The Seven Ages of Man

1. the helpless infant

2. the wishing school boy

3. the emotional lover

4.the devoted soldier

5.the wise judge

6. the clueless old man

7. the corpse
Fun facts

 Other title: “all the world’s a stage”

 This is a dialogue from the English playwright Willian shakespear’s comedy ‘as you like it’
 The dialogue takes place in scene VII of act 2 where the dreamy philosopher Jacques is talking to
duke senior and Orlando in the forest or arden.
 They’re having dinner when duke senior confessed to Jacques that he and his men are alone and
unhappy whereas the whole world is full of joy
 It is the reply Jacques gives to the duke
 The purpose of this reply is partly to console the sad duke senior and partly to tell the audience of
the play that unhappiness is a part of life and that we all go through certain stages of life
 The extract is also regarded as the character’s comment on the futility of life
 The poem that compares the world to a stage in a theater and men and women to players. Each
player has his/her exit entrance.
 Similarly, men and women enter the world on birth and exit from it on death
 They come to this stage. Play their different roles and big good-bye. These parts, acts or stages are
normally seven.

First stage: infancy, birth, baby

 The birth of a child is the first act of the drama of human life.
 The human baby cries and vomits in the nurse’s arms
 Baby.

Secomd stage: school boy {childhood}

 Soon he starts going to school. He has a shining face and carries a bag of books.
 He goes to school unwillingly, creeping like a snail.

Third stage:lover {teens}

 The third role that he plays is of a lover. The young lover sighs like a furnace and sings some
mournful songs or praises the beauty of his belover.

Fourth stage: soldier or working adult

 He is quick-tempered in matters of honor. He seeks reputation even at the risk of his life
 He is not afraid of death and danger while fighting for reputation. However, his reputation is short-
lived. It is hollow like a bubble

Fifth stage: judge {middle age}

 He is fat with round and fleshy stomach as a result of eating chickens
 He has a heard of formal cut. His eyes are now harsh-looking
 He becomes strict in his behaviour
 He uses many saying and modern instances to support his arguments of wisdom

Sixth stage: old age

 Man becomes weak in health and thin in body
 He wears slippers and clothes of his youth. These clothes are now too losse for his shrunk and thin
legs
 His voice becomes unmanly. He pipes and whistles. He lisps like a child as he is toothless. He looks a
comic figure

Seventh stage: nearing death and oblivion

 This ‘act’ shows him as a helpless as a baby. He is toothless, hard or hearing, weak in eyesight and
forgetful
 In fact he loses control over all his senses. He departs from this world after playing these roles of life