dramatic monologue

dramatic monologue
a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation. Also called dramatic lyric.
[1930-35]

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▪ poetic form
      a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speaker's history and psychological insight into his character. Though the form is chiefly associated with Robert Browning (Browning, Robert), who raised it to a highly sophisticated level in such poems as “My Last Duchess,” “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed's Church,” “Fra Lippo Lippi,” and “Andrea del Sarto,” it is actually much older. Many Old English poems are dramatic monologues—for instance, “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer.” The form is also common in folk ballads, a tradition that Robert Burns imitated with broad satiric effect in “Holy Willie's Prayer.” Browning's contribution to the form is one of subtlety of characterization and complexity of the dramatic situation, which the reader gradually pieces together from the casual remarks or digressions of the speaker. The subject discussed is usually far less interesting than what is inadvertently revealed about the speaker himself. In “My Last Duchess,” in showing off a painting of his late wife, an Italian aristocrat reveals his cruelty to her. The form parallels the novelistic experiments with point of view in which the reader is left to assess the intelligence and reliability of the narrator. Later poets who successfully used the form were Ezra Pound (“The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter”), T.S. Eliot (“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”), and Robert Frost (“The Pauper Witch of Grafton”). See also soliloquy.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • dramatic monologue — n. a poetic monologue which presents a character and a situation solely by means of that character s own words …   English World dictionary

  • Dramatic monologue — M. H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry: A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment… …   Wikipedia

  • dramatic monologue — noun Date: circa 1935 a literary work (as a poem) in which a speaker s character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • dramatic monologue — noun : a literary work (as a poem) in which the character of a protagonist is vividly revealed in a monologue addressed to another person or a group of persons usually with interplay of speaker and audience …   Useful english dictionary

  • dramatic monologue — dramat′ic mon′ologue n. lit. a literary form in which a character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation • Etymology: 1930–35 …   From formal English to slang

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  • monologue — monologic /mon euh loj ik/, monological, adj. monologist /mon euh law gist, log ist, meuh nol euh jist/, monologuist /mon euh law gist, log ist/, n. /mon euh lawg , log /, n. 1. a form of dramatic entertainment, comedic solo, or the like by a… …   Universalium

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  • Monologue — Mon o*logue, n. [F. monologue, Gr. ? speaking alone; mo nos alone, single, sole + lo gos speech, discourse, le gein to speak. See {Legend}.] 1. A speech uttered by a person alone; soliloquy; also, talk or discourse in company, in the strain of a… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • monologue — monologue, soliloquy Both words (the first Greek and the second Latin in origin) denote a single person s act of speaking or thinking aloud; soliloquy generally refers to dramatic utterances without consciousness of an audience, whereas monologue …   Modern English usage

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