What is the explanation of Jaques’ speech "Seven Ages Of Man", from

Shakespeare’s As You Like It?

The poem commences with life being compared to a huge stage where all of us are only
actors. Each person has an entry into the world at birth and exits it at death.
According to Shakespeare, every man plays several parts during his life time. On the
stage of life every man has seven acts. The first act of man is infancy. At this time all that
the baby does is cry and puke on his nurse's lap. After he goes through his infant life, he
emerges as a school child who slings his bag over his shoulder and creeps most
unwillingly to school.

At the next stage in life, the young man is a lover who is busy composing ballads for his
beloved and sighing deeply for her attention. He graduates into a bearded soldier who
promises solemnly to guard his country. He is filled with national pride, is quick to be
insulted and is always ready to spring up in defence. At this point of time he is more
concerned with status and reputation. From the agile soldier, he goes on to become a
judge whose waistline grows as he becomes fatter and fatter. He wears a short, formal
beard and his eyes become intense. He is full of wisdom, speaking to everyone in a just
and wise manner.

After he has played this part, he goes into the sixth age. He becomes thin, wears
spectacles, the skin around him hangs loosely. He is made fun of as being a funny old
man. His youth has been left behind. His clothes hang loosely around him and his once
manly voice turns into a high pitched, childish one. With this, man enters the last act
where he experiences his second childhood as he becomes dependent on people once
more. He is overcome by senility and forgetfulness, as he loses his faculties of sight,
hearing, smell and taste, slowly but surely, and ultimately dies.

Seven Ages of Man is an extract from the romantic comedy As you like it, written by
William Shakespeare. It is set in the forest of Arden, where the senior Duke lives in exile
with a band of loyal courtiers. These lines are spoken by one of the characters, Jaques,
who is given to a lot of philosophizing. Through a series of deft strokes , he etches a
realistic picture of the different phases of a man's life. However, his view of the seven
ages in the life of man is by no means comprehensive or impartial. Here,Jaques makes a
rather conventional comparison between the different stages of a man's life and the acts
of a play.

1.infancy

2. school boy

3 lover

4 soldier

5. adult hood
6. Middle age

7. Old age