identities” to fool the others and those “double identities” prevent the characters from improving and changing their internal selves (behaviours and personalities). In The Alchemist, fantasies can lead to the loss of personal identities and will cause trouble that will come with consequences.

Identity is who we are, even though it can be hard sometimes to find out exactly what that means. That is why our identities can be so easily changed and shaped by different things. This is especially true during our adolescent years, when we are vying for acceptance from others. Sometimes we are the ones who shape who we are. This can happen when we choose to ignore outside influences who would normally affect us. Nevertheless, most of the time we are shaped by other people. Human beings have a never ending want to be socially accepted. We are all insecure in our own way, leaving us prey to the influence of others. We are able to choose how we act and what we do, but even so we end up being changed by everyone who surrounds us. Although we have the freedom to make our own conscious decisions, ultimately the people around us shape who we are by the way they treat us.

Goffman on the other hand refers to the identity of self as a performance and a script where an individual sets the scene for their life. Basically he is saying that individuals sets out to present themselves to the world around them, always trying to maintain the role they have selected for themselves, since those whom they meet not only try to decide what role it is you are playing, but also whether or not you are competent to play that role. Goffman states “There is a popular view that the individual offers his performance and puts on his show ‘for the benefit of other people’. It will be convenient to begin a consideration of performances by

The purpose of the ego is to ensure that the impulses of the id should be expressed in an acceptable manner to the rest of society. “For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself" (Part 3, Chapter 4).

person. Without an identity people would not know what kind of person they are. The book

“Identity cannot be found or fabricated, but emerges from within when one has the courage to let go” (Doug Cooper, Outside In). Get rid of it, do not hold onto that anymore, whatever it may be. In this quote when Cooper, I believe, is saying “let go” he is saying let go of yourself and when I say this I do not mean to give up, I do NOT mean to just stop, it does NOT mean to stop being yourself, what this quote is stating is open yourself up to new opportunities, and do NOT hide in your shell. You find your true self when you let go, you create who you are, your identity emerges from within, and you must let it free. When you let yourself go you may find yourself following someone, wanting to be like that someone, and this person then becomes

There is no denying that every person needs ti have a persona. One’s personality is developed through the different environments, cultures, and even obstacles faced in order to create the type of person we are. When going through the process of finding our identities, we are faced with aspects of ourselves that we do not wish to be defined as. According to the author, Jennifer M. Volland “Stay: The Archetypal Space of the Hotel,” she emphasizes psychologist Carl Jung’s idea that we each have two sides to ourselves that we are either accepting or unaccepting as she states, “the ‘persona’ which is the outward appearance a person presents to the world, and the ‘shadow,’ the subconscious aspects of that person’s personality — that is, the denied parts of one’s self.” We are able to see parallels of Jung’s argument of what are the components of a person’s identity throughout David Wallace’s work, “Shipping Out,” of how the cruise ship internally exploits workers and manipulates their passengers while externally trying to maintain a facade of what the Zenith stands for.

The Existence of Two Egos in "Death by Landscape" 0369012 Mi Sung Park The short story "Death by Landscape" well describes the psychology of Lois, the heroine of the story. One incident that occurred to her when she was 13 years old, affects her whole life. As a thirteen year old, she looses

Lahiri highlights various types of irony to explore the identity Whether we realize it or not, we all at some point in time, face an identity crisis. Not saying that each person has a lifelong identity struggle, but everyone at one time questions their existence and their future. What we all need to realize is the undeniable truth we are our own person; undefinable human beings. We mold our own personalities, paths, and relationships (Caesar). All of the ironic events in Gogol’s life, “things that never should have happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, are what endured in the end” (Lahiri 287). Our failures, successes, and heritage are all parts of who we are, not what we are as Gogol has learned. At the end of the day, if you do not love yourself, how can others love

Since identity is so often built from fads, it is a reflection of culture. People want to be like what they see on television and hear on the radio. So people mold themselves to be like the idols they are so infatuated with. It?s always about what?s popular, and by looking at a large group you can tell what that is at any given time, because people like to connect their identities with one another. It creates a sense of belonging and acceptance that humans need in order to feel like they fit into society. People have to be able to bond with one another. Having a vastly different identity makes you an outcast, and no one wants to know how it feels to be the loner. So people alter themselves to ensure that they will

The instances of mistaken identity are related to many disguises in the play. Viola, who puts on male attire, begins to have everyone believe that she is a man. By

Dramaturgical Perspective In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.