All the world's a stage...Analysis of the seven ages

"All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. 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:^] infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone and old age, facing imminent death. It is one of
Shakespeare's most frequently quoted passages.

As the poem begins, you are dragged to a stage. It is like you are the audience, and you are watching a drama on the stage, right in front of your eyes.

All The World’s A Stage tells you that all the men and women are mere characters in the drama, which is played on the stage (in the world). ‘They have their exits and their entrances’; this means that all the people take birth and then die after a certain period of time.

When the man enters into the world, he has seven different ages or phases to go through. When he goes through these ages, he has to play different roles. These roles depict a man as a son, his responsibilities as a brother, father, husband, fighter for the nation, etc.

The man begins his act on the stage as an infant; he pukes in the arms of his nurse and cries to be in the comfort of his mother.
The second act starts right when he turns into a school going boy, who is unwilling to go to school and unwilling to take the responsibility of being a student.

The third act , then comes when he turns into a lover; his lover is the only person he sees dancing in front of his eyes. For him, there is absolutely no other place that can comfort him, than the eyebrow of his lover.

The fourth act portrays the man as a soldier or a fight for the nation. His beard depicts all those strange oaths that he takes to protect his country and all the men and women living in it. No doubt he quarrels, but he also maintains his dignity to create and develop his reputation in front of others around him. This is perhaps the toughest stage in his life.

Then comes the fifth act, where he turns into justice, the one who knows what is good and what is right. At this stage, he is perhaps the best person to approach to find out who is correct and who is wrong.

The sixth stage comes into his life as he enters the stage of Pantaloon, meant an old man - so this describes a thin old man who stays inside where he has a high status in society, yet he is greedy for more. This stage does not remain for long in his life.

Alas! The last stage comes for him to go through oblivion i.e. they are completely forgotten by other people. No matter how hard he tries to remember things, he is just not able to. When he enters old-age, he turns into a child again. Slowly, he begins losing his teeth, his vision, the taste in his mouth and the love or greed for everything that he once wanted in his life.