poem

In this blog I want to introduce to you a poem called "The seven stages of man" written by William Shakespeare. Althought it was published in the 16. century it still contains true statesments for our life. In the following I want to analyse it and compare the poem to todays life.

The seven stages of man - Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players,

They have their exits and entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice

In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again towards childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Interpretation:

In 1599 Shakespeare wrote the poem "The seven Ages of Man". It deals with the different stages of life starting with the birth of a child including the different stages of life´(school, profession, retirement) and finally it ends up with death. In the following I'm going to compare the attitude of Shakespeare concerning the stages of life in the 16th century and today.
Shakespeare structure the live in seven stages. The first two stages are that you were born and need help from others and can't do anything by your own. You are a little helpless infant. After that you getting older and go to school with your school bag in your hand. But you don't like to go to school. Shakespeare compares it to a snail so that you are very slowly and sneaky. I totally agree with the definition of these two stages because I believe that these two periods of time never changes. The third stage is the lover. he shines like an oven and is romantic. I think that there are still such people who perform like a lover but I guess that there are also people who behave in a different way and so I just can partly agree to Shakespeare. The soldier is the following stage. He is jealous in honor and the most powerful and strongest one. He fights and often until death. Furthermore he has a wild look with a rumpled beard and he knows a lot of strange oaths.
As far as I can see today there is not such a soldier like in Shakespeare’s time. The men today can decide whether they go to the German army forces or do civilian service. I think the reason is that the army doesn't play such an important role in our life and that there aren't so many wars and fights like hundreds years ago. That's why we needn't so many soldiers.
The next stage which Shakespeare describes is the justice. He is intelligent, powerful and have a high status and good reputation in society. Moreover he earns a lot of money, looks good and have the right sentences for the right problem. I'm convinced that there are still people who are judges and have these skills but in my point of view you can see the justice as a symbol of all profession today. If you have a job you earn money and you have a certain high status and good reputation. I think the important thing today is that you have enough money so that you can afford a high standard of life. These facts can be transferred to the justice of the fifth stage.
The last two stages are the pantaloon and "the last scene of all". The pantaloon is a funny old man with glasses. He looses weight and power and his voice getting higher and higher. In the last stage the man can not remember anything he is oblivion. On top of that he is very old and it feels like a second childhood because he has not any teeth taste and ca not see anything. I am completely of the same point of view because today the percentage of old people is nearly the same like the rate of kids. So it is really impressive that there are so many old people and you can prove these features which Shakespeare named to the old generation in society and as far as I can see these characteristics are still typical for old men today. As a consequence I agree with Shakespeare in this stage.
So all in all I can agree to the stages one, two, six and seven because they are up to date and you can have close experiences to these if you want to. I disagree with stages four and five because in my opinion the war fight and arme do not play such an important role in life now and that is why there are not so many soldiers anymore. Further on the justice is not represent in our century but you can compare it to the different profession you can learn. Lastly I partly agree to the stage three because I guess that there are lovers still today who are romantic but I think that they form the minority.