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Unit 1.4 All the World’s a Stage

Questions and Answers

Question 1.
Pair work

• Talk to your friend about all the things related to ‘Seven.’
  For example Seven wonders of the world.
• Pair up with your partner and name those given below all of the under :

(a) The seven wonders of the world
………………………………………………………
(b) The seven continents
………………………………………………………
(c) The seven colours of the rainbow
………………………………………………………
(d) The seven notes of the music
………………………………………………………
(e) The seven seas of the world
………………………………………………………
Answer:
(a) The Seven wonders of the world : The Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer Statue, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, The Roman Colosseum, The Taj Mahal and Petra.
(b) The Seven continents : Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica.
(c) The Seven colours of the rainbow : violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red
(d) The Seven notes of the musical scale : sa-re-ga-ma-pa-da-ni./doh-re-me-fa-so-la-ti
(e) The Seven seas of the world : Arctic Ocean, Antarctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean.

Question 2.
Life is often compared to many things. Write down 7 things that life can be compared to and justify the comparison. For example,
(a) Life is a keyboard, because if you press the right keys you have typed a good destiny.
(b) ………………………………………………………
(c) ………………………………………………………
(d) ………………………………………………………
(e) ………………………………………………………
(f) ………………………………………………………
(g) ………………………………………………………
Answer:
(a) Life is a keyboard; if you press the right keys, you have typed out a good destiny.
(b) Life is a river-always flowing.
(c) Life is like a seed; it will never grow unless planted, nourished and nurtured.
(d) Life is like an elevator, with lots of ups and downs. ‘
(e) Life is like an onion. You peel off layer after layer. Sometimes it makes you weep.
(f) Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have all the pieces, but you have to put them together correctly.
(g) Life is like a jack-in-the-box. You never know : when you are going to get a box on your chin.

Question 3.
Match the approximate ages with the stages.

Answer:

Question 1.
Read the words in given clouds. Match them with what they signify.

Answer:
(1) Stage – Life
(2) Characters – Roles played by human beings
(3) Script – Story of life
(4) Dialogues – Conversation
(5) Entry – Birth
(6) Exit – Death

Question 2.
Read the poem carefully and complete the following table.

Answer:

Question 3.
Write down in your own words the differences between the following stages of a man’s life.
2nd stage and 4th stage …………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………

3rd stage and 5th stage …………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………

1 st stage and 7th (last) stage …………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………
Answer:
2nd stage and 4th stage:
The second stage is that of a school boy, complaining and crying. He goes to school early in the morning, with a well-scrubbed, shining face. He carries his school bag and creeps slowly, like a snail, unwillingly to school.

‘Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel.’

3rd stage and 5th stage:
The third stage is that of a lover, who is’ breathless and sighing with passion. He sings sad Songs dedicated to the beauty of his lover.

The fifth stage is that of , a mature middle-aged man with a round belly. He is stern and formal and full of wisdom. He is full of wise sayings and gives modern examples.

1 st stage and 7th (last) stage:
The first stage is that of an infant, crying weakly and throwing up in his nurse’s arms. He is unaware of what is happening around him.The baby, at this stage, is without teeth, without vision, without taste and without anything.

The last stage of all, which ends one’s eventful life, is when man becomes senile and enters his second childhood. He is again unaware of what is happening around him. This final stage is when he is once more without teeth, without vision, without taste and without anything.

Question 4.
Pick out lines that contain Imagery (a picture created in the mind by using words) of the following people.
(a) School boy …………………………………
(2nd stage) …………………………………
(b) Soldier …………………………………
(4th stage) …………………………………
(c) Judge …………………………………
(5th stage) …………………………………
(d) Senior citizen …………………………………
(6th stage) …………………………………
Answer:
(a) a snail
‘The whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school.’

(b) acts like the pard
‘Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel.’

(c) In fair round belly with good capon lined
With eyes “severe and beard of formal cut

(d) His youthful hose, well-saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank

Question 5.
You will notice that there is no Rhyme-scheme in the poem. It appears similar to the poem 1.1 ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear by Tagore.

However Tagore’s poem has no steady rhythm/meter either it is called Free Verse. Shakespeare uses lines with a steady rhythm of 5 beats in each. It is termed as Blank Verse. (No rhyme-scheme but uniformity in rhythm) Copy the lines from “Ánd all the men and women merely players” to “sudden and quick in quarrel”. Put a stress mark on each of the syllables stressed in the lines as for example, And all the men and women merely players;
Answer:
The poem is written in free verse without any rhyme scheme or consistent metre. There are many figures of speech e.g. Repetition. Metaphor, Alliteration, etc. An Important figure of speech is Personification. ‘Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection’. Here, we can actually visualize ‘tireless striv1ng stretching Its arms to reach its goal.

The poem is a prayer to God. Tagore addresses God as ‘my Father’ and asks Him to awaken his country Into a heaven of freedom, where there is total freedom of good thoughts, good words and good actions. He wishes for a country where people would be free from fear, where knowledge would be free to all individuals and people from all castes and religions would be united.

Question 6.
Think and write on your own.
(a) What is the theme/central idea of this poem?
(b) Which two stages of man, described by Shakespeare sound humorous? Say why.
(c) The last (7th) stage of life sounds very sad and miserable. How can you make old age also cheerful and happy?
Answer:
(a) The theme of this poem is the cycle of life.
It tells us how one starts out an infant, helpless and unaware of the surroundings, and ends the same way, i without being aware of what is happening around one.

(b) The second and third stages are humorous. One can just imagine the school boy, complaining and whining, creeping to school slowly with a well-scrubbed and shining face. The third stage, where the lover sighs loudly and sings sad poems and songs, is also humorous.

(c) We can make the last stage joyful by preparing for it beforehand. We know that most of us will reach this stage before our final exit. Hence, we must maintain good health, and keep good relations with our family and the people around us. We must save enough money to get us through this stage without any stress on ourselves or others.

Question 7.
(A) The poem is entirely metaphorical. Pick out the comparisons from the poem.
(a) world …………………………………
(b) actors …………………………………
(c) birth and death …………………………………
(d) school boy …………………………………
(e) the lover’s sigh …………………………………
(f) spotted leopard …………………………………
(g) last stage (old age) …………………………………
Answer:
(a) stage
(b) –
(c) entrances and exits
(d) a snail
(e) a furnace
(f) bearded soldier

(B) Pick out from the poem two examples of each.
(a) Simile
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………
Answer:
Simile. Two dissimilar objects are compared using the word ‘like’.

(b) Onomatopoeia
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………

(c) Alliteration
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………

(d) Metaphor
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………

(e) Inversion
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………

(f) Transferred Epithet
(1) …………………………………
(2) …………………………………
Answer:

Question 8.
Read the summary of the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare using the Internet. Find out which character has narrated the above poem and on what occasion. Also, make a list of all the characters of the play.
Answer:
The character who has narrated the above poem in the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare is Jacques. He narrates it in Act II, Scene VII.

Some of the other characters in the play are Celia, Rosalind, Orlando, Oliver, Duke Senior, Duke Frederick, Touchstone, etc.

Question 9.
Read the poem again and write an appreciation of the poem in a paragraph format. (Refer to page no. 5)
Answer:
Point Format
(for understanding)
The title of the poem : All the World’s a Stage’
The poet : WIlliam Shakespeare
Rhyme scheme : blank verse I.e. no rhyme scheme, but there is a steady rhythm of five beats In each line.
Figures of speech : Metaphor, Simile, Alliteration, Repetition. etc.
Theme/Central idea : The theme of the poem Is the cycle of life.

Paragraph Format
The poem ‘All the World’s a Stage’ is by William Shakespeare. It is taken from Shakespeare’s play ‘As you like It’. It is a monologue by one of the characters in the play.

The poem is written in blank verse i.e. there is no rhyme scheme, but there Is a steady rhythm of five beats i.e. iambic pentameter in each line. There are many figures of speech, like Simile. Alliteration and Repetition. but the one that stands out Is Metaphor. In the lines ‘All the world’s a stage, And all men and women are merely players’, there is an implied comparison between two different things.

In this poem, Shakespeare compares life to a stage. He has divided life Into seven stages. each having its own varied qualities and features. The theme of the poem is the cycle of life. It tells us how one starts out as an Infant, helpless. without understanding. and ends the same way, without being aware of what Is happening around one.

Question 10.
Complete the following diagram:
Answer:

Question 11.
Match the following :

Answer:

Question 12.
Complete the following : (The answers are given directly and underlined.)
Answer:
(1) ‘Exits’ and ‘entrances’ refer to deaths and births.
(2) Reputation is like a bubble because one does useless things for one’s reputation, which can burst like a bubble in one instant.

Question 13.
Name and explain the poetic devices used in the following lines:
(a) Soldier bearded like the pard
Answer:
Simile. Two dissimilar objects are compared using the word ‘like’,

(b) Sighing like a furnace
Answer:
Simile. Two dissimilar objects are compared using the word ‘like’.

(c) men and women merely players
Answer:
Metaphor. Implicit comparison between two different things.

(d) They have their exits and their entrances
Answer:
Alliteration. Repetition of the sound of ‘t’ and ‘e’.
Metaphor. Implicit comparison between two different things.

(f) With a woeful ballad
Answer:
Alliteration. Repetition of the sound of ‘w’.
Transferred Epithet. It is not the ballad that is woeful but the lover.

Question 14.
Complete the following diagram :
Answer:

Question 15.
Write if the following statements are True or False :
Answer:

• Man in the fifth stage of life is full of wisdom. (True)
• Man in the sixth stage has a fair, round belly. (False)
• The last few lines are full of melancholy. (True)
• In the last stage, man is unaware of his surroundings. (True)

Question 16.
Write down in your own words the differences between the following stages of a man’s life :
(a) 5th and 6th stage :
Answer:
The fifth stage is that of a mature middle-aged man with a round belly. He is stern and formal and full of wisdom. He is full of wise sayings and gives modern examples.

In the sixth stage, man has become old, with thin legs in slippers and loose pants. He has spectacles on his nose and a pouch by his side. The close-fitting stockings, which he had saved from his younger days, are now too big for his thin legs, which have shrunk with age. His loud voice, which was once manly, has now become childish and shrill. There are whistling sounds when he talks.

Question 17.
Complete the following table based on the extract. (The answers are given directly.)
Answer:

Question 18.
The poem is entirely metaphorical. Pick out the comparison from the extract: last stage (old age)
Answer:
last scene

Question 19.
Name and explain the figures of speech used in the following lines :
(a) His youthful hose, well-saved, a world too wide
Answer:
Alliteration. Repetition of the sound of ‘w’.

(b) For his shrunk shank
Answer:
Alliteration. Repetition of the sound of ‘s’.

(c) Turning again towards childish treble
Answer:
Alliteration. Repetition of the sound of ‘t’.

(d) Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Answer:
Repetition. The word ‘sans’ is repeated for emphasis.