Are We All Actors?

I researched in Wikipedia something about the Handbook we were reading. I found out that, "To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately"(Wikipedia.com). In section 17, I realized that what Wikipedia said was true when I read, "Remember that you are an actor in a play, which is as the playwright wants it to be: short if we wants it short, long if he wants it long"(17). The playwright is fate, who puts the challenges in our lives, and we are the actors who have to play along. Once we accept our role the better our play (life) will come out. Its not our choice, what we have to play but, "What is yours it to play the assigned part well"(17).

Moving on towards something else I found myself interested in the introduction. It said, "The works of the earlier Stoics survive in only fragmentary quotations from other authors, but from the renaissance until the nineteenth century, Stoic was ethically thought was one of the most important ancient influences on european cities" (Introduction). Suddenly I had a flashback that took me back to a Shakespeare's play called As You Like It, "follows its heroine Rosalind as she flees persecution in her uncle's court, accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the court jester, to find safety and eventually love in the Forest of Arden"(Wikipedia), where she meets with her father,(The duke) who lost his power to her uncle. Anyways, my point was that in this play there is a scene where a character makes a similar reference to section 17:

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, 
infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
His acts being seven ages. At first, the
then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, 
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation 
al cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; A
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of for
mnd so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide 
 Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
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
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. ( As You Like It Act II Scene VII)
 
As you can see both literal and symbolical level are expressed similarly. Shakespeare and Epictetus refer to the acting part, but as doing a close reading both interpret it as fate. 
With this I want to prove how the Stoics philosophy has been very influential to the perspective of the world.

The world has based all of its progress in ancient discoveries, the past has made what we are today. If it weren't for Epictetus or Stoic philosphy, Shakespeare would not have written this act. Maybe he would but not with the intention that he wants to express.

I saw the play, at first I did'nt understand why Jaques (a servant of the duke) started saying that to the duke, but then as I read Epictetus, it all came to me. The Duke was upset and questioning his exile in the Forest of Arden, and Jaques refers to his dialogue as fate, and how to live up to it. Just as Epictetus stated it in section 17.

The greatest minds all create some kind of allusions in their works. We could not be anything if other pople greater than us would'nt have existed.