Different Views on Life

In my opinion, both the poem Ages of man by William Butler Yeats and Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and the riddle in Oedipus Rex share a common theme which all three discuss about the different stages of human life beginning with a new born baby until the person’s death. In As You Like It, Shakespeare categorize the different phase of human life in seven stages, beginning with the Infant, followed by Childhood, Lover, Soldier, Justice, Old Age and finally Death. However Yeats describes humans only undergo four stages in life, which begins with the Infant, followed by Teenager, Adult and ends with Old Age. On the other hand, in Oedipus’s riddle human life is only being portrayed as three stages. As a baby he crawls on fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man he uses cane.
Although both the poet Shakespeare and Yeats are discussing about life but their view on life are totally different from each other. For instance, Shakespeare view life as a process of learning and self development where during infancy men are dependent on those surrounding him and needs to be constantly attended to. Later in his childhood when he started schooling, he will feel uncomfortable and unwilling to leave his home to attend to school. Soon he will experience the sweetness and bitterness of love as teenagers do. Eventually as a young adult, one will seek recognition by putting others priority before his. After experiencing all the experience of life, he has acquired wisdom along with social status and wealth. He then become concern about his physical appearance and begin enjoy life. Next every human cannot escape old age including you and me. Human begins to decade mentally and physically along with the mocking from the people around you. Lastly, it is a certainty in life where every birth will end up with death. No matter who you are, still you will become disable and need the attention and care from the people around you before you pass away.
On the other hand, Yeats views life as a struggle and transforming process. As an infant we struggle to walk and begin to follow his desire when he is entering adulthood where values will be left behind. Later as an adult, one will be wiser and no longer blinded by desires. Lastly, one will struggle against the nature by avoiding death but in the end he will still die.
Then again, in the riddle from the play Oedipus Rex, there are only three stages involve. All of us agree that as a baby one will crawls on all fours, then as a grown-up he walks upright, then as he grows older he will uses a cane to walk.
In a nut shell, I think that Shakespeare’s views are more accurate due to the fact that to me life is a learning process. Furthermore, it gives more details in the different stages of human life compared to the other two that provides very general description.