For Hegel a person’s face and his mask are equally lay-aside-able signs

Evidence

This contradiction demands the ironic characterisation of a Lichtenberg, as Hegel notes: ‘You certainly act like an honest man, but I see from your face that you are forcing yourself to do so and are a rogue at heart’. The quote illustrates how signifier and signified, constrained by the purely imaginary status of the referent, fail to coincide. The sign with which we have to deal ‘in truth signifies nothing (in Wahrheit nichts bezeichnet)’, and Hegel concludes: ‘for the individuality, it is as much its countenance as its mask which it can lay aside’. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 556

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the Hegelian thesis that interiority and its outward expression never coincide, so both face and mask are detachable.
• XREF: The signature/referent non-coincidence echoes the deconstructionist reading of presence; also connects to Goffman’s dramaturgical self in urban sociology.