Interpretation
‘AS YOU LIKE IT’
(W.Shakespeare) Act II, Scene 7.

William Shakespeare was an English poet, dramatist, considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. ‘All the world’s a stage’ is the phrase that begins a monologue from W.Shakespeare’s ‘As you like it’, spoken by Jaques in Act II, Scene 7. This poem is a master-piece of Shakespeare’s keen observation and fine poetry. In this poem Shakespeare has masterfully described various stages of human life where people are actors playing their roles. At first man appears on this stage as an infant who is helpless and cannot walk, or speak, and is greatly limited in his ability to act with purpose. He must be carried if he goes from one place to another. It means that he is dependent on others. That it’s why he is crying in the nurse’s arms. Then he is seen as a school-boy with a shining morning face walking slowly and unwillingly to school. He doesn’t want to go to school because it makes him to feel unhappy, but on the other hand, it’s the happiest period of human life which is called childhood. You have very few responsibilities. For example, you don’t have to go to work, pay bills, or do the shopping, cooking, or cleaning. This means you have plenty of free time to do whatever you want. Soon a school-boy grows into a young man who is called in W.Shakespeare’s poem as a lover. Love inspires him, he becomes very romantic, but on the other hand, love obsesses him, because he writes a ballad made to his mistress and here it can be understood that physical appearance is quite important to him. The fourth stage is that of ambitious soldier who is a young adult. He is ready to fight for his life, because he understands that everyone has to do something that makes their future better and life significant. In the next stage a man plays his role as a wise justice. He is proud of himself, self-confident, because according to poem justice is full of wise saws and modern instances, he wants to impress other people. The sixth stage is an old man with spectacles on the nose. In this age his health is getting worse and worse, physical appearance becomes not attractive anymore. Finally, the last stage of all is the second childishness where man loses almost all his scenes and joys of life. He cannot do anything by himself and he becomes like a child who is dependent on others. William Shakespeare draws a picture of human life very cynically. Life is like a theater where every person has his own role, but performs at the same scene like others. The underlying meaning of this poem could be that man belongs to seven ages of life which express the idea that shortly phases of life pass too quickly.