All The World's A

Stage
William Shakespeare
Tanaya ketkar
Fybcom batch 2
Roll no:265
About the author:
•William Shakespeare was a poet and dramatist who
lived and worked during the reign of queen Elizabeth I of
England. He is almost universally acknowledged as one of
the greatest dramatists of all the time. Little is known
about his personal life except that he studied at grammar
school at Stanford upon Avon ,married Anne Hathaway
and worked as an actor in London. Shakespeare begins
writing for the stage in late 1580s. His plays were first
conducted in 1623 when a folio edition was published
including all his plays. Further folio additions appeared
in 1632,1663,1664 and 1685. Shakespeare's earliest work
as a dramatist were 3 parts of henry the 6th and this
dates from 1590 to 1591. After this he wrote numerous
plays and poems among the better-known ones being
comedies such as a midsummer night's dream, as you like
it, merchant of the Venice ,twelfth night and tragedies
such as hamlet ,Othello ,Macbeth and king Lear. His 14-
line poems were connected in the solids bracket printed
in 1609 and his long poems were ‘Venus and Adonis’ and
‘the rape of lucrece’

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

About the poem:
The passage is taken from Shakespeare's famous comedy, as you like it (Act 2,
scene vii), and is uttered by the character jaques-a sort of Cynical philosopher who
likes to comment on the more negative aspects of life and the world. Here he
chooses to record the progress offer human life in terms of 7 stages or phases.
There is a gradual metamorphosis from one stage to the other, from childhood 2
senility, when the human being finally passes into death and oblivion. The view off
life presented here is colored by the cynical vision of jaques and need not
necessarily represent Shakespeare's . However, there is a truth to reality in the
whole portrayal. The metaphor of life as a play and humans as actors in it is a
successful tool to hang his philosophy on, and it reduces all human life to a
universal pattern
 Summary of the poem(lines 1-6):
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, His acts being seven ages.
At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the
nurse's arms.

Shakespeare says that each human being

performs seven parts in this small drama on the
stage of the world. He makes his entry as a baby
who is fully dependent upon others. This stage
ends when the infant grows into a school child.
Summary of poem (line 7-15)
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining
morning face, creeping like snail 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 honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the
bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then
the justice,

The second stage is his boy-hood. This is his school going period. It is
the time when he complains all the time. His face shines like the bright
and fresh morning. He carries his school bag and unwillingly goes to
school at the speed of an insect. This is the third stage of man’s life.
Now he is a grown up person and assumes the form of a lover. It is the
time when he loves his beloved ardently. He writes a song in praise of
his beloved’s eye brow. He also sings such songs again and burns in his
emotions. In these lines the poet shows the fourth stage of a man’s life.
When he matures, he becomes a soldier. He takes strange oaths. He
has a beard like a tiger or a leopard.
Summary of poem (lines 16-28):

This is the fifth stage of man’s life. Here man

In fair round belly with good capon lined,
becomes middle aged and mature like a judge and
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
has a fair.
Full of wise saws and modern instances; And
In the sixth line of the poem, the man enters the
so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into
elderly act of life, as an old man requiring spectacles
the lean and slippered pantaloon, With
to aid his vision made weak with age, with the
spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His
schoolboy satchel now replaced with a small pouch
youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
that is enough to carry all his humble old daily
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly
necessities.
voice, Turning again toward childish treble,
This is the last stage of man’s life. Man becomes child
pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of
once again. This is like his second childhood. In this
all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is
stage he is childish as well as childlike. At this stage
second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans
he forgets almost everything. His memory becomes
teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
very weak. He loses teeth, eye-sight and taste. He is
without everything. This is the stage in which he
completes the drama of his life and leaves the stage of
this world for the next. und belly full of the meat of
chickens
Stages of life according to jaques

Stage 1:baby stage 4:soldier

Stage2:school Stage 5:midlle

going boy aged man

Stage3:teenager in Stage 7:death stage 6:old man

love
Various Figures of speech used in poem
Shakespeare makes use of several literary devices in this speech. Some are:

1. Simile: ‘creeping like a snail”; “soldier… bearded like the pard”; etc.

2. Metaphor: The entire speech itself is more like symbolism; men and women are portrayed as players
whereas life is portrayed as the stage. Shakespeare uses the “stage” as an extended metaphor.

3. Repetition: Another figure of speech used in this monologue; words like sans, age, etc. are repeated for the
sake of emphasis.

4. Anaphora: It is used in the eighth and ninth lines, beginning with the word “And”.

5. Synecdoche: “Made to his mistress’ eyebrow”; “And then the justice”; etc.

6. Alliteration: “his shrunk shank”; “quick in quarrel”; etc.

7. Onomatopoeia: “pipes / And whistles in his sound”

8. Asyndeton: “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

 Themes ,tone and mood of the poem
Theme:
 ‘All the world’s a stage’ Shakespeare discusses the futility of
humanity’s place in the world. He explores 
themes of time, aging, memory, and the purpose of life. Through
the monologue’s central conceit, that everyone is simply a player
in a larger game that they have no control over, he brings the
themes together. Shakespeare takes the reader through the stages
of life, starting with infancy and childhood and ending up with an
old man who’s been a lover, a soldier, and a judge. The “man” dies
after reverting back to a state that’s close to childhood and
infancy. You can also explore the themes in other 
William Shakespeare poems.

Tone and mood:

In ‘All the world’s a stage’ Shakespeare creates
a somber and depressing mood through the simple breakdown of
life, success, love, and death. The beauties of life are compiled into
a short monologue that’s over almost as soon as it began. With
this, the reader is left to consider their own life and what “stage”
they’re in now. The speaker knows that this is the way the world is,
everyone listening to his words is all going to end up back where
they started as children and there’s no way to change that fact.
Conclusion :
This poem gives us a brief summary of
the cycle that every man’s life must
follow. According to the poet, the seven
parts that a man plays in his life are-
infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice,
old man, and finally a child again at the
time of death. The poem describes the
world as a stage where all people are
actors who must act out these seven acts
or stages of life.