In Act II, scene VII, of the play As You Like It, a disheartened Jacques takes a long look at life: All the worlds 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 (1-4) It is a line that is as simplistic as it is complicated, comparing the cycle of life to that of a play. This quote, pulled from the play As You Like it, a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare, has been repeated and analyzed thoroughly throughout the years by poets and philosophers alike. This set speech, spoken by Jacques, takes a seven step look at the aging process of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childishness. With such visual dialect Shakespeare metaphorically compares the seven stages of aging, to the multiple acts of a play and the plot’s ascending and descending order much like that of life’s from infant to second childishness. The language that Shakespeare uses for this set speech is remarkably modern. Shakespeare uses a language that is so modern for his time yet so simple for present day dialect that the set speech is often taken out of the play’s context and has achieved a reputation as a poem and has been able to remain such a popular work for so long as well as still carry meaning.
For instance, Shakespeare refers to the infant as “mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.” (6).
The Essay on Euthanasia in the Play “Who’se life is it anyway”
“Who'se life is it anyway” is a satisfying play on a dramatic and intellectual level. The play makes it satisfying by the entertainment and the dramatic death. It makes it dramatic because of the conflict and tension of the play. The play had bitter sweet catharsis which had a resolution of conflicting emotions and mixed feelings on the play. It was also humorous that was savage and black. The ...
When Shakespeare wrote this, it was the first recorded use of “puke” meaning “to vomit”, before then the word had been used to mean a dignified dark brown color, according to the Oxford Dictionary (Shakespeare 2).
Anyone in any time period could picture an infant curled up and spitting up on a nurses shoulder, which is what makes the language he uses so interesting. Shakespeare is able to use such vivid words that are able to reach so many different walks of life and still convey a deeper meaning. He also uses a few that are a little out dated in today’s society: Bearded like the pard; Capon; Wise saws; and Pantaloon. Each having its own meaning and making perfect sense in the context of the poem, if used today you would be laughed at.
Of the seven stages Shakespeare refers to, infancy is the first then he develops into the whining schoolboy. Every child in the world can relate to the first to stages, especially the latter. No one wanted to start school let alone rush to get there. The way Shakespeare uses such vivid imagery, the reader tends to develop a mental image of a small boy with rosy red cheeks dragging along to school, and it is easy for the reader to just read along as their imaginary little boy grows up into ‘the lover’. Which is what we remember in our own lives as well see in young children today.
“Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad/ made to his mistress’ eyebrow” (Lines 10-11).
The boy has discovered love and all of a sudden this imaginary boy has emotion and little character. The fourth stage in this poem is the roll of soldier. In the time of the poem, to join the national army is like a rite of passage into manhood. Shakespeare describes the, now, man as hairy as a leopard and ‘full of strange oaths’. Shakespeare’s choices of words in line twelve caught my eye.
The reference to the strange oaths implies heavily that maybe it shouldn’t be such a rite of passage, that these are just boys out there confused and trying to impress everyone, but for what? Honor? Popularity? “Jealous in honor, Sudden and quick in quarrel/Seeking the bubble reputation/ Even in the cannon’s mouth” (Lines 13-14).
The Term Paper on Mortiz Schlick: the Meaning of Life in Play
I do not agree with Schlick’s contention that the meaning of life is grounded in the act of play and not work. I disagree for three main reasons. First, I find Schlicks account of forgetting the purpose of activities to be somewhat flawed. He demonstrates how the purpose of an activity does not yield meaning and that work is a means to a goal. I find a discrepancy in this in regards to his ...
These are just boys doing everything they can to boost their reputations no matter the cost. The fifth step in Shakespeare’s play is the role of “justice.” Now our imaginary man is slightly over the hill with a large belly which Shakespeare refers to as Capon lined which is nothing more than castrated rooster (considered a delicacy).
He has also trimmed his beard to a “formal cut” and full of “wise-saws.” Wise saws are merely clich’e’s contrasted with modern precedents. Shakespeare is alluding that this is the grandest time you ” ll have.
Being stuffed with delicacies, there aren’t any more mentions of any kinds of stress, and it’s the time you come to grips with your own life and asses its worth. “And so he plays his part” (Line 19).
The sixth step, the pantaloon, is the first inclination the reader gets that this is nothing more than a cycle. Our character’s body begins to break down, and his manly voice begins to quiver and quake back toward “childish treble.” In line 22-23, Shakespeare takes on even the sexual aspects of the sixth stage to really drive home his point: the end is coming. “a world to wide for his shrunk shank” And just like the snap of a finger, Shakespeare takes us into the last stage which he refers to as mere oblivion or a second childishness.
Our man loses his teeth, eyes, taste, everything. Now there is nothing more but death. By listing off the things he loses in the last line he really reiterates his point that life is but a play and at the end of every play the story finally unravels and the curtains are drawn. Though no two people’s lives are the same, just about everyone in the world can relate to this poem and put it to good use.
For once a poem actually says what it means and means what is says, life is nothing more than a play scripted ahead of time, and we as actors have none to very little input as to how the story pans out. Some will try to overact and just do too much to impress critics while some will ignore the script, rip-off the mask and give the performance of a lifetime.
