Life is a stage.

If Goffman is correct then the world is merely a giant play in which everybody is an actor playing a part. The social world is merely the giant stage in which the play takes place and communication many times is just a script to make the play run smoothly. Thus Goffman uses a dramaturgical analysis as a way of understanding and explaining the theatrical representations which people use for themselves. People usually have fronts which are the characters a person usually shows to society, and then there is the back region which a person’s true self which is not usually shown (Wallace & Wolf, 2006). It is because people put on such facades that a dramaturgical analysis of characters is useful in understanding the social roles which people play in interactions such as the car salesman and the customer.
The used car salesman is a person whose front region is all that is usually visible. He gets into character as he goes to work, putting on nice dress clothes, usually wearing a tie. His hair is usually short and well groomed, to give the appearance that he cares about his looks as much as he cares about the car which he is trying to sell. He is usually a very charismatic person always smiling, standing up straight and appears to be a very outgoing man who just wants to be friends with everyone. His entire persona is very professional so that he can send out the image of being a credible person which customers can trust, and feel comfortable around. If he can succeed in this image then he will most likely be successful in his occupation of selling cars.
The customer on the other hand is a very casual man wearing jeans and a collared shirt. His hair is well groomed, and he stands up straight as he attempts to appear knowledgeable about cars and confident in the deal he wants. He does not want to appear weak, because then the salesman would walk all over him and he would not get as good of a deal. He attempts to be firm and indecisive about the car he wants so as to not give out the impression to the salesmen that he is too interested in the car. He knows that if he does that then the salesman will have the upper hand in their interaction. He then walks up to the salesman and shakes his hand and tells him about the car that he wants.
The salesman has rehearsed his script and begins to spit out the lines which he uses when attempting to make a sale. “Tell me sir,” he says, “what I can do to put you into this car today.” The two men begin negotiating as the customer says the type of car he wants and the price he would like it for. The salesman begins to explain the car which is on the lot as he hypes the car up to make it seem like a machine which the customer can not live without. Finally the salesman brings the customer inside the dealership and sits them down at a desk to discuss the final portions of the sale. As soon as the customer is inside the phone rings in the background. The salesman picks up the phone listens for a second and then turns to the customer and says “I’ve got Mr. Harris on the phone wanting to know if the car has been sold. Shall I say yes? (Wallace & Wolf 2006)” The customer then in fear of losing the car to someone else then says yes.
The salesman was using a script the entire time as he rehearsed the lines which he thought would sell the car in the end for him. He then used the telephone as a prop, in which he staged a fake conversation with a Mr. Harris in order to convince the customer that they needed to hurry and make the deal on the car (Wallace & Wolf 2006). This is a perfect example of the front which people put on to play a role when interacting with other customers. Once the customer and the salesman leave the area, they will go to their back regions in which they can then be themselves because there is no one around for them to role play around.