erving goffman - the presentation of self in everyday life - discrepant roles

8/12/2019 Erving Goffman - The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Discrepant Roles

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C H A P T E R I V

D I S C R E PA N T R O L E S

One overal l object ive of any team is to sustain the

defini t ion of the s i tuat ion that i ts performance fosters . Th iswill involve the over communication of some facts and theunder communication of others. Given the fragili ty and therequired expressive coherence of the reality that is dramatized by a performance, there are usually f ac ts which, if a tten t ionis drawn to them during the performance, would discredit,disrupt, or make useless the impression that the performancefosters . T he se facts may be said to provide 'de str uc t iv einfo rm atio n. A ba sic problem for many per form ance s, then,is that of information control; the audience must not acquiredestructive information about the situation that is beingdef ined for them. In ot he r words, a team mus t be able tokeep i ts secrets and have i ts secrets kept .

Before proceeding it will be convenient to add somesuggest ions about types of secrets , because disclosure ofdifferent types of secrets can threaten a performance indifferent ways. The sugg ested types will be based uponthe function the secret performs and the relation of the secretto the conception others have about the possessor; I willass um e that any particular sec ret c an represe nt more thanone such type.

F irs t , there are what we sometim es ca ll d ar k sec rets .T he se co ns ist of facts about a team which it knows and

co nc ea ls and which are inc ompatible with the image of se lfthat the team attem pts to maintain before its audie nce. Darksecrets are, of course, double secrets: one is the crucialfact that is hidden and another is the fact that crucial factshave not been openly admitted. Dark s e c re ts were cons ideredin Chapter One in the section on misrepresentation.

Secondly, there are what might be ca lled s tr a te g ic secre ts . T he se pertain to intent ions and ca pa ci t i es of ateam which it conceals from its audience in order to preventthem from adaptin g eff ectiv ely to the s ta te of aff airs theteam is planning to bring about. Strategic s ec re ts are theones that businesses and armies employ in designing futureacti on s aga in st the oppos ition. So long as a team makes no

pretence of being the sort of team that does not have s trateg ic87


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se cre ts , i t s s t rat eg ic se cr ets need not be dark ones. Yet i tis to be noted that even when the strategic secrets of a teamare not dark ones, s t i l l the disc los ure or discovery of suchs ec re ts dis rup ts th e teams performance, for suddenly andunexpectedly the team finds it useless and foolish to maintain

the c are, reti cen ce, and stud ied ambiguity of action thatwas required prior to lo s s of its s e cr et s . It may be addedthat secrets that are merely s trategic tend to be ones whichthe team eventual ly discloses, perforce, when act ion basedupon secret preparat ions is consummated, whereas an effortmay be made to keep dark s e cr et s se cr et forever. It mayalso be added that information is often held back not becauseof i ts known strategic importance but because it is felt thatit may someday acquire such importance.

Thirdly, there are what might be cal led ' inside ' secrets .T he se are ones whose p os ses s ion marks an individual as being a member of a group and helps the group feel s ep ara teand different from those individuals who are not ' in theknow. 1 Ins ide s ec re t s g ive obj ec ti ve i n te l lec tual cont en tto sub ject ive ly fel t so cial dis ta nce . Almost all information

in a social establ ishment has something of this exclusionaryfunction and may be seen as none of somebodys business.Inside secrets may have l i t t le s trategic importance and

may not be very dark. When this is :he ca se , suc h se cr etsmay be discovered or accidentally disclosed without radicallydisrupting the team performance; the performers need onlyshif t their se cre t del ight to another matter. Of course, se cre tsthat are s trategic and/or dark serve extremely well as inside

se c re ts and we find, in fact, that the stra teg ic and darkcharacter of secrets is of ten exaggerated for this reason.Interestingly enough, the leaders of a social group are some-times faced with a dilemma regarding important strategicse cr et s. T ho se in the group who are not brought in on thesecret will feel excluded and affronted when the secret finallycomes to l ight; on the other hand, the greater the number of

p e rso n s who are brought in on the secre t , the greater thel ikel ihood of intent ional or unintent ional disclosure.

Th e knowledge that one team can have of an oth er s se cr et s provides us with two other types of s ec re ts . F irs t , thereare what might be ca l led 'en t r u s t e d se cre ts . This i s thekind which the po ss es so r is obl iged to keep b ecau se of hisrelatio n to the team to which the se cre t refers. If an individualwho is entrusted with a secret is to be the person he claims

1Cf. Riesman's discussion of the inside dopcstex,* op . c U pp. 199*209.88


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he is, 'he must keep the s ecr et, even though it is not a secretabout himself. Thus, for example, when a lawyer d is cl o se sthe improprieties of his clients, two quite different perform-an ce s are thr eate ne d: the cl ie n ts show of innoce nce to thecourt, and the lawye r s show of trustw orth ines s to his client.

It may als o be noted that a teams st rat eg ic se cr ets , whetherdark or not, are likely to be the entru ste d s e c re ts of theindividual members of the team, for each member of the teamis l ikely to presenc himself to his team mates as someonewho is loyal to the team.

The second type of information about another s secretsmay be calle d fre e. A free se cre t is somebody e ls e s sec retknown to oneself that one could disclose without discreditingthe image one was pr ese ntin g of on ese lf. A team may acquirefree secrets by discovery, involuntary disclosure, indiscrcetadm issio ns , re tr ansm issio n, etc. In general we muse se ethat the free or entrusted secrets of one team may be thedark or strategic secrets of another team, and so a teamwhose vital secrets are possessed by others will try to obligethe possessors to t rea t these secre ts as secre ts tha t are

entrusted and not free.This chapter is concerned with the kinds of persons wholearn about the secrets of a team and with the bases andthe thre ats of their privileged position. Before proceeding,however, it should be made clear that all destructive inform-ation is not found in se cr ets , and that information controlinv olv es more than kee ping se cr ets . For example, thereseem to be facts about almost every performance which are

incompatible with the impression fostered by the performance but which have not been co l lec ted and organized into a usableform by anyone. 1 Th ese are in a se ns e la tent secre ts , andthe problems of keeping secrets are quite different from the

problems of keep ing la ten t s e c re ts la tent . Another exampleof destructive information not embodied in secrets is foundin such events as unmeant gestures, previously referred to.T he se ev en ts introduce informationa definition of the sit-uat ion which is incom patible with the projected cla im s ofthe performers, but these untoward events do not constitutesec rets . Avoidance of such exp ress ively inappropriate eve ntsis also a kind of information control but will not be consideredin this chapter.

1 1 ot ex am ple , Wilensky, op. cit . , chap. vii , reports chat a union newspapermay have such low readership that the editor, concerned with his job,"ay refuse to have a pr ofe ssio nal survey made of reader ship so tha tei ther he nor anyone els e wil l have proof of the sus pec ted ineffe ct iven essof liis role.

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Given a particu lar performance a s the point of referenc e,we have dist inguished i l i ree crucial roles on the basis offunction: those who perform; those performed to; arid outsiderswho ne ith er perform in the show nor ob se rve it. V/e may al sodist ing uish the se crucial role s on the ba si s of information

ordinarily availa ble to tho se who play them. Perform ers areaware of the impression they foster and ordinari ly also possessdes truc tive information about the show. The audien ce knowwhat they have been allowed to perceive, qualified by whatthey can glean unofficially by clo se obse rvation. In themain, they know the defin ition o f the situ atio n th at the perform-ance fosters but do not have destructive information about i t .Outsiders know neither the secrets of the performance northe ap pe aran ce of reality fostered by it. Fin ally, the threecrucial roles mentioned could be described on the basis oft l ie regions to which the role player has access; performersappear in the front and back reg ion s; the aud ience app ear sonly in the front region; and the outsiders are excluded from both regions. It i s to be noted, then, tha t during the perform-ance we rpay expect to find correlation among function,

information avai la ble, and regions of ac ce ss , so that, forexample, if we knew the regions into which an individualItaJ access we should know the role he played and theinformation he possessed about the performance.

In ac tu al fact, however, we find that the congr uenceamong function, information possessed, and accessible regionsis seldom com plete. Additional poin ts of vantage rela tiveto the performance develop which complicate the simplerelatio n among function, information, and place . Some ofthese peculiar vantage points are so often taken and theirsignificance for the performance comes to be so clearly under-stood that we can refer to them as roles, although, relativeto the thr ee crucial o nes , they migfit best be ca lled discr ep antroles . Some of the more obvio us on es will be co ns ide redhere.

P erh ap s the most spectacu lar ly d iscrepant ro les are thosewhich bring a person into a social establishment in a falsegu ise . Some v ar ie tie s may be mentioned.

Firs t , there is the role of ' infor m er. ' Th e informer issomeone who p rete nd s to the performers to be a member oftheir team, is allowed to come bac ks tag e and to acquiredestructive information, and then openly or secretly sellsout the show to the audie nce. The polit ical, military, in-

du stria l, and criminal va ria nt s of this role are famous. If itappears that the individual first joined the team in a sincereway and not with the premeditated plan of disclosing its

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se cr ets , we som etime s call him a traitor, turncoat, or quitter,especially if he is the sort of person who ought to have madea decent team m ate. Th e individ ual who all along ha s meantto inform on the team, and originally joins only for this

purpose, i s sometim es ca l led a spy. It has frequently been

noted, of course, that informers, whether trait or s or sp ie s,are often in an excellent position to play a double game,selling out the secrets of those who buy secrets from them.

Secondly, there is the role of 's h i l l . A shill is someonewho ac ts a s though h e were an ordinary member of the a udi enc e but i s in fact in league with the performers. Typically , theshill eithe r provid es a vis ibl e model for the audienc e of thekind of response the performers are seeking or provides thekind of audience response that is necessary at the momentfor the developmen t of the performance. Our ap pre cia tio n ofthis role no doubt stems from fairgrounds, and the designationsr s h i l l and 'c la q u e ,1 employed in the enter ta inment bus iness ,have come into common usag e. The following defi nitio nssuggest the origins of the concept:

S t i c k , n. An in di vi du al som eti me s a lo cal ru be hired by theoperator of a se t - io in t (a 'f ixed' gambling booth) to win flashy prizesso that the crowd will be induced to gamble. When the live o n e s (nat ives) have been star ted, the s l i c k s are removed and deliver theirwinnings to a man outside who has no apparent connection with the

joint. 1 j f t i l taber , n. An em ploy ee of the circ us who tu sh es up to th e kid

shou ticket box at the psychological moment when the barker concludeshi s sp iel. Me and his fellow sh i l l abe r s purchase t ickets and pass*nside and the crowd of tow ner s in from of the ba lly stan d are notslow in doing likewise. 2

We must not take the view that shills are found only in

non r espec table perform ances (even though it is only thenon respectable shills, perhaps, who play their role system-atically and without person al i l lusion). For example, atinformal co nv ers atio na l g ath erin gs , it is common for a wifeto look interested when her husband tells an anecdote andto feed him appropriate leads and cues, although in fact shehas heard the anecdote many times and knows that the showher husband is making of telling something for the first timeis only a show . A sh ill, then, is someone who ap pe ars to

be just another unsophis tica ted member of the aud ience andwho uses his unapparent sophist icat ion in the interests ofthe performing team.

W'e co ns id er now an othe r impostor in the au di en ce , but(his t ime one who uses his unapparent sophistication in theinte res ts of the aud ienc e, not the performers. T hi s type

can be illustrated by the person who is hired to check up onOavid Mauret , 'Carnival Cant , ' Imericnn Speech , VI, 336.

5 VI'. \ kh it e, 'A Ci rcus L i s t , ' American Speech, 1, 283.

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the sta nd ard s tha t performers m aintain in order to ens urethat in some res p ec ts fostered ap pe ara nc es will not be toofar from rea lity. He ac ts , officially or uno fficially, a s a

protective agen t for the unsuspecting public, p laying therole of audience with more perception and ethical strictness

rhan ordinary observers are likely to employ.Sometimes these agents play their hands in an open way,

giving the performers preliminary warning that the next perform-ance i s abouc to be examined. Thu s first night performersand arreste d perso ns have fair warning that any thing theysay will be held a s evid enc e in judging them. A pa rti cip an tobserver who admits his object ives from the beginning givesihe performers whom he observes a similar opportunity.

Sometimes, however, the agent goes underground and byacting as an ordinary gullible member of the audience givesthe performers rope with which to hang the m se lve s. In theeveryday trades, agents who give no warning are sometimescal led 'spotters , ' as they wil l be here, and are understandablydis l iked. A salesperson may f ind that she has been shorttempered and impolite to a customer who is really a company

agent checking up on the treatment bona fide cus tomersrec eiv e. A grocer may find that he has sold go ods at illeg al p r ice s to cus tom ers who are experts on p rices and haveauthority concerning them. 1

Inc iden tally, we must be careful to dis tin gu ish realspotters from self appointed ones, of ten cal led 'knockers 'or ' wiseguys, who do not possess the knowledge of backstageoperat ions that they claim to possess and who are notempowered by law or custom to represent the audience.

Today we are accustomed to think of agents who checkup on the standards of a performance and on the performers,whether this is done openly or without warning, as part ofthe service s tructure, and esp ecia l ly as part of the soc ialcontrol th at governmental orga niz ation s exert on behalf ofthe consum er and taxpayer. Frequently, however, this kindof work ha s been done in a wider so ci al field. Of fice s ofheraldry and offices of protocol provide familiar examples,these agencies serving to keep the nobil i ty and high

1 An illus tratio n a s t ega rds ctain condu ctors is given by W. Fred Cottrell ,The Rai l roader (Stanford, Ca lifo rni a: Stanford Univ ersity P re ss , 1940),

p. 8 7 :'Once a t ra in conductor could demand respect of passengers ; now

a 'spotter* may ' turn him in* if he fails to remove his cap as he entersa c ar where women are se ated or do es not exude that oily subse rvie ncewhich inc rea sing cl as s co ns cio usn ess , diffusion of pat tern from the

Euro pean and th e hotel world, and the competition with other forms oftransportation have forced upon him.

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government officers, and those who falsely claim thesestatuses , in their proper relat ive places .

There is yet another peculiar fellow in the audience.Me is the one who takes an unremarked, modest place in theau dien ce and le a v e s the region when they do, but when he

leaves he goes to his employer, a competitor of the teamwhose performance he lias wi tne ss ed , to report what he h asseen . lie is the prof ess ion al shopp erthe Gimb els man inMacy's and the Macy s man in Gimbels ; he is the fashio nspy and the foreigner at Na tional Air Meets. Th e shoppe ris a person who has a technical right to see the show butought to have the de cen cy, it is so metim es felt, to sta y inhis own back region, for his interest in the show is from thewrong perspective, at once more lively and more bored thanthat of a thoroughly legit imate spectator.

Another discrepant role is one that is often called ihego between or mediator. The go between lea rn s the se c re tsof each s ide and gives each s ide the t rue impression thathe will keep i ts secrets; but he tends to give each side thefalse impression that he is more loyal to it than to the otherside . Sometimes, a s in the case of the arbitrato r in somelabour disputes, the go between may function as a means bywhich two obligatorily hostile teams can come to a mutually profitable agreement. Sometimes, a s in the c a s e of thetheatrical agent, the go between may function as 3 means by which each s ide i s given a s lanted version of the otherthat is calculated to make a closer relationship between thetwo sides po ss ibl e. Sometimes, as in the ca se of the marriage broker, the go between may serve a s a means of conveyingtentative overtures from one side to the other which, if openly

presented, might lead to an em barrassing accep tance orrejection.

When a go between operates in the actual presence ofthe two teams of which he is a member, we obtain a wonderfuldisplay, not unlike a man desperately trying to play tenniswith himself. Again we are forced to se e tha t the individual

is not the natural unit for our consideration but rather theteam and its members. As an individual, the go betw ee nsactivity is bizarre, untenable, and undignified, vacil latingas i t does from one set of appearances and loyal t ies toanother. As a co ns titu en t part of two team s, the go b etw een svacil lation is quite under standa ble. The go between can

be thought of simply a s a double shill.One i l lus tratio n of the go betweens role ap pea rs in recent

st ud ie s of the function of the foreman. Not only must he93


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accept the Juries of the director, guiding the show on thefactory floor on b eha lf of the man ageria l audi enc e, but hemust als o t ran slat e what he knows and what the audiencesees into a verbal l ine which his conscience and the audiencewill be wi ll ing to acce pt . 1 Another i l lus t ra tion of the go

betw eens role i s found in the chairman of formally conductedmeetings. A s soon a s he has called the group to order andintroduced the guest speaker, he is l ikely to serve thereafteras a highly visible model for the other l is teners , i l lustrat ing

by exaggerated e x p re s s io n s the involvement and apprecia tionthey ought to be showing, and providing them with advancecues as to whether a particular remark ought to be greeted by s e r io u sn e s s , laughter , or apprecia tive chuck le s . Speakerstend to accept invi tat ions to speak on the assumption thatthe chairman will ' take care of them,' which he does by being the very model of a l is ten e r and thoroughly confirmingthe notion that the speech has rea l s igni f icance . The chai r-mans performance is effect ive part ly because the l is tenershave an obligation to him, an obligation to confirm anydefinition of the situ atio n which he spo nsors, an obligation ,

in short, to follow the listen ing line that he take s. Thedramaturgical task of ensuring that the speaker appears to be apprecia ted and that the l is ten e rs are enthralled i s ofcourse not easy, and often leaves the chairman in no frameof mind to give thought to what he is ostensibly listening to.

The role o f go between seem s to be espe cial l y s ignif ican tin informal convivial interaction, again il lustrating the util i tyof th e two team appr oach . When on e indiv idu al in aconversat ional circle engages in act ion or speech whichreceiv es the concerted at tent ion of the others pres ent , hedefines the situation, and he may define it in a way that isnot easi ly acce pta ble to his audience. Someone presen twill feel greater responsibility for and to him than the othersfeel, and we may expect this person closest to him to makean effort to tran sl ate the dif fer enc es between s pe ak er andlis teners into a view that is more acceptable col lect ivelythan the orig inal pro jectio n. A moment later , when someo neelse takes the floor, another individual may find himselftak ing on the role of go b etwe en and mediator. A sp at e ofinformal conversation can, in fact, be seen as the formationand re formation of teams, and the creation and re creationof go betweens.

Some discrepant roles have been suggested: the informer,

l See Rocchlisbcrger, op. cit.94


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the sh ill, the spo tter, the shopper, and the go between. Ineach case we find an unexpected, unapparent relation amongfeigned role, information po ss es se d, and regions of ac ce ss .And in each case we deal with someone who may participatein the actual interaction between the performers and audience.

A further discrepant role may be considered, that of the non p e r s o n ; those who play th is role are p resen t during theinterac tion but do not, in a sen se , tak e the role eith er of

performer or of audience, nor do they (as do informers, sh i l ls ,and spotters) pretend to be what they are not. 1

Perhaps the c lass ic type of non person in our socie ty i sthe serva nt . T his person is expected to be pre sen t in thefront region while the host is presenting a performance ofho spit ali ty to the g u es ts of the es tabl ishm ent. While in somese n se s the s ervant is part of the h osts team (as I havetreated him previously), in certain ways he is defined by both

performers and audience as someone who is n t there. Amongsome groups, the servant is also expected to enter freely intothe back regions, on the theory that no impression need bemainta ined for him. Mrs Trollope give s us some exa mp les:

1 had, indeed, f requent oppor tuni ties of observing th is habitua lindiff erence to the pr ese nc e of their sl av es . They calk of them, oftheir condit ion, of their facult ies , of their conduct , exact ly as i f theywere inc apa ble of hearing. 1 once saw a young lady, who, when se ate dat t ab le between a male and a female, wa s induced by her mode sty tointrude on the chair of her female neighbour to avoid the indelicacyof touching the elbow of a man. T once saw this very young ladylacing her stays with the most perfect composure before a negrofootman. A Virginian gentleman told me tha t ever since he had ma uied,he had been accustomed to have a negro girl sleep in the same chamberwith himself and his wife. I as ke d for what pur pose t his nocturnalat tend ance was nec ess ary ? * Good He av en 1 was the reply, " If Iwanted a glass of water during the night, what would become of me." 2

T h is is an extreme example. While se rv an ts tend to beaddressed only when a 'request is to be given them, sti l ltheir presence in a region typical ly places some restr ict ionsupon the behaviour of those who are fully present, the moreso, apparently, when the social distance between servantand served is not great. In the ca se of other serv ant likeroles in our soc iety, such as th at of eleva tor operator andcab driver, there seems to be uncertainty on both sides ofthe relationship as to what kind of intimacies are permissiblein the presence of the non person.

In addition to those in servant like roles, there are otherstandard ca teg orie s of pe rso ns who are sometimes treated

1lOr a fuller treatment of the role see Goffman, op. cit., chap. xvi.

2Nirs Trollope, Vo me st ic Manners o f the Americans (2 vols . ; London:

Whittaker, Treacher, 1832), II, 56 57.95


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in their presence as if they were not there; the very young,the very old, and the sic k are common exa mp les. Further,we find tod ay a growing body of tec hn ica l pe rso nn elrecordingstenographers , 'broadcast ing technicians, photographers , secret

po lice , e t c .who play a techn ica l role during important

cere mo nies but who are not, in a se nse , treate d as if pre sen t.I t would seem th at the role of non person us ua lly carried

with i t some subordination and disrespect, but we must notunderestimate the degree to which the person who is givenor who ta k e s such a role can us e it as a defence. And itmust be added that si tu atio ns can arise when subo rdina tesfind that the only feasible way that they can handle a superordinate is to tre at him a s if he were not pre sen t. T hu s, onthe isla nd s tudied by the writer, when the Briti sh P ub licSchool doctor attended patients in the homes of poor crofters,the r esi de nt s sometimes handled the diff icul ty of re la t ingthemselves to the doctor by treating him, as best they could,a s if he were not pres ent. It may al so be added tha t a teamcan tre at an individual as if he were not pr ese nt, doing thisnot because i t is the natural thing or the only feasible thingto do, but as a pointed way of expressing hostility to anindivi dual who ha s conducte d himself improperly. In suchsituations, the important show is to show the outcast thathe is being ignored, and the ac tivity that is c arried on inorder to demonstrate this may i tself be of secondaryimportance.

We have considered some types of persons who are not,in a simple se ns e, performers, audienc e, or outsid ers, 'andwho have access to information and regions we would notexp ect of chem. We co ns ide r now four add itiona l disc repa ntroles , involving, in the main, p ers on s who are not presentduring a performance but who have unexpected informationabout it.

F irst, there is an important role that might be calle d'se rv ic e s p ec ia l is t . I t i s f il led by individuals who sp ec ial iz ein the construction, repair, and maintenance of the showtheir cl i en ts maintain before other people. Some of the seworkers , l ike archi tects and furni ture salesmen, special izein se t t in gs ; some, such as den t is ts , h airdres sers , andderm atologists, deal with persona l front; some, such a sstaff economists , accountants , lawyers , and resea rchers ,formulate the factual ele m en ts o f a cl ie nt s verbal display,that is, his teams argument line or intellectual position.

On the b as is of con crete re sea rch it would seem thatservice sp ec ial is ts can hardly at tend to the nee ds of an

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individual performer without acquiring as much, or moredestruct ive information about some aspects of the individual 's

performance a s the individual himself p o s s e s s e s . Servicesp e ci a l is ts are l ike members of the team in that they learnthe se cr et s of the show and obtain a b ackstag e view of i t .

Unlike members of the team, however, the specialist doesnot share the risk, the guilt , and the sa tis fa c tio n of pres entin g before an audience the show to which he h as contributed.And, unlike members of the team, in learning the secrets ofothers , the others do not learn corresponding secrets abouthim. It i s in thi s context tha t we can und ersta nd why

professional e th ics often oblige the sp e c ia l i s t to show di sc re tio n, i .e. , not to give away a show whose se cr et sh is du tie s have made him privy to. Th us, for example,

p sycho therap is ts who vicariously par t ic ipa te so widely inthe domestic warfare of our t imes are pledged to remain silentabout what they have learned, except to their supervisors.

When the special is t is of higher general social s tatusthan the individuals for whom he provides a service, hisgen eral so ci al valu ation of them may be confirmed by the

particu lar th ings he must le am about them. In some s i tu a t io n sthis becomes a significant factor in maintaining the status quo. Th us in American towns upper middle c la s s banke rscome to see that the owners of .some small businesses presenta front for tax purposes that is inconsistent with their bankingtransact ions, and that other businessmen present a confident

pub lic front of solvency while privately reques ting a loan inan abject, fumbling manner. Mid dle class doc tor s on charity

duty who must treat shameful diseases in shameful surround-ings are in a similar position, for they make it impossiblefor a lower class person to protect himself from the intimateinsi ght of his sup erord inates. Similarly, a landlord lea rn sthat all of his tenants act as if they were the sort who always

paid their rent on time but tha t for some ten an ts th is ac t i sonly an act . P ers on s who are not service sp ec ial is t s aresometim es given the same dis il lu sio nin g view. In manyorganizations, for example, an executive officer is requiredto observe the show of bustling competence that the personnelmain tains, al though he may secret ly po ss es s an accu rateand low opinion of some of those who work under him.

Sometimes we find, of course, that the general socials ta tus of the c l ient i s h igher than that of the specia l i s tswho are retain ed to attend to his front. In su ch ca s e s an

interesting dilemma of status occurs, with high status andlow information control on one side, and low status and high97


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information control on the other. In such c a se s it is po ss ib lefor the specialist to become overimpressed with the weak-nesses in the show that his betters put on and to forget thew eak nes ses in h is own. In conseq uence, such sp ec ia l i s tssometimes develop a characteris t ic ambivalence, feel ing

cyn ical about the ' b e t t e r ' world for the sam e rea so ns thatmake them vic ario usl y intimate with it. Th us the janitor, by v ir tue of the se rv ice he provides, le arns v hat kind ofliquor the tenants drink, what kind of food they eat, whatlet ters they receive, what bi l ls they leave unpaid, and whetherthe lady of the apartment is m enstru ating behind her un-contam inated front, and how clea n the te n an ts keep thekitcheh, bathroom, and other back regions. 1 Similarly, theAmerican filling station manager is in a position to learntha t a man who a ff ec ts a new C ad ill ac may buy only a do lla r sworth of gas, or buy a cut price variety, or seek to wotk thest at io n for free serv ice. And he als o knows that the showsome men put on of masculine know how about cars is false,for they can neither diagnose the trouble with their carcorrectly, ahhough claiming to, nor drive up to the gasoline

pumps in a competent way. So, too, pe rsons who sell d r es se slearn that customers of whom they would not have expectedit sometimes have dirty underwear and that customersunabashedly judge a garment by its capacity to misrepresentthe fac ts. Th os e who se ll mens cloth ing learn tha t the gruffshow men maintain of being little concerned with how theylook is merely a show and that strong, silent men will tryon su it af ter suit, hat af ter ha t, until they ap pe ar in the mirror

exactly as they want to see them selv es. So also , policemenIeam from the things that reputable businessmen want themto do and not do that the pilla rs of so cie ty have a slig htti l t . 2 Hotel maids learn that male gu ests who make p a s s e sat them upstairs are not quite what the seemliness u* theirdow nsta irs cond uct su gg es ts. 3 And hotel secu rity officers ,or house dicks, as they are more commonly cali .d, Ieamtha t a was teb as ke t may concea l two rejec ted drafts of asuicide note :

Darling B y the t ime you g e l th is I wi l l be it here noth ing you ra n do wil l hurt m el i y the t ime you read this , nothing yo u con do wil l be ab le to hu r t 4

l See Ray Gold, *The Chicago Fl at J an ito r (Unpublished 'Master 's the sis ,Department of Sociology, Uni versity of Chicago , 1950), esp ecia lly chap.iv, The Garbage.

2Wesdey, op. ci t . , p. 131.3 Writers srud y of an i sl an d hotel.4Col lans , op . cit., p. 156.

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showing that the final feelings of a desperately uncompromis-ing person were somewhat rehearse:! in order to strike justthe right note mid in any c a s e were not final. Ser vicespecial is ts of quest ionable repute who maintain an off ice inthe back regions of a city so that clients will not be seen

seeking a s si st a n ce clearly provide another example. In MrH ug hes words:

common scene in fiction depicts a lady of degree seeking,veiled and alone, the address of the fortuneteller or dte midwife ofdoubtful prac tice in nn obscu re corner of the city. The anonymity ofcer ta in sec t ions of c i t ies a l lows people to seek specia l ized services ,legi tima te but emb arra ssing a s well a s il lejtimate, from pers onswith whom they would not wan t to be seen by member s of th e ir ownsocia l c i rc le .

The specialist may, of course, carry his anonymity withhim, as does the exterminator who advertises that he willc o m e to the clients house in a van that wears a plain wrapper.Any guarantee of anonymity is, of course, a rather blatantclaim that the client has need of it and is willing to makeuse of it.

While i t is plain that the specialist whose work requireshim to take a backstage view of other peoples performances

will be an em bar ras sm en t to them, it must be ap pr ec iat edthat by changing the performance which serves as a point ofreference other co ns eq ue nc es ca n be seen. We regularlyfind that clients may retain a specialist not in order to obtainhelp with a show th ey are pu ttin g on for othe rs but for thevery act that is provided by having a specialist attend them especial ly i f he has a higher general s tatus than his cl ients .Many women, it seems, go to beauty parlours to be fussed

over and called madam and not merely because they need tohave their hair done. It has som etim es been claimed, forexample, that in Hindu Ind ia the procurement of proper ser vi cesp ec ia l i s ts for r itua l ly s igni f icant ta sk s i s of crucia lsi gn ifi can ce in confirming ones own cas te po sit ion . 2 Insuch c a s e s as the se, the performer may be intere ste d in

being known by the s p e c ia l i s t who se rves him and not bythe show that the se rv ic e al low s him lat er to perform. Andso we find that spec ial s p e c ia li st s arise who fulfil ne edsthat are too shameful for the client to take to specialists before whom he is ordinarily not shameful. Thus the perform-ance that a client stages for his doctor sometimes forcesthe client to go to a pharmacist for abortives, contraceptives,and ven ereal di se as e cu res. 3 Similarly, in America, anl E .C . Hughes and Helen M. Hughes, Where People Meet (Glencoe, 111.:

Free P re s s , 1952), p. 171,2 For this and othe r dat a on India, and foe su gg es ti on s in gene ral, I am

indebted to McKim Marriott. 'Veinlein, op. e i t p. 106.

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individual involved in unseem ly entan glem ents may takehis troubles to a Negro lawyer because of the shame he mightleel before a white one. 1

I t i s apparent tha t service specia l i s ts who possessentrusted secrets are in a posi t ion to exploi t their knowledge

in order to gain concessions from the performer whose secretsthey p os se ss . The law, profess ional ethic s , and enl ightenedself interest often put a stop to the grosser forms of black-mail , but small concessions del icately requested are frequentlyuncheck ed by th es e forms of social control . P er ha ps thetenden cy to place a lawyer, accoun tant , economist , or otherspecialists in verbal fronts on a retainer, and to bring thosewho are on a retainer into the firm partly represents an effortto ensure disc ret io n; once the verbal sp ec ia l is t becomes|>art of the or gani zatio n, presum ably new meth ods can beemployed to en su re Jbis tru stw or thi ne ss . By bringing thespecialist into ones organization and even one's team, thereis also g reater assu ran ce that he wil l employ his sk i l ls inthe in ter est s of ones show and not in the in te re st s of pra ise-worthy but irrelevant matters such as a balanced view, or

the presentat ion of interest ing theoret ical data to che special-i s t ' s profess ional audience . 2 A note should be added about one variety of sp ec ia lis t

role, the role of ' t ra ini ng s p e ci a l is t . Individu als who takethis role have the complicated task of teaching the performerhow co build up a desirable impression while at the sametime taking th e part of the future a ud ienc e and illus tratin g by punishm ents the consequ ences of improprieties. P aren ts

1 William H. Hale, 'T h e Caree r Development of the Negro L aw ye r' (Un published P h . D. d isser ta t io n , Department of Sociology, University ofChicago, 1949), p.72.

2The special is t in verbal fronts who is brought into the organizat ion wil l be expected to a s sem ble and p resen t data in such a way a s to lendmaximum support to the claims the team is making at the ti n e . The factsof the c a se will ordinarily be an incidcnral matter, merely one ingredientto be con sidered alon g wich other s, such as the likely argu men ts ofone's opponents, the predisposition of the public ac large to which theteam may want to appeal for support, che principles co which everyone

concerned will feel obliged to give l ip se rvice , etc . Interest ingly enough,the individual who he lp s col lect and formulate the army of faces usedin a tea ms verbal show may al so be employed in che di st in ct ly differenttask of presenting or conveyiag this tronc in person co the audience.I t is rhe difference between wri t ing the ceremony for a show and

performing the ceremony in che show. Here there i s a potencial dilemma.The more the sp ec ial is t can be made to set aside his profession alsta nd ard s and c ons ider only che int er es ts of the team which employshim, t he more useful may be che argume nts he formulates for them ; but the more he has a reputat ion for being an independent professional ,interested only in the balanced facts of the case, che more effeccivche i s l ikely to be when he app ears before the audience and presencsh is f inJ ing s. A very rich sour ce of data on th es e mat ters is to befound in Wilensky, op. cil .

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and scho ol te ach ers are perhaps the ba s ic examples of th isrole in our so cie ty ; the serg ea nts who dril l off icer cad ets provide a further example.

Pe rform ers often feel unea sy in the pre sen ce of a trainerwhose lessons they have long since learned and taken for

granted. Tr ai ne rs tend to evok e for the performer a vividimage of himself that he had repre ssed , a self image of some-one engaged in the clumsy and em barrassing p roc es s of becoming. The performer can make himself forget how foolishhe on ce w as , but he canno t make the tra in er forget. AsRi ez ler su g ge st s about any shameful fact, *if othe rs know,the fact is established and his image of himself is put beyondhis own power of r emember ing and fo rge t ting. 1 Perhapsthere i s no consis tent easy s tand tha t we can take to personswho hav e s ee n behind our current frontpe rs o ns who knewus w he n if at the sam e time they are pe rso ns who mustsymbolize the a ud ien ce s response to us and cannot , therefore,

be accep ted a s o ld team mates might be.Th e se rvice spe cia l i s t has been mentioned as one type

of person who is n ot a performer yet h as a c c e ss to back

region s and de st ru ct iv e information. A seco nd type is the person who p la ys the role of 'co n f id a n t . ' Confidants are pe rsons to whom the performer c o n fe s s e s his s ins , freely,de tail ing the se ns e in which th e impression given during a performance was merely an impression. T ypica lly confidantsare located outside and part icipate only vicariously in backand front region activ ity. I t i s to a person of th is kind,for instance, that a husband brings home a daily tale of how

he fared in office stratag em s,, intrig ues, unspoken feelings,and bluffs; and when he writes a letter requesting, resigningfrom, or accepting a job it is this person who will checkthrough the draft to make sure the letter strikes exactly theright note. And when ex d iplo ma ts and ex bo xers write theirmemoirs, the r eading public is tak en behind the sc en e s and becomes a watered down confidant of one of the great shows,albeit one that is by then quite over.

A person in whom another confides, unlike the servicespecia l i s t , does not make a bus iness of rece iv ing such confid an ce s; he ac ce pt s the information without accepting afee, as an exp ressio n of the friendship, trust , and regardthe informant feels for him. We f ind, however, that clientsoften at tempt to transform the ir servic e sp e ci a l is ts intoconf idan ts (perhaps as a means of ensur ing d iscre tion) ,

R i e z l e r , op. cit., p. 458.101


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especially when the work of the specialist is merely to l istenand ta lk , as i s the case wi th pr ies ts and psychotherapis ts .

A third role rem ain s to be co ns ide red . Like the role ofsp ec ia l is t and confidant, the role of col leagu e affords thos ewho play ir some information about a performance they do not

at tend.C oll eag ue s may be defined a s pers on s who pre sen t the

sam e routine to the same kind of aud ien ce but who do not pa r t ic ipa te together , a s team mates do, at the same time and p lace before the same particular aud ience. Colleagues , >as it i ssa id, s ha re a community of face. In having to put on the samekind of performance, they come to know each othe r s d iff ic ul tie sand points of view; whatever their tongues, they come to speakthe same soc ial languag e. And while col lea gue s who competefor audiences may keep some strategic secrets from one another,they cannot very well, hide from one ano ther c ert ain thing stha t they hid from the audie nce . T h e front that is maintained before o the rs need not be maintained among them se lves ;re laxation becomes po ss ib le . Hughes has recent ly provideda statement of the complexeties of this kind of col league

solidari ty.Parc of the working code of a position is discretion*, it allows thecolleagues co exchange confidences concerning their relat ions co ocher

p eop le . Among th ese conf idences one finds e x p ress ion s of cynicismconcer ning their mi ssio n, cheir competen ce, and the foib les of cheirsup erio rs , th em selv es, their cl ients , their subordinates, and the publicat large. Such ex pr es si on s take the burden from one's shou lders andserve as a defence as wel l . The unspoken mutual conf idence necessa ryto them re sts on two assu mp tio ns concern ing one's fellows. The firstis that the colle gau e wil l not misu nder stand , the second is that heviil not rep eat to unin iate d ea rs . T o be sure that a new fellow will

not misunderstand requires a sparr ing match of social gestu res. Theze al ot who turns the sparring match into a real battle, who tak es afriendly initiation too seriously, is not likely to be trusted with thelighter sort of comment on one's work or with doubts and misgivings;nor can he learn those parts of the working code which arc communicatedonly by hin t and ges tur e. He is not to be tru ste d, for, though he isnot fit for stra tag em s, he is su sp ect ed of being prone to treaso n. Inorder chat men may communicate freely and confidentially they must be able to take a good deal of each other 's sen t im en ts for granted.They must fee l easy about the i r s i lences as wel l as about the i ru t terances . 1

A good statement of some other aspects of collegial solid-arity is given by Simone de Be auv oir; her intention i s todescribe the peculiar situation of women, her effect is to tellus about all collegial groups:

I he female friend ships that she s u cc ee ds in keeping or formingare precious to a woman, but they are very different in kind fromrela t io ns between men. The lat ter communicate as individuals throughideas and projects of personal interest , while women are confinedwithin their general feminine lot and bound together by a kind of immanentcompli city. And what they look for fir st of all among th em sel ve s

1Hughes and Hughes, KAere People Meet, pp. 168 169.102


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is the affirmation of the universe they have in common. The y do notdi sc us s opinions and general id ea s, hue exchange confide nces andrecipes; ihcy are in league co create a kind of countcr universe, theva lue s of which wil l outweigh masc uline value s. Collect ively theyfind strength to shake off their chains; they negate the sexual dominationof the males by admitting their frigidity to one another, while deridingthe mens d es ire s or their cl um sin es s; and diev quest ion ironical lythe moral and i ntelle ctua l superio rity of their hu sban ds, and of menm g e n e r a l . _ -

They compare experiences; pregnancies, bir ths, their own and cheirchi ldrens i l ln ess es , and household car es become the es sen t ia l even tsof the human story. The ir work is not a tec hniqu e; by pas sin g onrecipes for cooking and the like, they endow it with the dignity ofa se cr e t sc ien ce founded on oral tradition. *

It should be apparent, t l ien, why the terms used to designateones c ol lea gues , l ike the terms used to desig nate o n e s team-mates , come to be in ^group terms, and why terms u se d co

designate audiences tend to be loaded without group sentiment.i t is inte rest ing to note that when team m ates come inconta ct with a s tranger who is their c ol league, a sort of cere-monial or honorific team membership may be temporarilyacc orde d the newcomer. The re is a sort of visit ing firemancomplex whereby team mates treat their visitor as if he had.suddenly come into very intimate and long standing relationshipswith them. Whatever their as so cia tio na l prerog ative s, he

tend s to be given club r ights . T he se co ur te sie s are espec ial lygiven when the visitor and the hosts happen to have receivedtheir training in the same establishment or from the sametrain ers, or both. Gra duat es of the sam e househ old, the same professional school, the same penitent iary , the same P ublicSchool, or the same small town provide cl ea r exa m ple s. Whenold boys meet, i t may be difficult to sustain backstage horse-

play and the dropping of ones customary pose may becomean oblig ation an d a pose in i tself , but i t is more difficult todo anything else.

An interest ing implicat ion of these suggest ions is thata team which constant ly performs i ts rout ines to the sameaudience may yet be socially more distant from this audiencethan from a c oll eag ue who momentarily com es into co nt ac twith the team. Th us the gentry in the isl an d community

previously mentioned knew their crofter neighbours very well,having played out the gentry role to them since childhood.Vet a gentry visitor to the island, properly sponsored andintrodu ced, could, in some se n s e s , become more intima te withthe island gentry in the course of an afternoon tea than coulda crofter during a lifetime of contact with his gentry neighbours.

It may be suggested that the good will one colleague cere-monially extends to another is perhaps a kind of peace offering:

1'ic Henuvoir. ;. c i t . , p . M 2 .

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Just as some persons are thought co cause diff icul ty byn>aking too much of their colleagueship, so others cause trouble by not making enough of it. It i s a lw ays p o s s ib le for adisa ffec ted co lleag ue to turn ren ega de and sell out to theaudience the secrets of the act that his onet ime brethren are

stil l performing. Every role has i t s defrocked p ri es ts to tellus what go es on in the monastery, and the pre ss has alwaysshown a l ively interest in these confessions and expose 's .Thus a doctor will describe in print how his colleagues splitfees, s teal each other s pat ien ts , and sp ec ia l iz e in un nece ssaryoper ation s rhar require the kind of app ara tus which gi ve s the pat ien t a dramatic medical show for h is money. 1 In Burkesterm, we are thereby sup plie d with information abou t th e'rh et o ric of med icine . J Of cours e, in a very limited se ns e,whenever any non colleague is allowed to become a confidant,someone will have had to be a renegade.

Renegades often take a moral stand, saying that i t is better to be true to the idea ls of the role than to the performerswho fa lse ly pr ese nt them se lv es in it. A diffe rent mode ofdisaffect ion occu rs when a col league "go es na t i v e or becomes

a backslider, making no attempt to maintain the kind of frontwhich his authorized status makes or leads his col leaguesand the aud ience to exp ect of him. Such dev ian ts are said to' l e t down the s id e. Th us in the island community studied

by the writer, the inhab itan ts , in an effort to p resen t them se lvesas progressive farmers to visitors from the outside world, feltsomewhat h os til e to the few cro fters who apparently didn tcare and who refused to shave or wash, or construct a front

yard, or to supplant the thatched roof of their cottage withsomething le s s symbol ic of t radi t ional p eas an t s ta tus .Similarly, in Chicago there is an organization of blind warveterans who, militant in their desire not to accept a pitiablerole, tour the city in order to check up on fellow blind menwho let down the side by appealing for alms on street corners.

Le wi s G. Arrowsmith, 'T h e Young Doctor in New Yor k, The American ' lercury, XXII, 1 10.

^Kenneth iJurlcc, A Rhetoric o f M ot ives (New York: Prentice llall , 1953).r. 171.

Applying this s tatemen t to our pu rpos es, we could obs erve that eventhe medical equipment of a doctor's office is not to be judged purely fori t s d iagnost ic usefulness , hue a lso hfi3 a function in the rhetoric ofniedicine. Uliatevef i t is as app arat us, i t a lso ap pea ls as imagery; and 1f ' man has been treat ed to a fulsome scri es of tapp ing s, sct utin izin gs,and l is tenings, with the aid of various scopes, meters , and gauges, he.may feel content to have part icipated as a pat ient in such histr ionicactiun, though absolutely no material thing has been done for him, whereashe might count him self che ated if he were given a te al cure, but withoutthe pageantry.

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A final note must be added about col leag ue sh ip. Th ereare some colleague groupings whose members are rarely heldres po ns ible for ea ch oth er s good cond uct. Th us mothers arein some respects a colleague grouping, and yet ordinarily themisdeeds of one, or her confessions, do not seem to affect

cl os el y the res pe ct that is acco rded the other members. Onthe other hand, there are colleague groupings of a morecorporate character, whose members are so closely identif iedin the eyes of other people that to some degree the goodreputation of one p rac tit ion er dep end s on the good conduct ofthe others . I f one member is exposed and ca us es a scanda l ,then all lose some public repute. As ca u se and effect ofsuch identification we often find that the members of the group-ing are formally organized into a s ingle col lect ivi ty which isal lowed to repre sen t the profes sional int er es ts of the groupingand al lpweJ to discipl ine any member who threatens to discreditthe definition of the siruation fostered by the other members.Obviously, co l lea gu es of this kind cons t i tute a kind of team,a team that differs from ordinary teams in that the members ofits audience are not in immediate face to face contact with

one another and must communicate their responses to oneanother at a t ime when the shows they have seen are no longer before them. Similarly, the co l leg ia l renegade is a kind oftraitor or turncoat.

The impl ica t ions of these fac ts about col league groupingsforce us to modify a little the original framework of definitions.We must include a marginal type of 'w e a k 1 audience whosemembers are not in face to face contact with one another duringa performance, but who come eventually to pool their responsesto the performance they have indep enden tly se en . Collea guegrou pings are not, of co ur se, the only s e ts of performers whofind an au di en ce of th is kind. For example, a department ofstate or foreign office may lay down the current official lineto dip lom ats who are .s ca tte re d throughout the world. In theirstrict maintenance of this l ine, and in the intimate co ordination

of the character and t iming of their act ions, these diplomatsobviously function, or are meant to function, as a single team pu tting on a single world wide performance. But of course , insuch c a s e s , the sev era l members of the aud ien ce are not inimmediate face to face contact with one another.

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erving goffman - the presentation of self in everyday life - discrepant roles

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