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Ideological Argument: How People Perceive Others Shapes Their Identity

Identity is not a unitary or unique structure but is always built on different practices,

discourses or positions that often intertwine and confront. That is why, identity is in a

continuous process of change and transformation. Stuart Hall observed that the Postmodern

Self is composed by overlapping multiple fragmentary and changing identities and their

articulation is carried out from outside and above the individual. Identity is a continuous

product of history and culture and is formed by the social perception of the others. The others

are those who make opinions about us or judgments about our social roles, rules or

characteristics. Therefore, how people perceive others shapes their identity. To support this

idea we will appeal to some literary works, written in different historical eras and periods.

A first argument in favor of this idea is found in the drama Macbeth (1606), by W.

Shakespeare. How people take on their own actions and words influences the social

perception of others and their own identity. There is a relevant scene about taking

responsibility for one’s actions in the fourth act of the play. Macduff came to England

looking for Malcolm (son of King Duncan, killed by Macbeth). Initially, Malcolm confesses

deceitfully and melodramatically that he is more evil than Macbeth. Then he gives up what he

said as a test of honesty, and tries to get Macduff to say the same empty words. But Macduff

realizes that he has to assume his feelings, that he has to have superior feelings: "I will never

forget that what I loved most / That is no more." Macduff's defensive assumption of

recognizing what he feels and what he is, gives him, in the eyes of others, his true identity.
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A second argument is made by Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray

(1891). We learn from the novel that we cannot hide our real identity from others, even if we

have hidden a painting that shows what we really are. Wilde appeals to the onomastic

resonance of the identity of the titular character: the sublime Doric resonance and the beauty

of classical Greek antiquity is intertwined with the daily harsh grey. The point is this: even if

we believe that we have built a perfect identity, the others bring us down to our true worth.

On the other hand, Oscar Wilde explores the Nietzschan idea of subjective multiplicity: „Is

insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply

our personalities.” (Wilde, 147) The author undermines not only the citadel of identity but

also the notion of authenticity understood as "personal truth" by means of an "authentic

insincerity" (Arata, 59). This eulogy of man's dissociation from his essence on the "I am not

who I am" model fits into the Nietzschan hypothesis of a multiple subject. Thus Dorian Gray

loses his Doric height and is lost in the ashes of the fallen world. He stops being Dorian, he is

reduced to a Gray amorphous identity. The lines that conclude the novel contain his sad

involution, our involution: ”When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid

portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and

beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was

withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that

they recognized who it was” (Wilde, 198). We're the way the others see us.

A third argument is based on the ease with which we can crack the fortress of identity

as in Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and

Mr. Hyde (1886). The dismantling of the psychological principle of identity was a modernist

problem in the 1880s, developed in the basic works of Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche

and Eduard von Hartmann. Romantic demonism, Darwinian degeneration and Jung's

psychology created the antihero that we could all hide inside. Humanity is characterized by
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the alternation between good and evil: a certain moral moderation is characteristic of our

species, which spontaneously avoids the absolutization of both good and evil. "All the human

beings we encounter are made of good and evil, while Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of

mankind, was pure evil” (Stevenson, 78). But despite its dark or strange character, Hyde –

and this is perhaps its defining quality – has a lust for Dionysian, visceral, demented life.

Hyde realized his animal nature, saying yes to life, saying yes to instinct. Despite its

inferiority, it is more vivid and – from a certain (extramoral) point of view – it is more

authentic than Jekyll. "It seems that God prefers Hyde to Jekyll, despite his evil." Why is

that? "Because Hyde, no matter how bad he was, was genuine, while Jekyll was deceitful.

God used Hyde to destroy Jekyll because his false life was an affront to the Creator"

(Sanford, 48). Here we have the contrast between a "monstrous hypocrisy" (falseness) at

Jekyll and "primary energy" (authenticity) at Hyde. In other words, our inauthenticity is

causing an identity crisis. The loss of the sense of identity can occur from within, or from the

others.

In conclusion, it can be noticed that although psychologists most often use the term

"identity" to designate the uniqueness of an individual or the accomplishment of self-

awareness, identity arises from interaction with other members of society. Only in relation to

the others the individual determines the meaning of his identity, a meaning recognized and

accepted by the others. In other words, the way the others perceive us controls, from the the

outside, our own identity.

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Works Cited:

Arata, Stephen. Fictions of Loss in Victorian Fin de Siecle. Cambridge University

Press, 1996

Hall, Stuart; Du Gay, Paul (editors). Questions of Cultural Identity. Sage Publications Ltd.

1996

Sanford, John A. Strange Trial of Mr. Hyde. A New Look at the Nature of Human

Evil. Harper & Row, 1987

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Published by Planet eBook.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Published by

Planet eBook.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Published by Planet eBook.