dramatic monologue
One character speaks
A dramatic monologue is a poem or speech in which a single character addresses a silent listener, revealing their personality and situation through their own words.
The form creates dramatic irony—readers often understand more than the speaker intends to disclose.
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is the classic example: a duke inadvertently exposes his cruelty while discussing a painting of his late wife.
- soliloquyDramatic speech to oneself
- moral conflictClash of competing values
- dramatic tensionAnticipation in storytelling
- personaAssumed public identity
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
Robert Browning · poetic form · auditor · confession · cultural critique · unreliable narrator · theatricality · stream of consciousness · introspection · dramatic irony · self-revelation · tone · irony · Victorian poetry · Modernism · social commentary · speech · T.S. Eliot
- dramaacting, playwright, character study, acting class, character development
- literary formsnovel, novels, novella, poetry, poetry collections
- theatreBroadway, acting, theatre, stage, actor
- literary termsmetaphor, character analysis, symbolism, prologue, epilogue
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- early literatureessay, novel, pamphlet, early novels, treatise
dramatic monologuedialogue
Spoken exchange between parties
conversation · duet · exchange · colloquy · interlocution