Notes on "All the World's a Stage"

"All the World's a Stage" by William Shakespeare

  • This excerpt from As You Like It is paired with Tuesdays With Morrie.

The Seven Ages of Man

  • Shakespeare's poem presents an extended metaphor, comparing the world to a stage and people to actors.

  • Humans have entrances (birth) and exits (death) and play many parts during their lives.

  • These acts are divided into seven ages:

    1. Infant:

      • Described as "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms."

    2. Schoolboy:

      • A "whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face."
      • Creeping unwillingly to school like a snail. This is a simile.

    3. Lover:

      • "Sighing like furnace" with intense emotions.
      • Writing woeful ballads to his mistress' eyebrow. This describes intense emotions compared to powerful sounds and feelings associated with a furnace.

    4. Soldier:

      • Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard (leopard).
      • Jealous in honor, sudden, and quick to quarrel.
      • Seeking the "bubble reputation" even in the cannon's mouth. The pursuit of reputation is ephemeral or easily lost.

    5. Justice:

      • With a fair round belly, lined with good capon (chicken).
      • Severe eyes and a beard of formal cut.
      • Full of wise saws (sayings) and modern instances.

    6. Pantaloon:

      • Shifts into the lean and slippered pantaloon.
      • Spectacles on nose and pouch on side.
      • Youthful hose (stockings) are now too wide for his shrunk shank (leg).
      • Big manly voice turning again toward childish treble, pipes, and whistles in his sound.
      • Pantaloon is a character in commedia dell'arte, representing a foolish old man wearing baggy pants.

    7. Second Childishness:

      • The last scene of all, ending this strange eventful history.
      • Marked by second childishness and mere oblivion.
      • "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything" ("sans" means without).
      • This stage represents a loss of senses and faculties as one approaches old age.
      • It can be associated with dementia, Alzheimer's disease, where old people often become more dependent on others.
      • They become vulnerable and need others to take care of them, like a child again.

Tone

  • The tone is cynical and sarcastic.