Meaning of the poem All the World's a Stage?

Answer 1

It's not actually a poem, but a speech said by the character Jacques in Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The voice we hear is not Shakespeare's but that of a chronically depressed and unemployed nobleman, hanging around the court-in-exile of a deposed Duke. He is responding to the Duke saying that there are some people who are even worse off than he is by replying that everybody is actually playing the same role in life--we cannot aspire to an individual happiness greater than the misery which is the lot of all men. (He's a bit of a mysogynist, so he doesn't talk about women at all, but if he did, he'd say the same thing.)

'All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players' : Here, Jacques compares a mans' life with that of a play set up in theater. He says that each mans' finite life is nothing but an act, and as the man progresses in his life, the scenes and acts each shift accordingly.

'They have their exits and entrances' : He says that the entrance of a man's life is his birth, and his exit his death. Then, he goes on to describe the seven stages of a mans life:

First comes the infant, who is completely helpless and has no clue of the world around him. He is completely dependent on the people who dote on him - his mother and his nurse.

Then, he grows into a child, who is reluctant to go to school and trudges slowly. 'Morning face' reprents the dawn of life as well as the tiny child's innocence.

Then he becomes a lover, who is sad about having to leave his mistress and pours out his feelings in the form of ballads.

Then he becomes a soldier, who guards his reputation. with his life and will defend it with anything. He is hot-tempered and ruthless, just like a leopard or ferocious wild cat. The 'bubble reputation' the poet speaks of says that reputation is a lot like a bubble - it will burst at the slightest touch to it and it is impossible to get it back after that.

Then he becomes a wise judge, full of witty quotes and whose life experiences allow him to advice people. He compares people's misfortunes with his own and tells them how to solve them.By this time he has become rather fat, something seen as a sign of prosperity.

Then, he becomes a weak, feeble old man who wears glasses and has shrunk to a thin, pitiful state and has a shrill, high-pitched voice.

The last stage is that of a old man, who is almost like an infant again - oblivious of his surroundings and who has lost everything in his life - material-wise as well as emotion wise.

Answer 2

It's not a poem, actually, but a speech said by the character Jaques in Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The meaning is basically that

people do not control their lives or have any choice in what they will be like--they are just following a script.

Answer 3

The seven stages are:

• The infant
• The schoolboy
• The lover
• The soldier
• The justice
• The Pantaloon
• The 'Second Childhood'

All stages are years of life, so as each stage ends, so does that time of the persons life.

Hope this helped.

Answer 4

It isn't a poem. It's a speech given by the character Jaques in the play As You Like It. Jaques is chronically depressed and unnecessarily pessimistic. It is given in response to the Duke's remark that on the stage of life, some folks are worse off than Jaques. Not so, says Jaques, because we are all playing the same part, and that part is pretty ridiculous, whichever of the stages of life you wish to choose. The whole speech is meant to ridicule people and point out that the end point of it all is "second childishness and mere oblivion." It is not meant to be taken totally seriously--although there is some truth in all of it, it is at every stage inaccurate and inadequate, and fails to take into consideration the great variety of people and the diversity of their situations. The Duke had it right in the first place.

Answer 5

The seven ages of man is not a poem, even though it may appear in your school anthology as such. It is a speech from a play by Shakespeare called As You Like It. In this play, a Duke has been overthrown and banished, and has gone to live in the woods. One of the people accompanying him is a cynical and melancholy man by the name of Jaques.

The two of them are talking, when Orlando bursts in, saying he is starving, and will rob them of their food. After saying that he need not threaten and they will happily give him food for charity the Duke says to Jaques:

Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene

Wherein we play in.

The Duke means that in the theatre of life, there are sadder stories than theirs. But Jaques picks up this theme of life being like a theatre, and commences his speech with "All the world's a stage . . .", and goes on, as you know do describe the stages in a person's life as if they were roles he were playing in a play.

Answer 6

that's a metaphor