Dramatic monologue is spoken verse that allows a reader or
a spectator (if it is a play) to gain insight into the speaker’s innermost feelings or
thoughts. It is not the same thing as a soliloquy, however, because a dramatic monologue
has an audience whereas a soliloquy does not. In a soliloquy, a character is speaking to
himself or thinks he is speaking to himself, but in a dramatic monologue, people are
listening.
Some famous dramatic monologues are My
Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, Ulysses, by Tennyson,
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot, the ghost of
Hamlet’s father speaking to Hamlet in the beginning of the play, Lady’s Macbeth’s
monologue to Macbeth when she is trying to convince him to kill Duncan (it begins, “Was
the hope drunk wherein you dress'd yourself?), etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment