All The World's A Stage Flashcards
by William Shakespeare — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: All The World's A Stage
What is the central metaphor of the speech?
Life is a stage play and all people are actors who play different roles before making their final exit.
How many ages of man does Jaques describe?
Seven: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice (judge), elderly pantaloon, and extreme old age ("second childishness").
What is the first age and how is it described?
The infant — "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms," completely helpless and dependent.
What is the last age and how does the speech end?
Extreme old age — "second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
How is the soldier described?
"Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard," jealous of honor, quick to quarrel, and seeking "the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth."
How is the lover described?
"Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow" — consumed by passionate, exaggerated romantic feeling.
Who speaks this monologue in As You Like It?
Jaques (pronounced JAY-kweez), a melancholy nobleman in the exiled Duke Senior's court who enjoys philosophizing about human folly.
What kind of character is Jaques?
A cynical, melancholy observer — the play's resident philosopher who finds sadness and absurdity in everything.
In which play does this speech appear?
As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII — Shakespeare's pastoral comedy set in the Forest of Arden.
What theme does the circular structure (infant to "second childishness") convey?
Life comes full circle — we begin helpless and end helpless, making the ambitious middle stages seem fleeting and ultimately futile.
What does the speech suggest about human identity?
That identity is a series of temporary roles we perform, not a fixed self — we are "merely players" acting our parts.
How does the speech treat worldly achievement?
As transient and hollow — the soldier's reputation is a "bubble," the justice's wisdom becomes irrelevant, and everything ends in oblivion.
What type of extended literary device structures the entire speech?
A conceit (sustained metaphor) — life as a stage play, with birth as an entrance and death as an exit.
Name three similes used to describe the ages of man.
The schoolboy "creeping like snail," the lover "sighing like furnace," and the soldier "bearded like the pard" (leopard).
What rhetorical device is the repetition of "sans" in the final line?
Palilogy (repetition for emphasis) — "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything" hammers the progressive loss of faculties.
What meter is the speech written in?
Blank verse — unrhymed iambic pentameter, giving it both conversational flow and dramatic gravity.
What does "sans" mean?
Without — a French word Shakespeare uses to describe the total deprivation of old age.
What is a "pantaloon" in the sixth age?
A stock comic figure of a foolish old man — derived from the commedia dell'arte character Pantalone, known for being thin, shrunken, and ridiculous.
What does "bubble reputation" mean?
Fame that is beautiful but fragile and temporary — like a soap bubble, military glory can burst at any moment.
Complete the line: "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."
What does "Seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth" reveal about the soldier?
He risks his life for glory that is as fragile as a bubble — willing to die for fame that will quickly vanish.