Literary notes about Stage (AI summary)
The word "stage" is remarkably versatile in literature, serving not only as a literal platform for performance but also as a metaphor for processes and transformations. In dramatic contexts, it refers to the physical setting where actors perform—a place both seen and unseen, as when one considers its role "on the stage" or "behind the scenes" [1, 2]. At the same time, authors employ the term to describe sequential phases in learning, development, and social interactions, such as in education, emotional evolution, and negotiation [3, 4, 5]. Even life events can be metaphorically staged, suggesting that every individual plays a part on a broad canvas, much like characters in a play [6]. This dual usage underscores the dynamic bridge between tangible performance spaces and the abstract progression of experience.
- on the stage, on the boards; on film; before the floats, before an audience; behind the scenes. Phr. fere totus mundus exercet histrionem
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - The stage is about 24 feet square, and a long passage on the left connects it with the greenroom from which the actors make their appearance.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow - Arts and occupations form the initial stage of the curriculum, corresponding as they do to knowing how to go about the accomplishment of ends.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - The second stage of education is gymnastic, which answers to the period of muscular growth and development.
— from The Republic by Plato - They form one great stage of equilibrium in the human mind's development, the stage of common sense.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James - I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.—
— from Vassall Morton: A Novel by Francis Parkman
