All the World’s a Stage

Written by one of the greatest luminaries of English literature, William Shakespeare, this poem is taken from his famous play “As you like it”, and is regarded as one of his finest works. This poem is an extract from his famous literary piece “As you like it”, which is a pastoral comedy and it is a literary work of the English Renaissance period.  “All the World’s a Stage” is a famous monologue spoken by the melancholy Jacques who is one of the exiled Duke Senior’s noblemen living with him in the Forest of Arden. It is a poem written in blank verse, meaning that it has no fixed pattern of repetition or rhyming. Even the simplest rules of rhyming and punctuation haven’t been obeyed. It employs the following figurative of speech as represented by the exemplified parts of the poem:

1. Inversion: reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence. Eg: eyes severe (line 17), a world too wide (line 22)
2. Alliteration: repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Eg: shrunk shank (line 23), sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything (last line).
3. Onomatopoeia: use of a word that imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes when it is pronounced. Eg: whistles (line 25).
4. Metaphor: describes one thing by mentioning something else. Its literal meaning doesn’t hold true in its case. Eg: All the World’s a Stage, And all the men and women are merely players (lines 1 and 2).
5. Repetition: repeating words, phrases, lines, or stanzas. Eg: Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (Last line).
6. Simile: directly compares two things. Eg: Creeping like a snail (line 8), Sighing like a furnace (line 10).

The poem explores the theme of life, denoting the fact that at last, a person is the ultimate loser in the game of life. No matter how we live, no matter the difference in our physical life, our souls undergo the same journey, mere existence in this world, and relief from this body at last. No matter whether we be rich, poor, famous, or smart, our final journey is always the same. We leave all we have in this world, voyaging towards the union of our soul with the soul of the universe. In this poem, Shakespeare has compared each human life with 7 distinct phases.

In my opinion, the use of the number “7” is not just a coincidence but a well-put symbolic representation. Since ancient times, the number has been a very important symbol. According to many traditional beliefs, 7 is considered to be the number of completeness. It has been symbolized in many different conditions such as 7 Chakras, 7 patterns in the Bible, 7 marriage vows, 7 heavens, 7 underworlds and also, 7 horcruxes, and 7 Harry Potter Books. It is said that 7 represents the number of perfect unity between the divine and the earthly world. Another significance of the number is that according to the New Testament, God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7^th. Thus, the concept of 7 parts of human life springs from medieval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven deadly sins, for theological reasons. According to T. W. Baldwin, Shakespeare’s version of the concept of the ages of man is based primarily upon Pier Angelo Manzolli’s book Zodiacus Vitae, a school text he might have studied at the Stratford Grammar School, which also enumerates stages of human life.

To understand the poem better, we’re going to separate the 7 stages with their corresponding age group as to relate the reel-life description to real life.

1. Infant: 0-3
2. Schoolboy: 4-13
3. Lover: 14-20
4. Soldier: 21-40
5. Justice: 41-65
6. Old Age: 66 and above
7. Death

Every person no matter who he/she is, they go through the same stages of life. Their experiences may be different for their deeds are their personal doings, but their living in this world is always the same.

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,

This world is just a platform for us to live, for us to do our deeds, as a student as a worker, or as a mere existence. We all are simply players in this play of life, everyone having a different part, everyone living the very same reality of birth and death. Our entrance is the same; we come into this world from our mother’s womb, crying, and our exit is just the same; we leave everything we’ve earned behind. It’s the same death of our physical body, the same freeing of our spiritual one. Each individual during his “tenancy” in this world has many parts, and many roles to play. They act as a child to a parent, a student for teachers, a friend to their classmates, a spouse to their lover, a worker in their workspace, a citizen to their country, an elder mentor to many youngsters of the society, a parent to children, a grandparent, and so much more. We are a single individual, to us, we are just ourselves, but for people around us, we play so many roles, so many parts. And for this very instance, Shakespeare has divided our entire life cycle into 7 stages that start from the infant. Along with that, we can see the use of the noun “man” representing every person, whether it be a man or a woman. We can observe that this was a representative way of writing during the Renaissance period. This might have also been due to the fact that the time was then a male-dominated society, with minimum importance given to women. This can be seen in most of Shakespeare’s works itself.

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

The first stage in the life of a person is that of an infant. As we come into this world, we are dependent on our nourisher, the one who nurses us, as we cannot understand or say anything. We come into this world, crying, mewling (whining) for attention and we are needy of care and nourishment. This stage of life is the simplest one with no worries and no expectations for the individual as each and every one of our tasks is done by our “nurse” i.e. our guardian and caretaker, and they do it with all the love in the world. The simplest and easiest stage of life for an individual. But this stage also has some problems which emphasize the fact that no matter whichever stage of life we undergo, we always have to go through some problems no matter how big or small they may be. The problem during the infant stage is that we cannot communicate how we are feeling, what uneasiness we are feeling, and what we wish for. It is up to those around us to interpret our body language to decide what we want. This stage is followed by the one of a young schoolboy. I’m pretty sure that most of us cried during the first day of our being, unwanting of separation from our family for the whole single day. And it holds true for almost all individuals from all around the world. This is the stage of the whining schoolboy, walking slowly at a snail’s pace, carrying his heavy satchel, his heavy school bag filled with a number of books, unwillingly to school.

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 honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice

The third stage is that of the lover. This usually starts from the stage of a teenager, where attraction takes place. To a lover, there’s nothing more beautiful, more special, more fairylike than their beloved. In appreciation of their beloved’s beauty, the lover usually writes a number of poems and ballads and stories for their love, their story, the pain of separation, the pain at being far, the happiness and love for their “mistress”. They write a number of writings describing their love’s every feature with the simplest details even up to the description of their love’s eyebrow. This age shifts to a young person, a soldier. This is the stage where a person works to establish their career, the stage where a person fulfills their karma, and works to reach their potential. This is the age of a soldier, where we shower our love for our nation, work for the betterment of the country and we swear, “We will do anything for our country”. We are also in seek of reputation no matter how short-lived it may be. For the simplest of things, an individual competes with another, jealous of success for some kind of reputation. The individual during this stage has a short temper and for the simplest of things, there starts a quarrel.

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
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 slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, 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,

The age of the soldier shifts to the age of justice, the middle-aged stage of a person. After undergoing many experiences in one’s life, the middle age of a man is where they share their experiences with everyone, draw morals from their life and share with the youngsters in society. Everything a person says in this stage feels like a well-taken saying from a famous literary piece, the person is full of wise sayings and experiences. Their eyes are severe with heavy knowledge and their styling is formal radiating an aura of wisdom. The 6^th part in the life of a person is old age. This stage is also known as the second childishness as this is when we need care and are dependent on nursing just like the infant stage of life. In this stage, a person approaches oblivion and innocence, not understanding of the world and not being able to take care of oneself. They become lean and thin and are happy to wear whatever they’ve got no matter how informal that may be. The youthful age of a man is gone, their built body is shrunk and their manly voice turns into a small voice with trembles and every time they speak their chest wheezes, sounding like whistles. In this stage, a person has to confront many terminal diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Gout, etc. with so little energy, they wear spectacles not even being able to see the world. This is the second childhood but it doesn’t contain the comfort of childhood. With all the hardships sideways, we can see that in our society, children are unwilling to take care of their old parents even though parents brought up their children with love. These children dump their parents into old age homes and other members of society also hurl insults at old people. This, in my opinion, is the hardest stage of a human life; the one which loves all, but the one who is unloved. And this stage is followed by death.

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.

This is the only stage of human life that is nameless for it is the most feared one of all. We approach our end, the end of the journey we had started on this earth. Our strange and eventful journey is brought to an end by this very stage. Our second childishness, loss of teeth, loss of vision, loss of taste, loss of hearing, loss of sense, loss of everything. Here’s where the journey of every being comes to rest, here’s where their souls are freed and it is truly symbolic how our journey ends the very way it started; mere oblivion and innocence.