Themes
We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
— William Shakespeare · The Tempest
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Shakespeare's speaker calls people the same material as dreams. Our short lives, he says, end in sleep. It's a gentle, slightly wistful way of saying life is brief and almost as insubstantial as a dream.
Context reviewed