Analysis of Shakespeare’s ‘The Seven Ages of Man’

The Seven Ages of Man is an extract from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. In
this extract, Shakespeare compares life to a drama in which a person plays
different roles as he progresses through the various stages of life. He compares the
world to a stage and human beings to players, who enact their roles from infancy
to old age and then exit the world.

Human beings are mortal. The world is timeless. Each person plays a role assigned
to him or her in the same way as an actor or an actress does in a drama on a stage
in a theatre. We enter the world when we are born. We live in this world through
various stages. We leave this stage when we retire from life i.e we die. Most people
pass through these seven stages. However, only a few persons’ life makes any
significant impact on the world.

The first stage is that of infancy when the infant is crying and puking in the nurse’s
arm. The attitude of the poet is to strike a general truth about the infants. It is that
infants generally cry and vomit in the nurse’s arm. The human infant is the
weakest of all the infants of the other species. He has to be carried in arms and
protected for over a year. The poet is also mocking those who sing praises of
infants and call them images of God. The poet finds some faults and defects in
every stage of life. He does not say anything positive or favourable because the
speaker of these lines, Jacques is a melancholic and pessimistic person who finds
nothing good or worthwhile in life.

The second stage is that of childhood — a bright-faced school-going child, who

creeps like a snail and is unwilling to go to school. The school-going child has a
shining face in the morning. Perhaps his mother has scrubbed it hard to make it
glow. He is neat and tidy. He carries a bag of books. He goes to school quite
unwillingly. He is creeping like a snail which indicates clearly that the boy is not
interested in going to school. The poet is right in making generalizations about the
schoolboys. All young schoolboys usually dread going to school.

The third stage represents a lover full of passion, who sighs and sings sad songs in
praise of his beloved. He is infatuated with a beautiful face. He is impelled to sigh
loudly due to his frustration in love. The dejected love sighs like a furnace. The
simile may appear farfetched, but it drives home two points. First, the lover’s sighs
are quite loud as the sounds of the bellow’s. Secondly, they are quite frequent and
hot. The poet mocks not only the lover but the other poets of his age as well, who
used to compose poems praising the various aspects of the beloved beautiful face.

The fourth stage follows the brave soldier who is ready to do and die, is jealous in
honour, sudden and quick in quarrel. He strives for a momentary reputation. He is
full of oaths. He has picked them from the countries he has travelled to. He is
bearded like the leopard. He doesn’t look handsome. He is ready to risk danger or
death to uphold his self-respect. He is very conscious of the fair name, high fame,
honour and glory. The reputation earned by the soldier’s sacrifice is transitory like
a bubble. Facing a canon’s mouth invited sure death but it provides honour and
glory to the brave soldier.

The next role that he plays is that of justice. He is a mature person in his middle
age. He has severe eyes and a beard of fashionable cut. He looks well dressed. His
fat round belly indicates his love for food. It is filled with fat chickens. He quotes
many sayings and examples to show his wisdom. He cites these examples and
sayings while hearing and deciding cases. Shakespeare seems to have a dig at the
judges of his time. He directs our attention to their fair round belly lines with good
capon. It is said that the judges of that era used to accept bribes – baskets of
chicks and capons – and were known as basket judges. Though specimens of
corrupt judges may be found in modern times as well, this generalization is too
harsh comments on the judiciary.

The sixth stage is that of a lean, bespectacled, wrinkled wan, wearing loose hose.
The hose, when the man was young fitted well but due to his age the shank
muscles have shrunk and the hose is ill-fitted now. His baritone has changed into a
shrill voice like that of a child. In his slippers and loose-fitting garments, he looks a
funny man – Pantaloon – a comic figure in Italian comedy.

From here, he reaches the last stage and plays his last role, that of an extremely
old man, a senile man, weak in body and mind. This marks the beginning of second
childhood. He is once again in need of help and care. He is without teeth, without
taste – without everything. His eyesight is quite weak and fails to recognize people.
He forgets everything and is forgotten by everyone. And with this end the seven
acts of a person’s life. He exits from the stage.