seven ages of man

Sphinx’s riddle in Oedipus Rex;

“What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?”

William Shakespeare’s play, ‘As You Like It’;

JAQUES: All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arm;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a 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. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into a lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning against toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.


Both Sphinx’s riddle in “Oedipus Rex” and William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” discuss about same message. The message is about the cycle we need to face in our life. “Four legs in the morning” means a baby need to use both hand and leg to crawl while in Shakespeare’s work, he describes the first stage of a man as “the infant”.

William Shakespeare divides stages in life into seven categories contrasted to the riddle which describes three stages only. Shakespeare gives readers hints that everybody that lives will dies when the time has come for them to leave this world that Shakespeare refers to as “a stage”. Personally, I am touched with Shakespeare’s work as I am begin to think when I will be buried six feet under. I also think about my dreams whether it will come true one day or I do not have enough time to achieve all of them. Right now, I think I am in the stage of “soldier” in Shakespeare’s poem. I have already being an infant, school-boy, and lover”. Now, I realized that I am halfway of the journey before I meet my death. It looks like I hardly believe I am already twenty one years old this year. Congratulations to both Sophocles and Shakespeare for their meaningful work.