UNDERGRADUATE II YEAR SUBJECT: English Poetry TOPIC: ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE – William Shakespeare Duration: 22:25 min ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE Introduction to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is considered to be the best dramatist
ever. He wrote 13 comedies, 13 historical plays, 6 tragedies, 4
tragi-comedies, 154 sonnets and three long poems titled Venus
and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece and A Lover's Complaint.
He was born on 23 April 1564 to John Shakespeare and
Mary Arden in Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare was the
third of the eight children born to the Shakespeares. Little is
known about his childhood other than he went to the Stratford
Grammar School and never continued to Oxford or Cambridge for
further studies.
In 1582, at the age of 18, William Shakespeare married
Anne Hathaway who was elder to him by 8 years. The next year
they were blessed by Susanna Shakespeare and two years later
with the twins, Judith and Hamlet.
From 1585 to 1592, seven years are known as the lost years
for Shakespeare. It is believed that it is during this period
Shakespeare moved to London and served an apprenticeship in
one of the theatres there. It is unknown which theatres
Shakespeare wrote and acted for before 1594. There is evidence
that Shakespeare became a stockholder of a company called The
Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594. It is also known that by 1594,
Shakespeare had written at least six plays. In addition to being a
stockholder and acting for The Lord Chamberlain's Men, he also
wrote about two plays a year for them. With his band of actors
and the theatre prosperity flourished and he bought New Palace,
the second largest house in all of Stratford in 1597. In 1599,
Shakespeare and six other men bought a new outdoor theatre in
London called The Globe, which was one of the biggest theatres
in England.
Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603 and James I succeeded the
throne of England. King James supported Shakespeare and his
men were invited for entertaining the court regularly and they
were given the license to call themselves the King's Men. The
King's Men became the leading theater group. During this period,
Shakespeare wrote his most famous tragedies like Antony and
Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and
Othello. But during the last eight years of his life, he wrote only
four plays. In 1613 he contributed his last play Henry VIII to the
field of drama.
In 1616 Shakespeare's youngest daughter, Judith married
Thomas Quiney, and two months later Shakespeare died at the
age of 52 on his birthday in 1616. He was buried in the Stratford
parish church.
Introduction to the poem
“All the World's a Stage” is an extract from William
Shakespeare’s play As You Like It (Act II, Scene 7). It features
one of Shakespeare's most famous monologues which states: "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." This famous monologue is spoken by
Jacques. It contains arresting imagery and figures of speech to
develop the central metaphor: a person's life span being a play in
seven acts. These acts, "seven ages", begin with "the
infant/Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms" and work through
six further vivid verbal sketches, culminating in "second
childishness and mere oblivion, /sans teeth, sans eyes, sans
taste, sans everything".
Text of the poem
ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE
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.
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 bard,
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.
- Jacques (As You Like It - Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)
Critical Interpretation
"All the World's a Stage" is the phrase that begins with a
monologue spoken by the melancholy character, Jacques in Act II
Scene VII of William Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The
speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and
catalogues the seven stages of a man's life: infant, schoolboy,
lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood.
‘All the World’s a Stage’ is the most frequently-quoted
phrases, because it has a deep meaning of life, it is in sonnet
form with twenty eight lines. ‘All the World’s a Stage’ is
considered as the most favorite passage that is quoted by people
all over the world.
To understand the poem entitled All the World’s a Stage;
one needs to know slightly about the story of the play. As You like
It is one of Shakespeare's greatest comedies. The heroine,
Rosalind is praised as one of his most inspiring characters and
has more lines than any of Shakespeare's female characters.
Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke falls in love with
Orlando who is the disinherited son of the duke's friend. Similarly
Rosalind also experiences the same, when she is banished from
the court by her usurping uncle, Duke Frederick. Rosalind
disguises and switches gender as Ganymede and travels with her
loyal cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone to the Forest of
Arden where her father and his friends live in exile. Observations
on life and love follow the friends and families and they are
reunited. By the end of the play, Ganymede, once again Rosalind
marries Orlando. Other pairs of lovers are also wed, one of them
is Celia and Orlando's mean elder brother Oliver, as Oliver
becomes a gentle, kind young man so the Duke conveniently
changes his ways and turns him to religion so that the exiled
Duke, father of Rosalind, can rule once again.
After knowing the story, it will be easy to understand the
poem itself. The extract from As You Like It has philosophical
implications. Shakespeare’s philosophy of life is reflected through
this poem. The character Jacques is the mouthpiece of the poet.
He thinks that the whole world is a stage, and all the men and
women are merely actors. They have their entrances and their
exits, and in his lifetime a man will play many roles, his life is
divided into seven stages. In the first act, he is an infant,
whimpering and puking in his nurse’s arms. Then he is the
whining schoolboy with a book, bag and a bright, young face,
creeping like a snail unwillingly to school. Then he becomes a
lover, huffing and puffing like a furnace as he writes sad poems
about his mistress’s eyebrows. In the fourth act, he is a soldier,
full of foreign curses, with a beard like a panther, eager to defend
his honour and quick to fight. On the battlefield, he puts himself in
front of the cannon’s mouth, risking his life to seek fame that is as
fleeting as a soap bubble. In the fifth act, he is a judge, with a nice
fat belly from all the bribes he has taken. His eyes are stern, and
he has given his beard a respectable cut. He is full of wisdom and
narrates the stories. In the sixth act, the curtain rises on a skinny
old man in slippers, glasses on his nose and a money bag at his
side. The stockings he wore in his youth hang loosely on his
shriveled legs now, and his bellowing voice has shrunk back
down to a childish squeak. In the last scene of drama of life, the
man is full of forgetfulness, and enters his second childhood:
without teeth, without eyes, without taste, and without everything.
Poetic Devices
William Shakespeare has used many poetic devices which
he arranged the word to meaningful phrases. The poetic devices
found in the poem are analogy, caesura, imagery, oxymoron,
simile, etc.:
1.
Analogy: Analogy is a comparison of two things by explaining
one to show how it is similar to the other.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
The word “World” is compared with “Stage” whereas “All the
men and women” are compared with “Players”
2.
Caesura: Caesura is pausing or stopping within a line of poetry
caused by needed punctuation.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
The punctuation of commas (,) are used to pause the phrase in
order to strengthen the meaning and to ease the reader get the
meaning of it.
Imagery: Imagery is used to signify all the objects and qualities of
sense perceptions referred to in a poem. Imagery involves one or
more of your five senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight).
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, (line 17)
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;(line 21)
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice (line 23)
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all (line 25)
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (line 28)
A poet uses these words or phrases to stimulate our memory of
these senses. These memories can be positive or negative which
will contribute to the mood of the poem.
Oxymoron: the use of contradictory terms (together) for effect is
called oxymoron. And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
The word “Men” contradicts to “Women” and also the word
“Exit” contradict to “Entrance”.
3.
Simile: the comparison of two unlike things by saying one is
like or as the other is called simile.
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
The poet refers to the passion of men as the ‘furnace’.
4.
Free Verse: a poem without either a rhyme or a rhythm
scheme, although rhyme may be used, just without a pattern.
The pattern of the present poem is unstructured, there is no
rhyme scheme as it is found in the other classic poems.
5.
Theme: The central idea, topic, or didactic quality of a work.
All the world is a stage is the central idea of the poem. It is
about life compared to the stage. The stage is the analogy of
life with men and women as the players.
6.
Sonnet: a fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a
prescribed rhyme scheme; traditionally its subject is love. Three
variations are found frequently in English sonnets. Traditionally
sonnet contains fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, but this
poem contains 28 lines.
7.
Point of View: The author’s point of view concentrates on the
vantage point of the speaker, or “teller” of the story or poem.
This may be considered the poem’s “voice” — the persistent
presence behind the overall work. This is also sometimes
referred to as the persona.
• 1st Person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem
and tells it from his/her perspective (uses “I”).
• 3rd Person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but
tells about the other characters through the limited
perceptions of one other person.
• 3rd Person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story,
but is able to “know” and describe what all the characters are
thinking.
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.
In the poem All the World’s a Stage, the point of view used is
3rd person omniscient. The poet runs his function as the narrator
and determiner at the same time. He describes and explains his
characters obviously. As it is seen in line 5 through the last line,
that tells about the ages of men and the process of it.