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. . . .
Romeo compares life to a stage play. He imagines the world as a theater, and people as actors who enter and exit the stage playing various roles throughout their lives. This conceit emphasizes the idea of life as a performance and suggests that people often wear masks and play different roles in different situations.