The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare

 The Seven Ages of Man

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;
And 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,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

 

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and regarded as the greatest writer and greatest dramatist. He is called as the National poet of England and the Bard of Avon. His works consists of 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and few other verses. His works have been translated into many languages.

Shakespeare was born in Stratford – upon-Avon, Warwickshire.  He is educated at the king’s New School in Stratford.   At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway 26 year old and had three children. In 1592, he began his career in London as an actor, and writer.  At the age of 49 he retired and three years after he died. 

Shakespeare is known for his works between 1589 and 1613.  His earlier plays were comedies and histories. They are the best works of Shakespeare. Then he tried in tragedies.  Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, king Lear and Macbeth are known to be the finest works of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare died at the age of 52 on 23^rd April 1616.  He died after signing his will. He was buried in the Holy Trinity Church.   His grave, next to Anne Shakespeare his wife and Thomas Nash the husband of his granddaughter.

 

Summary

The Seven Ages of Man also knows as “All the world’s a stage.  It is a popular dialogue form “As You like It” by William Shakespeare scene vii Act 2. In this particular scene dreamy Jacques talks to Duke senior and Orlando in the Forest of Arden.  The dreamy Jacques compares the world to a theater’s stage and men and women to players of that stage.  Each players has their exit and entrances. Similarly men and women enter the world play their part and bid good bye.  There are seven stages in our lives.

 The birth of a child is the first stage of the drama of human life.  The bay cries and vomits.  Then he grows and gets ready to go to school.

In his second stage he goes to school with a heavy load of books with sad face.  He goes slowly like a snail.

Then in his youth he becomes a lover with a handsome look and burning desires.  He sighs like a furnace and sings loves songs praising his lady love. This is his third stage. 

 In the fourth stage he becomes a great brave soldier.  He is very young, energetic and full of curiosity and strength. He risks his life to do his duty to and not afraid of death and danger while fighting for his country. He seeks reputation in his duty but its short lives as a hollow bubble.  Then he enters into his middle age. 

This is his fifth stage.  He will look fat with round belly as he would eat chickens.  He has beard and his eyes will be harsh looking.  He becomes strict in his behaviours and expects the same from others too.  He preachers with sayings and modern examples for reference to show his wisdom in arguments.

In his sixth stage he faces the old age discomforts.  He becomes old and weak in health.  He will look thin.  He wears slippers, spectacles and clothes of his youth but they would be loose he will look funny in these loose dresses.  His voice will lose his manly tones, he pipes and whistles.  He is toothless now.

The last role is very old stage.  This stage shows his helplessness as a baby.  He is without teeth, could not hear properly and weak eyesight and most of the time forgetful.  He becomes totally dependent.  He loses control over his own senses.  His life ends with his death after playing all these different roles of life.

 

Line by line explanation of the poem

“All the world’s stage”

This is a famous Shakespeare quotes.  He compares the world to a stage and brings out all the complications of human life.  The stage is a platform where many play their parts according to the script.  Similarly human life has different part to play in this world according to their destinations.

 

“All men and women are merely players.”

The poet says that all men and women are actors.  They play various roles in the stage of the world. The world “merely” tells the average situation of the players as the destination of each are chained to each other. No one can control the events which go around us. We can feel the sense of vanity and detachments.

 “They have their exits and entrances”

The poet says about the life and death as exits and entrances.  They are part of life. Both could not be avoided.   It not only about life and death.  The exits and entrances represent the human relationships and emotional bondages.  People come and go in our lives.  Relationships could be broken and can build up again.  The usage of exits before entrances says about the mood of the speaker as he expresses that relationships could not be permanent.

“And one man in his time plays many parts.  His acts being seven ages.”

Man plays many parts in his life.  The stages are not restricted to the ages.   He plays as a baby, school boy, youthful lover, dutiful solider etc.  Everyone has to face these stages in life.

The seven stages

First stage: Infancy

 “At first, the infant,

Mewling and puking the nurse’s arms.”

 The first stage is birth.  All the entrances start with birth.  When the child is born, it will be taken care of the relations of the child.  The entrance of the child into the world is a remarkable event as it is the beginning of a new life.  They cry, vomit, and feed on mother’s milk.  They are dependent.  Their world is full of happiness as there are many to take care of the new born babies. Until they learn to walk, they are looked after with care and love.

 Stage two: childhood

 “Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school.”

 The baby grows into a child.  His second stage starts from here.  He is no more dependent.  He goes to school to educate himself to know the world better.  But as a schoolboy he loves to spend his time in entertainment.  He dislikes his school and education.  He whines and cries and shows his unwillingness to go to school.  But the parents knows what is best for him and they force him to go to school.  The speaker paints the day today life style of a child.  It could be seen anywhere in the world.

 Stage three: Adolescence

 “And then the lover

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.”

 Now he has entered into his youthful teenage life. He starts his dreamy life.  He could feel new changes in his mind and body.  He dreams about the feeling of love.  He sings and writes ballad for his beloved.  He sighing like furnace.  He enjoys the feelings and sees happiness around him.  He sees beauty in everything.  This is too a general stage of human life.

 Stage four: Youth with brave and strength.

 “Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard

Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeing the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth.”

 This stage is that of a young soldier.  The young soldier face many challenges in his life.  He takes strange oaths and tries to protect his honor and lives by his oaths.  He is quick like a panther and he is courageous and full of brave attitudes.  He is ready to face any kind of dangerous situation.  His reputation is very important for him and he is ready to die for it. This is great transformation from a young youth to a brave man.

 Stage five:  middle-age life

 “And then the justice

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.”

 The brave soldier enters into a middle age, he is portrayed as a judge as he is passing judgement and tries to advice people with law and order.   It’s a common scene to see middle aged man with this character.  The middle aged judge is described as a round belly man, eating chicken, he is a wealthy man and his eyes are severe and his beard is with very formal cut.  He is seen as a strict natured person. He expects discipline from every one.   He is full of wisdom.  He preachers with sayings and modern examples for reference to show his wisdom in arguments.

 Stage Six: old age discomforts

 “The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slippered pantaloons

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound”

  In his six stage he enters into the middle –age. He has become lean and weak.  He looks like an old pantaloons (fool) in his slippers. He is wearing glasses on his nose as his vision becomes weak and carries pouch to keep his personals.   The old man is described as slim, lean and bony. His dresses are too big for him.  His manly voice of the brave soldier is now lost and has become like a child’s soft voice.  His voice whistles when he make conversation.  Thus the poet brings out the effect of age upon a person.

 Stage seven: The final stage

“Last scene of all

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and merely oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”

 This is the last stage of every man. This last stage leads him to his final journey of death.  The last scene of the stage has its own end.  Similarly the last stage of every one of us has to end at certain point. The journey of a man is full of twists and turns.  The final stage is his second childhood where the old man becomes dependent.  He lose his control over his senses. He is left with nothing.  He is without teeth, without taste and without vision and without everything.

 Thus the seven ages of man is a biblical reference to the seven deadly sins. Every human passes this seven stages (seven deadly sins) from infancy to old age.

 Theme

 The poem from Jacques from as you like it is a psychological reflection of human life and their parts in every stage.  The poet gives a general life pattern of human and their progress in life.  The transformation he or she goes through in every stage.  It’s not only about psychological transformation but also change of appearance.

The whole dialogue gives a clear picture of the futility of life, in every stage the poet explores the emotions.  From infancy to infirmity, from hour to hour the poet describes the natural changes of human.  We ripe, we rot and we become decayed material.  The value of life becomes nothing after his or her death.

 Literary devices of the poem

Rhyme

 No Rhyming scheme is followed.  The presence of alliteration and repetition give a good focus on the message.

Repetition of men, merely, man, many, mewling, morning and players, plays, parts, puking are good examples.  The last line “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Repetition of sans gives a great effect for the meaning of the poem.

  Figures of speech:

 Metaphor

“All the world’s a stage” is a good example for metaphor where the poet compares the world to a stage. The people are merely actors on the stage.

 Antithesis

Creating an opposite effect.  For example the words “Exits” and “entrances” in the same line give an antithesis effect and make the readers to explore more in the poem.

 Simile

Comparison made by using like and as.  For example “creeping like snail”, sighing like a furnace and bearded like a pard” are good examples in this poem.

 Thus the poem makes an impact among the readers about the journey of life which is a temporary one.  The transformation characters and the various stages of man and his change of appearances are well brought by the great poet.