"All the world's a stage" - William Shakespeare

This quote by William Shakespeare, the renown playwright, is about the mortality of life. It is the opening line from a monologue by the character Jaques in the play As You Like It.  Shakespeare describes the various stages in life, comparing people to actors with "their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,". He compares the world to one huge stage, with everyone being actors who have their own short time in the limelight. Everyone has their part to play. Our first role is as an infant, then child, lover, soldier, justice, old age, and finally senility and death.

I personally agree with this quote. At first I did not understand what it meant; I thought he was saying we are all lying to each other through our scripted words. After I thought about the quote, it began to make sense. Shakespeare is comparing our short existence to filled with the different stages of life to being an actor. There are various ways to interpret this quote. One idea is while we think we are living unique, special lives we are actually just scripted by fate like the rest of the world. I disagree with this theory because I believe our actions are of our own decision not decided by some higher being. Shakespeare is also trying to say thatno matter how amazing or famous you are, your time will come to exit the stage of life. One example would be William Shakespeare himself. He contributed enormously to literature, the English language, and common phrases of today. We still say "All the world's a stage." Yet he too had his lifetime and his death. William Shakespeare's quote is an eloquent way to remark on the cycle of life and our place in the world.