Arthur Miller's Story "Death of a Salesman" deals with the main character Willy Loman's inability to cope with reality. Willy Loman infringes his life of delusions onto his sons, Biff and Happy Loman. Willy Loman is able to intrude on his sons" sensibility through parental control. The setting in the following conversational analysis is in a restaurant. Biff Loman and Happy Loman are meeting their father Willy Loman for dinner to celebrate the results of Biff's job interview. Willy wants some good news at the cost of his sons" integrity. Integrity means nothing to Willy. Willy Loman only cares about the answer he wants to hear. The author lets the reader ease drop on the conversation between Willy Loman and his sons Biff and Happy. Therefore, the reader becomes witness to Willy's overbearing, absolute control over his sons".
In (T1) the opening line (1) Willy states "I was just fired", Willy's confession to his sons" is self humiliating and encroaches on his public image. Therefore, Willy has committed a self threatening act to his positive face. Line (4) we see how Willy manages to control the conversation by laying down the law up front. Willy says in line (4-5) "So don't give me a lecture about facts and aspects, this directive violates Biff's ability to speak freely which is a (FTA) threat to Biff's negative face Now what've you got to say to me?" this adjacency pair, is also a speech act of ordering because it fulfills the felicity conditions for orders. .
(T2) Line (6) Willy poses (Q2) which is an adjacency pair. The question in Line (6) imposes on Biff, threatening his negative face (FTA). (T3) Line (7) Biff is in violation of the turn taking rule because his statement "Jesus, Dad!" has no conditional relevance to the 1st pair part of Willy's adjacency pair (Question). Line (7) is an insertion sequence because it is an utterance between adjacency pairs. (T4) Line (8) Willy poses (Q2) an (FTA) once again threatening Biff's negative face so he is unable to respond freely.