Catch Me If You C Erving Goffman's Performance Theory

Oscar Gonzalez

April 18, 2017

Catch Me if You Can According to Erving Goffman’s performances theory, the way we interpret ourselves is similar to a theater in which we are all actors on a stage playing a variety of roles. The way in which we act in front of a group of observers or audience is our performance. Goffman introduces the idea that we are always performing for our observers like actors performing on a stage. The impression that we give off to an audience in a scenario is the actor’s front. You can compare an actor’s front to a script. Certain scenarios have scripts that suggest the actor how he or she should behave in every situation. The setting for the performances includes the location and scenery in which the acing takes place.

Frank Abigale first impersonates a substitute teacher when he is discomforted by the rest of his new high school class. Disliking the scenario that he is in, Abigale changes his role as a student and puts on a new mask of a substitute teacher to impersonate the authority of the class. His ability imitate others only gets better. After running away from his parent’s house he knows that his best chance of survival is coherence. Desperate for money he begins forging checks. However when he goes and checks his fake check his performance does not reflect that of a seventeen year old high school student. He adapts quickly to the environment and in a fancy bank he goes to the extent of impersonating a pilot. Frank finds himself getting free flights and respect he so greatly desires. When he figures out that an FBI agent is after his trail of scandals he decides to forge a degree and all the documents he needs to become an ER supervisor and is quickly hired. His good acting as an ER supervisor actually works and really convinces people that he is qualified for the

In order for him keep his crime spree going he had to pick up a role of someone else and perform in such way that would convince his audience into believing that he is something that he is not. Although Frank was just a young adult he knew exactly how to change his behaviors to match the setting. In one scene Frank is cornered in his restroom at a hotel by an FBI agent and forced to give up. However, his talent goes unnoticed as he convinces the agent that he is a secret service and that his one step on the case. Abigail manages to trick the FBI agent and escape once again by changing his criminal performance and picking up a new mask based on the setting and the person he was interacting with. In this case coherence increased his chances to get