Good morning fellow
toastmasters, first of all I would like to ask who has written the famous plays
like Macbeth, King Lear, and Caesar. Yes it’s written by the Great bard William
Shakespeare. Today my topic is “All the world is a stage”. I am not a reader of
Poems. This poem was written by Shakespeare and part of my school syllabus. I
recollect this poem often during different phases of my life. So I thought I
would share it with you today. This poem was written in 16th century
by William Shakespeare but it is truthful till today. I would like to make it
interesting by adding my personal experiences and my version to the poem.
The poet describes this
world as a stage and we are all actors in this stage. Each of us have their
exits and entrances and each of us have seven roles or parts to play in this
world.
The first phrase is “At
first the infant, mewing and puking in the nurse’s arms”
Infant is the first
stage. In this stage we cannot stand on our own and we need the support of
nurse, mom or dad. A baby moves from one milestone to another milestone like
sitting up, crawling, walking. The senses develop one after another like cry, smile,
smell, awe, grip objects. I would call this as the age of innocence. There is no
ego, no vengeance and the baby’s love is the purest form of love in this world.
The second phrase is “the
whining school boy with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like
snail, unwilling to school”
A Whining school boy is the second stage.
A School boy with a backpack always has a bright face but he is always
unwilling to do one thing that is going to school with the backpack. We used to
pray in school days to weather god for rain, so we can have a leave and bunk
school. A school boy always complains about homework, exams, teacher and that
is why he is called as a whining school boy. Lot of play and mischief is part and
parcel of this school life.
The third phrase is “And then the lover,
sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad, made to his mistress eyebrow”.
Lover is the third stage. This phase is
the teenage phase. This is a directionless age. This is the age where he has
crush on everything .He is always sad in melancholy of being a failure in love.
In one way or the other, everyone has experienced a puppy love in this stage.
If someone says he is not, then he is lying or he should be a real nerd or
bookworm.
The fourth phrase is “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”
Soldier is the fourth stage. This is my
favorite part of all stages. This is the part where we rebel at everybody whether
it is parent, teacher or boss. He is straightforward, hot blooded, and quick in
losing temper, talks about ethics, honour, and justice. Some people call it as
angry young man attitude, a rebel without a cause and madness of youth. I think
that youth is all about idealism and standing up for principles. I called it as
my favourite stage as this stage gave us an air of freedom. It’s a freedom from
any compromises, do what we think is right and fight till the end daring the
consequences.
The fifth phrase is “Justice, in fair
round belly, with a good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
full of wise saws and modern instances”
Judge is the fifth stage. He has lot of wise
experience which he preaches to whomsoever he meet and earns respect by his
sage advices or gyan. This is the time where he is patient, enjoys the finest
details in life. He becomes less intense
and does not loose temper like in the rebel stage.
The sixth phase is “The sixth age shifts Into the lean and
slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful
hose, well saved, a world too wide For
his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish
treble, pipes And whistles in his sound.”
Old is the sixth stage. This is the age
where we get to know that we are all normal human being and not superman. This
is the stage where body takes over mind and that is why even Arnold Schwarzenegger
has a body double for some action scenes.
The last phrase is “Last scene of all that ends this strange
eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans
eyes, sans taste, sans everything”
Extremely old is the final stage. This
stage is called as second childhood. This is where a man loses his senses one
by one and again becomes a child and is under the care of somebody. But I feel
in modern world these last two stages do not exist. For an example, all politicians,
cine actor, businessmen are above 70 and working nonstop continuously like Amitabh
bachan, Rupert Murdoch, Modi. So I feel, these two stages are obsolete in the
modern world
Before I conclude ,I would like quote from an interesting movie called as “The curious
case of Benjamin button” in which the hero was born as a old man and goes
through the seven stage of life in a backward direction. This movie depicts
seven stages in reverse direction. The moral of the movie is “Life can only be
understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.”For example, Steve jobs was
sacked as Chairman & shunned out from apple for making some investor
against decisions before his age of 30.This hard lesson was useful when he
returned back to apple at a later age. Then he had the maturity to manage both
products and the investor & stock market interests. Looking forward, why he
was sacked from a company he built from scratch has no meaning but looking back
from his matured age, it makes a lot of meaning. Like this we can introspect
the stages we have crossed to find the meaning but live forward without any
regret or guilt. Thank you.
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