Overtime. many persons will convey out their “dark side” . Some are pushed to their bounds and in order to hone themselves and to delight others. they would make things that is benefit to them. In this essay. I will be discoursing Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical position and analyse it to the film Black Swan. Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical position of societal interaction suggests that a person’s individuality will alter overtime based on interaction with others. It proposes that a person’s individuality is non a stable and independent psychological entity. Goffman sees human interaction as a expansive drama. He forms a theatrical metaphor in specifying the method in which one homo being nowadayss itself to another based on cultural values. norms. and outlooks.
Performances can hold breaks but most are successful. The end of this presentation of ego is acceptance from the audience through use. If the histrion succeeds. the audience will see the histrion as he or she wants to be viewed. Peoples use others for satisfaction and success. Although Cooley and Goffman may hold that human existences are performing artists. they differ on the fact that Goffman sees the performing artists to be manipulative and untrusty. The dramaturgical attack makes us recognize how when we act. we worry about our “audience and how they will judge our public presentation.
If life we have ends and “expectations” that we want to accomplish and we do this by utilizing a tool called feeling direction. Impression direction was the chief centre of Goffman’s work of the dramaturgical position. What Erving Goffman argues is that the ego is non an entity that is originated from its passage but arises through public presentation. Impression direction describes a cardinal facet of function theory. Its end is to derive advantageous first feeling. It is the manner people influence how others think about something else. normally themselves. Peoples normally do this either to acquire something they want from others or to set up an independent individuality. Most of us will execute and move the manner we think will work best for our outlooks in a given state of affairs. Be it at work. school. in forepart of friends or household. we are all seting on presentations of ourselves that can be best suiting for that peculiar environment. We all act otherwise in any given state of affairs that we are in. Goffman believed that peculiar understand of assorted societal scenes are accomplished by utilizing tools of the theatre. These tools are considered to be functions. books. costumes. and a phase.
Nina. the chief character. is passionate about dancing ; it consumes her every aftermath hr. She even dreams about dance. She is a diffident and delicate immature adult female is chosen to play the function of the Swan Queen and must therefore embody both the pure White Swan and the evil Black Swan. Her pursuit for flawlessness as a concert dance terpsichorean leads her to see. in her mundane life. the transmutation experienced by the White Swan in the ballet’s narrative. The events of Nina’s day-to-day life hence mirror the narrative of the character she takes on as a concert dance terpsichorean. finally taking to confusion and. as the line between world and fiction fuzzs. to evident insanity. But in the procedure. she will hold to cast her “sweet girl” character and embracing her darker side to to the full encompass the function and to delight her demanding and sexually aggressive manager. Thomas. Her metabolism is so complete. that Nina finally develops webbed pess. bird-like legs and sprouts plumes and wings to really go the black swan.
She sees herself really turning into the black swan and emerging to a wholly different character. Nina’s quest for flawlessness is wholly focused on technique in footings of organic structure placement and motion ; she doesn’t yet genuinely associate to the emotional experience of dance and dance as a sexual being. In order to make that. she must happen the dark side of herself. something that is foreign to her. as she has been brought up to stay a kid. meek and acquiescent. and surely non to research excessively far afield. She needs her dark side. non merely to be the black swan. but more significantly to go a mature adult female. Nina. who constantly strives for flawlessness. lives with her commanding female parent. Erica. who gave up dance to hold her girl. They live in a bantam New York City flat. cluttered with her mother’s egotistic pictures. Erica tries urgently to keep her girl from populating freely and autonomously.
Nina is portrayed as a immature. beautiful and sweet concert dance terpsichorean. a metaphor for the graceful lines and effortless motion of a white swan. But the production besides calls for the lead terpsichorean to transform into the white swan’s alter-ego. the black swan. The darker. pleasure-seeking. unrestrained black swan is something the manager of the dance company didn’t think she could manage. He thought of her as excessively stiff and cold to take on the features of a black swan. Nina was branded as unidimensional. In order for her to successfully take on the function of the black swan. she must alter her full visual aspect and personality. Nina’s concert dance manager stating. “ when I look at you. all I see is the white swan. yes your beautiful. fearful. fragile. ideal casting. ” ( Black Swan ) shows that he merely sees the guiltless side of her when what he besides needs is the other side of the black swan. the dark side.
“If I were merely projecting for the white swan. I would pick you. But I am non merely projecting for the white swan” ( Black Swan ) . his perceptual experiences of Nina were steadfastly lodged. He was non convinced. Nina’s occupation was to convert the manager that she had what it took to transform. In different state of affairss. Nina was able to transform into different characters in order to profit herself. merely as Erving Goffman suggested. everyone is merely in it to profit them. In order to obtain flawlessness. or in alchemical footings. to carry through the Great Work. Nina must get the hang both good and evil – visible radiation and darkness. The supernatural construct of dichotomy becomes hence highly of import. Nina needs to score and convert her concert dance manager that she is capable of going the Black Swan. She emerges from the “little girl” that she one time was into seductive immature adult females. Thomas says “I knew the White Swan wouldn’t be a job. The existent work would be your metabolism into her evil twin” ( Black Swan ) suggests to Nina that she needs to transform herself into some else. Seducing the concert dance manager was a manner to turn out to him that she was able to interrupt out of her shell.
As Nina becomes haunted by the Black Swan. this alternate character takes a life of its ain and Acts of the Apostless outside of Nina’s witting control. Goffman perspective argued against the thought that each person has a “self” . He believed that our ‘selves’ alterations through behavior and through different obstructions. Some of the really tense scenes in the film involve the manager interacting with Nina. promoting her toward self-discovery. He really serves to antagonize some of the mother’s influence by stating her she is strong ( as opposed to weak ) . that she should contend back instead than be so accepting. and to be an grownup sexual being. instead than stay a small miss.
While Nina’s manager is seeking to turn her into the ‘black swan’ . her overbearing female parent is seeking to maintain her girl to be submissive concert dance terpsichorean. Half manner through the movie. Nina refuses to be her marionette any longer. recognizing that her female parent is really acrimonious about Nina’s achievements. Nina delectations in the realisation that whereas she has become a star. her female parent did non acquire beyond the corps of concert dance. Overt clash between Nina and her female parent merely becomes evident when Nina begins to divide. The mother’s discouragement is captured by the lines. “What happened to my sweet miss? ” to which. Nina vehemently replies: “She’s gone! ! ! ” ( Black Swan ) . Interrupting off from the mother’s tight bonds allows Nina to surge and get the hang the Black Swan function. This comes to demo that Nina’s ‘self’ alterations overtime in order to accomplish her ends in life.
The chase of flawlessness. an impossible end. interferes farther with self-development. Her thrust for flawlessness prevents her from acquiring satisfaction from her achievements. a beginning from which self-pride is usually derived. Nina is really competitory when it comes to ballet “it’s my bend to be the Black Swan! ” shows how eager she is non merely to be portion of the show. but to be the chief dramatis personae member of the show. The film suggested that Nina had an individuality crisis and in order to delight the manager. she had to go person that she was. at first. uncomfortable with. As Goffman proposed. the end of this presentation of ego is acceptance from the audience through carefully conducted public presentation. If the histrion succeeds. the audience will see the histrion as he or she wants to be viewed. which is precisely what Nina presented.
In decision. Erving Goffman is a sociologist whom adapted the dramaturgical position. He used this theory of societal interaction to seek and explicate why we do what we do by agencies of comparing us to histrions in a theatrical presentation. The dramaturgical attack shows us that what we do. we worry about what others will believe. Erving argued that the ‘self’ is non developed as a nucleus but instead developed through our behaviors in different scenarios. In the film Black Swan. Nina. the chief character shows her passion for concert dance and goes through drastic steps in order to accomplish her end of acquiring the function of the Black Swan. Leting spell of her inexperienced person. sweet small girl side of her ; the White Swan. she indulges into her ‘evil twin’ ; the Black Swan. Not merely does this come out through her concert dance drama but it besides comes to demo in world.
Work Cited
Black Swan. Dir. Darren Aronofsky. Fox Searchlight Pictures. 2010. Film. Sociology of Occupations 342/2 notes by P. Pasdermajian
