Goffman Virtual Social Identity

In his seminal work Stigma, Goffman (1963) analyzes the identity of individuals, or rather, the behaviour thereof, in order to distinguish between what he calls the “virtual” and “actual” social identity. Virtual social identity refers to the version of selfhood that individuals are expected to present in public, one legitimized by its social acceptance. The latter on the other hand, refers to the self identity individuals imagine themselves to posses in private. To illustrate the difference between the two, we can think of Edward Cullen. When he first makes his appearance in Bella’s life, he is seen by his peers – albeit a century older then them – as someone way out of Bella’s league, good-looking and mysterious to name but two of his perceived characteristics. He seems quite comfortable sitting at a table with just his family while in school, comfortable with his virtual social identity, at least in that setting. On the other hand, the second he finds himself alone with Bella, his thoughts on how he perceives himself stands in stark contrast to the comfortableness with which he navigates the school environment. Edward avoids school on sunny days because he thinks the sparkle to his skin is unsightly. It
Being a human, she presents as such, something the entire Collin’s family picks up and is aware of. But she does not consider herself to be fragile like the rest of us humans, and constantly reminds Edward that she is not afraid of his world. It seems that the stigmatization causes Bella to go out of her way to reconcile the disparity between how she sees herself and how others do, putting herself in danger just to prove this point. And after every perilous situation, she needs to assert that her humanness so visibly exposed is not a factor for consideration in determining the consequences of what had happened, something Edward seems reluctant to agree