Friday, September 10, 2021

Definition, Types and Example of Monologue – Literary Terms

Tags: monologue definition, monologue examples, dramatic monologue, interior monologue, monologue vs soliloquy, Types of Monologue

Monologue:

A relatively extended speech in a DRAMA or a NARRATIVE that is presented by one CHARACTER. It may stand alone as an independent unit or be part of a larger work. Sometimes used as a synonym for SOLILOQUY, monologue more strictly describes a larger category of which the soliloquy (thoughts spoken aloud while the character is alone), the ASIDE (comments directed only to the audience), the DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE (speech revealing both a dramatic situation and the speaker to a silent listener), and the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE (a representation of a character's inner thoughts) are specific types. The speaker of a monologue is sometimes called a monologuist.

Monologue from Oxford Dictionary:

Monologue is an extended speech uttered by one speaker, either to others or as if alone. Significant varieties include the DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE (a kind of poem in which the speaker is imagined to be addressing a silent audience), and the SOLILOQUY (in which the speaker is supposed to be 'overheard' while alone). Some modern plays in which only one character speaks, like Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape (1958), are known either as MONODRAMAS or as monologues. In prose fiction, the INTERIOR MONOLOGUE is a representation of a character's unspoken thoughts, sometimes rendered in the style known as STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

Monologue from Penguin Dictionary:

Monologue:

A term used in. a number of senses, with the basic meaning of a single person speaking alone - with or without an audience. Most prayers, much lyric verse and all laments are monologues, but, apart from these, four main kinds can be distinguished:

(a) monodrama (q.v.), as in Strindberg's The Stronger;

(b) soliloquy (q.v.), for instance, the Moor's self-revelations in Othello;

(c) solo addresses to an audience in a play; for instance, lago's explanations. to the audience (in Othello) of what he is going to do;

(d) dramatic monologue - a poem in which there is one imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience, as in Robert Browning's Andrea del Sarto, My Last Duchess, Tbe Bisbop orders bis tomb at St Praxed's Church, Fra Lippo Lippi, Caliban upon Setebos. Browning published some dramatic monologues in Dramatic Lyrics (1842). Tennyson also wrote some fine dramatic monologues, notably Titbonus, Ulysses, and St Simeon Stylites. Among recent poets who have exploited the possibilities of this form are Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, W. B. Yeats ( e.g. Crazy ]ane poems), T. S. Eliot (e.g. Prufrock, Portrait of a Lady, Journey of the Magi, A Song for Simeon, Marina), Conrad Aiken, and Robert Frost.