SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ON PETER PARKER AND SPIDERMAN IN THE FILM SPIDER-MAN 1 (2002)

Abstract

There were two objectives in this study. First was to find out the types of social action performed by Peter Parker both as himself and his other identity as the hero, Spider-Man. In this objective, Weber’s types of social action was used to find out Peter Parker’s types of social action. Meanwhile, the second was to explore the way Peter Parker behaved in his front-stage as the Spider-Man and in his back-stage as his true self. Goffman’s dramaturgy theory was used to explore Peter Parker’s behaviours in his front and back stages. The form of this study was a qualitative research for this study used words as its data taken from Spider-Man 1 (2002) film script. The result of this study showed that there were four types of social action performed by Peter Parker and his behaviours during the two stages were based on his two different identites, as the real Peter Parker and as the Spider-Man. Peter Parker performed four types of Weber’s social action: (1) rational instrumental social action; (2) rational value social action; (3) affective social action; and (4) traditional social actions. Peter Parker’s behaviours were divided according to which stage he was playing at the moment. In his front-stage, Peter Parker behaved according to his role as the hero, Spider-Man. While, in his back-stage, Peter Parker behaved as his real and usual self, the photographer. Keywords: sociology, social action, dramaturgy