Wednesday night I’m participating in a staged reading of various Shakespeare sonnets, scenes, and monologues. The three monologues I’ve been assigned are Jaques’ “all the world’s a stage” from As You Like It, Prospero’s epilogue to The Tempest, and Rosalind’s epilogue to As You Like It.
I haven’t read As You Like It and don’t have time to, unfortunately. So my question is, is the “all the world’s a stage” monologue explanatory or is it cynical? The more I read it, the more it seems to be kind of snide.
I read The Tempest a long time ago and don’t remember it well, so the epilogue is really out of context to me. I keep reading it and I’m not really getting a feel for what is trying to be conveyed. This one begins “Now my charms are all o’erthrown, and what strength I have’s mine own.”
All help is greatly appreciated!
When I saw As you Like It, the “All the world’s a stage” speech was presented rather cynically, but that might just be that actor’s (or that director’s) interpretation of it. As a rule of thumb, I’d say that if there are multiple interpretations of a passage in Shakespeare, choose the one which seems more interesting.
As for the epilogue to Tempest, Prospero has already thrown off his power, in the process of freeing both the King and Ariel (see the speech in act 5 starting with “Ye elves of hill, brook, standing lake and grove”). But the epilogue is only sort of an oblique reference to that. It’s sort of spoken by Prospero, but also sort of spoken by the actor directly. Shakespearean epilogues are basically requests for applause, and here the implication is that the actor can’t shrug off being Prospero and resume being himself until the audience claps for him.
I remember the character Jaques being the cynical and pessimistic misanthrope of the play. This is his big speech, and yes, it is meant to be sardonic and dark.
As for the Prospero speech, I think some people have interpreted it as Shakespeare’s own farewell to the theater, as The Tempest is supposed to be one of his last plays. This interpretation might be apocryphal, though.
I’m glad to see I wasn’t wrong about the cynical vibe I got from Jaques. If someone feels different tho, please say so.
Can someone offer advice about how to get into the Prospero speech? I keep reading it but I just can’t get into it.
Prospero has spent the entire play, and, by extention, most of his life, trying to make certain he gets even with his brother who exiled both him and his daughter, as well as ‘making things right.’ He’s finally done so, getting a ‘kind’ revenge on said brother, and making certain his daughter Miranda is betrothed to nobility. He’s worked incredibly hard on it all for years, and now he’s ‘done’. It is, supposedly, a comment on the acting profession and Shakespeare’s swan-song as well, but mostly (IMHO) it is Prospero saying, “Finally, all done. Now I can rest.”
Would this be of any help?
No? sorry.