So, this week we studied metaphors and its subtypes. Now we know that metaphors can be original or trite, and simple/ prolonged/ mixed. I decided to examine my favorite quote, which is quite famous and I think everyone is familiar with it.
And that's how it sounds:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players
They have their Exits and their Entrances"
William Shakespeare
Already heard it? Right? :)
"All the world's a stage" is the most frequently quoted phrase from a comedy "As You Like It" by William Shakespeare. There's a comparison of the world to a stage and life to a play. This part of the image is a metaphor.
According to this line life is like a play - we merely go through the stages of our life acting it out. We all have our own stage and exits and entrances like we all born and die. The world is indeed a stage, as Shakespeare so eloquently says, but life is not a play... it’s a series of decisions we make.
This phrase was original at first, but eventually really worn out and became trite.
Further, I decided to see the other authors who also have used the phrase and how it was transformed.
I have searched the Internet and found here more quotes:
http://leonieke.net/all-the-worlds-a-stage/29
Here is my vision of these quotes...
1) Seán O'Casey an Irish dramatist also said
"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
It means that there is no real right or wrong answer in life. Life is a series of decisions. Decisions we think are right at that exact moment. We don't have rehearsals, we just make our own choice and follow.
2) "If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." - Paul Beatty
Paul says that if all the world's a stage, he doesn't want to follow the rules written in the play. He wants to make his own decisions, be able to change his own fate and the others rather than live according to a given scenario.
3) "The world is a stage and the play is badly cast." - Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde talks about ''badly cast'' I think it’s about human nature that ''cast'' could be the bad one sometimes...where people around seem fake to you, they hide their real faces behind pretty masks while their friendly attitude is just a lie, they are being nice to get what they want. Saying the play has a bad cast, he probably means that people you meet during the course of your life are not who you really should meet. Sounds familiar to me...
4) Also found here https://www.goodreads.com/ these ones
"If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?" - George Carlin
There is no audience because we know that everyone's on the stage acting. No one is ever a spectator in this life. Every person is a performer!
5) “It was a wonderful life. To have a stage play right in this room, with real people acting real parts.” - Jan Karon
American writer and novelist Jan Karon talks about her impressions given by life's "scenario", where people surrounding her every day make an impact on how her own life twists and turns around.
6) "They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight."
- Anna Godbersen
Another American writer Anna Godbersen continues the theme started by Jan Karon expanding it by her own vision of life's series of events and how it makes a difference in a daily life .
Surfing the internet and exploring how famous metaphor was transformed, I think, I can finally prove that this remarkable phrase became trite but still popular. )))
I hope you appreciate my thoughts!)