“If self is all I ever thought of, I’d be where he was—gone.”

                                                Tom Wingfield, The Glass Menagerie

A writer presents a story through a protagonist’s perceptual filter—a point-of-view. A deeper understanding of that character’s core belief system offers insight into masks she might “wear” to protect her self-image—clues to the emotional reactions that character would have when her core beliefs are challenged.

But just because a writer chooses to tell her story through the point-of-view of a particular character, doesn’t mean she is restricted by that character’s limitations. Like real people, characters often reveal things about themselves that they may not intend or be aware of, but that the reader is able to discern.

How does a writer do this?—by drawing on Self Concept Theory, which includes the Looking Glass Self discussed in Part 3 as one of the 4 interacting components, explains how a character forms ideas and feelings about herself using both personal and societal “norms” as criteria.

The 4 interacting components of Self Concept are:

Real Self = the “objective” or “actual” self. This Real Self may be something far more complex than the “face” shown to the world because it includes aspects of an individual that are not known to people around her or even to herself.

Self Image = the “subjective” self. In other words, how we see ourselves.

Ideal Self = the “fantasy” self. How we wish we were or what we aspire to be.

Looking Glass Self = the “social” self. How we think other people see us. Of course, we aren’t always aware of what other people really think of us!

The following scene from The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, in which Tom informs his mother Amanda that they are to have a gentleman caller, is an excellent example of the complexity of Self-Concept Theory. In Williams’s play, the ideal of Amanda’s past, with her 17 gentleman callers of Amanda’s past is juxtaposed with the reality of her daughter Laura’s potential gentleman caller—Jim.

© Robin Matheson