What does Goffman mean when he says that life can be looked at “as if it were theater?”

i dont even know who gofman is but i belive that all the best theatrical dramas comedies and satiras have been written based on life. so life is theatre cos theatre is made from life events. only in theatre everything is densed so that theres no waist of time and place as happens in life...with one aim,to prove ones point,whichever it may be. good books are also pictures of life. so life is not as theatre,but theatre is as life. u tell this to this gofman lad. and that life cant be looked on as if it were a theatre cos in theatre noone suffers while in life we get betrayed and die eventually. this is a big difference. also,in theatre,say in the popular series 'friends' the main characters,6 of them,all have their big faults and constantly hurt each other or/and make them look ridiculous. and everything is forgotten and forgiven. in real life there is a price for every mistake one makes. cos our life surrounding is not our mum,who is the only one person in life who forgives us for our shortcommings,small and big ones. this is i love my mom. and this is why my son loves me. everybody else makes me pay dearly for my misdoings. in the series 'friend' they would forgive me. thats why i love this series. cos its like a fairy tale for adults. we all want the worlds people be like our mom. but they are not. they are enemies.

Don't Goffman either,but I think he is trying to say the same thing Shakespeare said when he wrote, "the world is a stage and we are all actors".