Character Conflicts in "The Kiss"

According to Erving Goffman, character conflicts are defined by when two or more characters are either consciously or unconsciously in a battle – either a physical one or one with feelings – where different outcomes to the conflict affect a person’s inward and outward identity. In his theory, Goffman explores how different factors affect the outcomes of character conflicts – not only who wins or loses and the situation but also the characters involved. For example, in a classic fight the one who loses may not necessarily experience a “drop” in their image and the one who wins may not necessarily have a better public and self-image either. If the person who lost the game was weak and the one who won was strong, and the winner had pulled in the weak person and forced him to fight, the public would have a negative image of the winner whilst forming an opinion that the one who was weak was courageous. This emphasises the role of the situation in which the characters find themselves on the effect which character contests have on their image and identity.

In “The Kiss” by Kate Chopin, arguably the most important character contest is that between Brantain and Harvy. For both men having Nathalie as a girlfriend of wife is important for their status (although Harvy doesn’t seem to have this as his main aim, whilst Brantain does) – for Brantain having a beautiful wife adds to his identity and spreads an image of himself as a person who is not only rich, but is also attractive and romantic whereas for Harvy having a wife like Nathalie who is beautiful will strengthen his identity and his public image, although his main motivation for loving Nathalie is that he loves her. Since each man wants to be the only one who has “access” to Nathalie, they are in an indirect character contest. For either character being rejected by Nathalie (i.e. losing the contest) would have a profound impact on their identity – both the identity which they project outwards and their inner identity. For Brantain being rejected would show that even his money is not enough to convince someone to marry him (which would imply that he is extremely unromantic and unattractive) and would also look bad on him for at the time this story took place it was considered very unnormal if a man did not have a wife. Similarly, if Harvy didn’t get Nathalie, this would reflect poorly on his outward identity since it would imply that possibly he didn’t love Nathalie enough or that he wasn’t able to provide the support to Nathalie which was expected of husbands at the time.

Goffman’s theory of character conflicts can definitely be applied to “The Kiss” to dig deeper into this conflict between Harvy and Brantain and to analyse how the conflict and its results change as we change aspects of each character. As Goffman describes, the identity of the “winner” or Brantain is heightened. However, following on from how Goffman describes that the personality of a person influences the effect which character contests have on them, it is interesting that the loser of the conflict, Harvy, actually comes out with a heightened image and identity to the readers as someone who stands up for himself and is strong against Nathalie who is treating him like a chess piece rather than as a personality.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Kiss.” Text Book.

Goffman, Erving. “Character Contests.” Text Book.