All the World’s a Stage
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
About the Author
· Was an English poet, dramatist and actor of the Renaissance era.
· He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English language and the world’s greatest dramatist.
· His most famous works include Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello and Romeo and Juliet
Central Idea
In this poem, Shakespeare has compared life with a stage. The seven stages of a person’s life are infant, school going boy, lover/husband, soldier/fighter, justice/ ability to understand right and wrong, Pantalone (greediness and high in status) and old age, which can come into your mind when you go through this poem with the theme that a person is the ultimate loser in the game of life.
Summary
The poem entitled ‘All the World’s a Stage’ has been composed by English poet, dramatist/playwright and actor William Shakespeare. The poet has compared a man’s life with a stage made for performance. For him, all the men and women are merely players or stage performers who act as they are directed.
The birth is the entrance and the death is the exit. The men and women go through seven stages of life to complete their roles in the life. They are infancy, school going boy, lover, soldier, justice and Pantalone and old-age. Our life starts from infancy which is characterized by the troubling activities like crying, mewling and vomiting (puking). The fifth stage, i.e., justice can be seen comparatively moderate and favourable as the men becomes more formal and wiser, but it is the stage when the men become real actors. Whatever they do is not more than acting.
The poet makes use of simile and metaphor as major poetic devices to express his idea about human life. His comparison of life with a stage seems more realistic as humans are unknown about their fate. Though they experience the world differently, all of them come to similar ground in the first and the last stage of life. The most common thing is that all men and women are the ultimate losers in the game of life. They are players of different games and none of them are winners.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. Why does the poet compare the world with a stage?
The poet compares the world with a stage because all the men and women play parts like the actors and actresses do in the stage. They seem to be playing the roles directed by divine authority.
b. What is the first stage in a human’s life? In What sense can it be a troubling stage?
The first stage in a human’s life is the infancy. It is a troubling stage in the sense that the infant acquires no accomplishments except mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
c. Describe the second stage of life based on the poem.
The second stage of life is a whining schoolboy. The poet paints a dire picture of this stage. According to him, the schoolboy goes to school unwillingly carrying a bag creeping like a snail.
d. Why is the last stage called second childhood?
The last stage is called second childhood because one loses all the adult features like teeth, eyesight, sense of taste and other qualities. He/she behaves like a child.
e. In what sense are we the players in the world stage?
We are the players in the world stage in the sense that we have our own entrances and exits and play various roles as the actors perform in a stage.
Reference to the context
a. Explain the following lines:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
These lines are extracted from the poem ‘All the World’s a Stage’ by William Shakespeare. The poet compares the whole world with a stage. For him, all men and women in the world are only players like actors or actresses in a stage. This is an extended metaphor used to express human fate in the world. Men and women are only performing a role of an actor or actress as directed by some unknown authority. He/she leaves the world after his/her role is over. To conclude, our life is like that of a character in a play or drama to be performed in a stage.
b. Explain the following lines briefly with reference to the context.
They have their exits and entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
These lines are taken from the famous poet William Shakespeare’s poem ‘All the World’s a Stage’. Here, ‘they’ refers to men and women in the world. The speaker says that all humans enter the world by their birth and leave the world when their life ends. Therefore, entrances refer to the birth and exits refer to the death of someone who is considered an actor in a stage.
A man plays various roles or parts in his life. Parts mean stages of life of a man who goes through them. The first part is the infancy and last one is the second childhood, i. e the old-age.
c. Read the given lines and answer the questions that follow.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school
i. Which stage of life is being referred to here by the poet?
The second stage i.e., school going boy is referred to here by the poet.
ii. Which figure of speech has been employed in the second line?
The figure of speech simile is used in the second line.
iii. Who is compared to the snail?
A schoolboy is compared to the snail.
iv. Does the boy go to school willingly?
No, the boy doesn’t go to school willingly. He goes to school unwillingly.
d. Simile and metaphor are the two major poetic devices used in this poem. Explain citing examples of each.
Simile and metaphor are both used for comparison. The difference is that simile can be easily noticed by the obvious words such as ‘like’ and ‘as’, whereas metaphor does not use them. So, metaphor is subtler than simile. In this poem, simile and metaphor are used as two major poetic devices such as ‘…...like a snail’ and ‘All the World’s a Stage’ respectively. There are some more examples of simile found in the poem: ‘sighing like furnace’, ‘bearded like the pard’ and so is the case of metaphor: ‘all the men and women merely players’, ‘..exits and entrances’ and so on.
e. Which style does the poet use to express his emotions about how he thinks that the world is a stage and all the people living in it are mere players?
The poet uses the style of a play as it has been taken from his play ‘As You Like It’. He makes use of an extended metaphor of life as a play to be performed in a stage. Metaphorically, the poet is comparing a man’s lifetime to that of an actor on a stage. The man experiences seven stages of life as he journeys from birth to death.
f. What is the theme of this poem?
The most dominant theme of the poem is that a man’s life undergoes seven distinct stages through which a man plays role in his life as an actor or actress does in a stage. The first stage is infancy, the second is school going boy, third is lover/husband, the fourth is soldier/fighter, the fifth is justice, the sixth is Pantalone and last is old-age. Completion of these all stages forms the man’s journey of life where he comes across various obstacles that he has to deal. Most importantly, a man is the ultimate loser in the game of life.
Reference beyond the text
a. Describe the various stages of a human’s life picturized in the poem “All the World’s a Stage.”
There various
stages of human’s life picturized in the
poem are:
i) The infancy: infancy is the first stage of a man’s life. It is a troubling stage of life when he/she keeps on mewling and puking in the nurse’s arm.
ii) The school going boy: the second stage of life is the school age of a man. He goes to school unwillingly carrying a bag creeping like a snail.
iii) Lover/husband: at this stage, a man becomes more responsible and gives a sad sigh while facing hardships in course of managing family life.
iv) Soldier/fighter: at this stage, the man becomes more selfish while pursuing reputation. The man takes oath but becomes jealous in honour, and sudden and quick in quarrel.
v) Justice: at this stage, the man becomes wiser and the one with ability to understand the right and wrong. He seems to be more formal by his get-up and appearance. He is only playing a part in a stage.
vi) Pantalone (greediness and high in status): this is the second last stage of life.
vii) Old-age: the old age is picturized as the second childhood when a man loses teeth, eyesight, sense of taste and other qualities. He behaves like a child does.
b. Is Shakespeare’s comparison of human’s life with a drama stage apt? How?
Shakespeare’s comparison of human’s life with a drama stage is appropriate since we go through several stages of life unknowingly and to some extent unwillingly as well.
No one knows what happens when. A man’s life begins with a cry and ends after experiencing the second childhood. Thus, the ‘exits’ refers to the death. The man faces the hardships from his arrival. There is no any organic root of bad or good happening in the life of the man. He mostly has to manage sudden and unexpected events while going his journey of life. The man’s life begins with the infancy period and ends with the old-age without energy, zeal, eyesight, taste and tooth. The poem exact and accurate analogy regarding the world and a stage made for performance.
