Search results
People also ask
What is Shakespeare's version of the ages of Man?
How many ages of Man did Shakespeare have?
What does Shakespeare say about the seven ages of Man?
How many ages of Man are there?
[JACQUES] 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...
By William Shakespeare. (from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques) 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;
- Stage One: Infancy
- Stage Two: Childhood
- Stage Three: Adolescence
- Stage Four: Youth
- Stage Five: Mid-Life
- Stage Six: Senescence
- Stage Seven: Dotage
The first stage of life is birth. All life begins with birth. When a child is born, it is completely oblivious to the cares of the world. Infants don’t do much; they are dependent on their mother and caretakers. So, we see that the speaker establishes the first stage of life as the stage of dependency. Infants have no other way of calling out other...
The infant grows into a child. He no longer needs the complete attention of his parents and custodians and they send him to school to educate him in the ways of the world. But the infant who has seen only love and adoration from his immediate environment looks reluctantly towards this change. He whines and cries and throws tantrums to avoid separat...
Next, the educated youth is in the height of teenage when adolescence sets in. The erstwhile child now weaves the dreams of love. He witnesses new changes in his mind and body and feels differently than he’s done before. His heart is set on love and he pines for his mistress. He writes and sings sad ballads for his mistress, exalting her beauty and...
The next age is that of a young soldier. The tender lover slowly transforms into a soldier — a soldier in the battlefield of life. Soldiers take up strange oaths of allegiance and honour and live by them. The speaker says that a soldier is bearded like a Panther. He is courageous, and full of vigour with a never-back-down kind of attitude. They zea...
Then the soldier, as he goes into middle-age, is seen as a judge passing on judgement and protecting the people with law and order. This again is a generalisation; the professions chosen by Shakespeare in the dialogue are not necessarily how people lived their life, nor is it any indicator that the same order is followed in the professions. The jus...
The sixth age, according to the speaker is the entry of the middle-aged man into senescence. The person progressively becomes lean and frail. He looks like an old fool (pantaloon) in his ragged slippers (slippered). The old age comes with a gradual weakening of the senses. An old man is often seen wearing corrective glasses and pouch on their side ...
The last of the ages is dotage leading into the finality of death. The speaker calls it the ‘last scene of all’ in the play of the person’s life on the stage of the world. We see a continuation of the metaphor developed in the former lines of the dialogue in this final section. Shakespeare calls this journey of a person through the seven ages a str...
- Infancy: A helpless baby, just crying and throwing up. “At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.”
- Schoolboy: This is where his formal education starts but he is not entirely happy with school. His mother is ambitious for him and has washed his face thoroughly before sending him off to school but he goes very slowly and reluctantly.
- Teenager: He’s grown into his late teens and his main interest is girls. He’s likely to make a bit of a fool of himself with them. He is sentimental, sighing and writing poems to girls, making himself a bit ridiculous.
- Young man: He’s a bold and fearless soldier – passionate in the causes he’s prepared to fight for and quickly springs into action. He works on developing his reputation and takes risks to that end.
The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man.
Aug 21, 2024 · Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man describes life as a series of stages, from infancy to old age, charting the inevitable journey from birth to death.
Jun 7, 2018 · The Seven Ages of Man Summary; Line-by-Line Explanation. 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.
