Topic Transitions - GED Language Arts (RLA)

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Adapted from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1623)

\[This is a monologue by the character Jacques\]

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 arms;

Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like a snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like a 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 the 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 again 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 every thing.

What is the purpose of the two underlined lines?

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Answer

The first sentence—"They have their exits and their entrances;"—closes out the initial metaphor about all the world being made up of "players" (actors) on the stage of life. The general acting metaphor will not be abandoned, however. The author now transitions to the main image of the passage—though this is not the same as transitioning into a main argument. Indeed, the author is not even making an argument so much as drawing out images of how a single life has many roles within it. This is the point of this transition—one that links us with the first metaphor, though now focusing on the many roles that are found within even a single, given life.

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