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By Root 400 0

belief and knowledge, bad faith is about living and acting. It is not necessary to believe anything to be in bad faith. For Gob, living in bad faith means that he is acting like something he isn’t. It’s more like pretending than it is deception. But the pretense of bad faith should be distinguished from other forms of pretense. Occasionally, an actor or actress will be praised for “disappearing” into his or her part—making the audience forget that this is a person playing a part. The person living in bad faith tries to do the same—disappear into a role. Only, in this case, Gob’s audience is himself.

Let’s dive a little deeper. For Sartre, there are two kinds of things in the world: beings-in-themselves (en-soi) and beings-for-themselves (pour-soi). Beings-in-themselves simply are what they are. They are defined by other beings, often before they even exist. For instance, a carpenter builds a table. Before he begins to build, he defines his project. He chooses the materials, designs the table, and establishes what his finished product will be and what it will be used for. Before it comes into existence, the table has its essence assigned to it. The carpenter is a being-for-itself. Unlike the table, the carpenter doesn’t have a pre-given essence. He chooses to become a carpenter, just as he chose to build a table. Humans are beings-for-themselves, and as such we are free beings. Unlike a table, a human can choose to be this or that. When we try to deny this fact, this freedom, we enter into the realm of bad faith. Bad faith consists in acting as though one was not free, as though one was a being-in-itself. As Sartre says, “The waiter in the café cannot be immediately a café waiter in the sense that this inkwell is an inkwell, or the glass is a glass.”5

Although most of the Bluths lie to themselves, or try to, Gob is uniquely suited to guide our discussion of bad faith. Gob is sometimes like most of the rest of the Bluths—selfish, narcissistic, vain, and worse—but he is also often driven by a need to be thought well of by others. His quests for his father’s approval and Michael’s respect, for acceptance by the world at large, for love and self-respect, all lead Gob to deny his freedom, to disappear into parts, to live in bad faith.

Gob Plays His Roles

Michael also engages in bad faith. At least in the final season, much of Michael’s motivation is wrapped up in how he’s viewed by others. It’s not so much that he is a good person, as that he needs to be seen as a good person. He, like Gob, is playing a part. Michael plays the part of the good one, the selfless one, the reliable one, “the living saint,” the put-upon member of the Bluth family. Michael’s acts of bad faith do not form the core of his existence, though. In this, Gob is unique. He is so bound to his bad faith that his life would be shattered without it.

Just consider Gob’s various careers. He began the show as a magician (illusionist!), moved on to being the titular president of the Bluth Company, and then became a ventriloquist—taking temporary gigs along the way as a waiter, a pimp, and an executive at a rival development company. Gob isn’t especially good at any of these jobs; for some he has no qualifications at all, and he knows it. But he desperately wants to be good at all of them. In each career, he tries to fill the role to a T. As a magician (illusionist!), he founded the Magician’s Alliance—only to be blacklisted by them (“Pilot”). As president of the Bluth Company, he tried hard to imitate his father—wearing George Sr.’s suit and firing everyone (“Afternoon Delight”). In each case, Gob behaves in the way he thinks he ought to, rather than recognizing and accepting that he is making free choices.

Sadly, Gob’s bad faith isn’t limited to his “professional” life. It also plagues his romantic relationships and encounters. In particular, it was ever present in his relationship with Marta. Recall his hasty decision to make up with her. The instant she accepts, Gob realizes that he’s “made a huge mistake” (“Key Decisions”). What was his mistake?