Analysis of "Seven Ages of Man" by William Shakespeare.

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Seven Ages of Man

By William Shakespeare.

Seven Ages of man is a poem written by William Shakespeare. It’s actually a speech given by one of his characters named Jacques in his play As You Like it. Jacques is a pessimistic character who the poet uses to portray the life of a man in seven different parts.

The first line of the poem “All the worlds a stage is a metaphor in which the world is associated with a stage. It is also the central metaphor around which the entire poem revolves. The next few lines also use similar terminology related to theatre. The word "All" in the first line establishes universality and we are told that men everywhere go through the same phases of life. The next line “...Just like actors, men and women in this world are not free to do as they will and are directed and controlled by their destiny.

And just like actors in a play, the people make their appearances and go away i.e. they are born into this world and die. Because Jacques looks more towards the negative, he mentions death as in “exit” first and then birth or “entrance”. This is because he looks at life’s negativities closely. And so, this man, a player who has probably made an entrance plays seven main parts in his life. These parts are referred to as acts as in the line “And one man in his time plays many parts. His act being seven ages.”

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When the child is born, he is an infant who does nothing but cry and throw up as per Jacques. He then develops into a “whining school boy “. The boy shows reluctance in going to school and the simile “creeping like snail” is used to show that. He has a shining morning face thanks to his mother who probably forces him to wake up every morning and dresses him up to go to school. The school boy then grows into a lover. Jacques says the lover “sighs like furnace”. This is a ridiculous simile that is used to ...

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There is some good analysis of language in this essay and a clear understanding of the words is shown. It is important to analyse a text at word, sentence and text level and at times the ideas aren't considered within the context of the speech. Further links could be made to the contemporary relevance of this speech too. 4 Stars