All the world is stage

Posted by Smokey Stover on August 02, 2007

In Reply to: All the world is stage posted by Smokey Stover on August 02, 2007

: : : What does the meaning of; all the world is stage, and all the men and women are merely players...?

: : Shakespeare's "As You Like It" Act II Scene 7 -
: : "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,"

: : We're all actors in a play.

This isn't the only time Shakespeare, who is so accustomed to creating characters for the stage, talks of life as though it were a stage play. One of his most famous sylloquies is that of the embattled Macbeth:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." - Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-27)
SS

• All the world is stage Smokey Stover 03/August/07