“These situation terms can easily be related to conventional structural ones. When an individual or performer plays the same part to the same audience on different occasions, a special relationship is likely to arise. Defining social role as the enactment of rights and duties attached to a given status, we can say that social role will involve one or more parts and that each of these different parts may be presented by kinds of audience or to an audience of the same persons.” (Goffman 1956, 9)
I chose this quotation from Goffman’s The Presentation of Self for the reason that I found it the most intriguing to read. Going through the reading one last time, I feel that even though the information isn’t necessarily new, it’s interesting to reflect and think about the ways in which I change the way I present myself in different social settings. I enjoyed this reading because I genuinely resonate with it. Being someone who endures various social settings on the daily, I find that I am subconsciously analyzing the way others present themselves to different people. Now knowing about this reading, I think I will be thinking about it when I notice a change in someone’s presentation of self.