Lesson 1 - All The World's A Stage - William Shakespeare

All the World's a Stage by William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Figurative Language Used

"Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness" - Metaphor. This line seeks to compare the last stage of life of a man with second "childishness" or in other words, childhood once again. This line seeks to show the similarities between two seemingly contrasting subjects, the nearly dead old man and the just born young boy.

"creeping like snail" - Simile. The "whining schoolboy creeping" is another way of saying that the schoolboy was reluctantly walking to school, and his speed is "like snail", or as slow as a snail. The use of similes appear more in phrases like "Sighing like furnace", where the lover is said to sigh constantly, just like a furnace does and "bearded like the pard", where the soldier's beard is long and bushy, like a panther or a leopard.

"The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slippered pantaloon" - Personification. The six stage of men's life is said to shift into, despite it not being able to change clothes, a pantaloon. Thus it is giving a non living thing (the sixth stage of life) human qualities (changing into another set of clothes).

"Sans everything." - Hyperbole. This portion refers to the fact that an old man loses everything. However, this is not true, for things like the old man sense of smell may not be lost. Thus, this is simply exaggerating and also showing that an old dying man's life is like oblivion.

Why I Like This Poem

To compare the world to a stage, life to a play, and to also divide a man's life into seven stages. Three seemingly impossible tasks are pulled off in this fantastic literary magnum opus by William Shakespeare.

The first two tasks are nicely pulled off by William Shakespeare in his first four to five lines. What attracts me here, however, is not the simplicity of this comparison. The average poem lies on a high level, seemingly unconnectable with readers, for example poems about celestial love. This gives one the impression that the poet wrote this while he was drunk and is thus too unrealistic. However, Shakespeare, being such a famed playwriter when he wrote this poem for the monologue in Act 2 Scene 7 of As You Like It, might have actually been musing about his views on life, and thus gives the reader an impression that the poet, in this case Shakespeare, actually does believe in what he is writing. This would make it more connectable and understandable for the common reading public, like me.

The accomplishment of his third task also similarly appears to be as heartfelt by Shakespeare as the accomplishments of the previous two tasks. His spilitting up of the seven types of men appear to be the seven types of characters one would usually see in his plays. For example, characters who are in the lover stage are people like Romeo and Juliet, and characters who are in the soldier stage would be people like General Macbeth. This would make Shakespeare appear to be a man who really loves his literature, for even in his poems, they can appear so interlinked. This dedication to literature raises my respect for the famous Bard, and the subtlety of doing so leaves no doubt about the Bard's talent.

Interpretation of Poem

This poem originally appeared, as mentioned earlier, in Act 2 Scene 7 of As You Like It. The first intepretation of it is it's surface intepretation upon seeing it in the play, as the musings of a melancholy and contemplative man, for this was a monologue by Lord Jacques, a faithful and contemplative man. With his description of life being a play and the world being stage, what he could have been implying was that life was very confusing, and surprising changes could happen at any point in time. This particular occurrence in life can be seen in As You Like It, when the niece of Duke Frederick, Rosalind, is suddenly chased out by the duke, even though he has took good care of her for a long time. Lord Jacques, who knew about this when he said the monologue, must have been confused by this sudden change. Regarding the division of a Man's life into seven stages, that may have simply sought to enhance the fact that he was really a contemplative man who thought long about such matters. To conclude, the first interpretation depends on the play itself, for this may appear to be the musings of a melancholy and contemplative man.

The second interpretation of the play is that this poem was to show Shakespeare's mindset of life and the world, and the seven stages of Man were to show how he felt Man in a play, literally should be like. Shakespeare, at the period of writing this poem, was already an established playwriter with plays like Taming of the Shrew, Comedy of Errors and Titus Andronicus. With these great plays, Shakespeare's devotion to his playwriting might have been subtlely shown in how he felt life and the world was like. About his exact attitude to life and the world, however, is not very clear, for Shakespeare did not state how life was similar to a play and how the world was similar to a stage. Nevertheless, his love for playwriting can be seen from his mindsets of life and the world. This love can also be seen, when he states the seven "ages" of Man - infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon and second childhood. In short, the infant adapts to its comfort zone, the schoolboy doesn't want to leave its comfort zone, the lover is narcissistic, the soldier wants to build a reputation and also cares more about others, the justice has social status and is prosperous, the pantaloon is the butt of others' jokes and the man in second childhood constantly requires attention before death. These seven type of characters are not uncommon in Shakespeare's later plays after As You Like It. For example, the lover could refer to Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and the soldier could refer to General Macbeth in Macbeth. As such, this poem could have been showing his love for his plays by stating the types of characters that he believed should be common in plays.

To conclude, looking at either way of interpretation of his poem, the Bard of Avon's talent is once again, unquestionably great, but so is another aspect of him, and that is his love for plays.