More Masks

I feel that I am definitely attracted to Gergens suggestion that we should deliberately play more roles as I feel this is required in order to progress as a person. We are consistently changing as a society therefore people need to change along with this. Goffman in the The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) agrees with Gergen suggestion that we change our behaviour and ourselves in different situations. He suggests to us that we all play roles which are our front stage, and control our impression of ourselves that we want others to see. Linking playing roles with wearing masks is interesting as masks are thought to be unconscious where as ‘playing’ a role implies we know about the portrayals we are giving. I believe that to function as an individual we need to assign ourselves roles and masks to function in that particular circumstance. Without some impression management or learning to portray multiple roles and masks we are limited within society and as a ‘complete’ person.