Monologue
A sustained speech by one speaker, often a dramatic character, that presents thoughts, emotions, or a story without dialogue from another speaker.
Dialogue: A conversation in which two or more speakers exchange words. A monologue suspends the exchange that defines dialogue.
Dramatic irony: A situation in which an audience knows something that one or more characters do not. A monologue can expose a character’s ignorance while the audience recognizes the truth.
I Am the Walrus: A 1967 Beatles song written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Its surreal, extended vocal address shows how a monologue-like voice can resist coherent narrative.
Ancient Greek theatre: The theatrical tradition of ancient Greece, where tragedy and comedy developed as public performance forms. Its staged speeches helped establish the conventions later used by dramatic monologues.
Narration: The act or mode of recounting events in a story. A monologue is a speech by a speaker, while narration can describe events without dramatic address.
Soliloquy: A dramatic speech in which a character speaks thoughts aloud, typically while alone onstage. This is the inward-facing dramatic form most often associated with monologue.
Unreliable narrator: A narrator whose account is compromised by limited knowledge, bias, deception, or mistaken perception. A speaker’s claims may conflict with what the monologue itself reveals.
Stand-up comedy: A comic performance in which a performer addresses an audience, usually with jokes and stories. Its direct address turns sustained solo speech into a live audience exchange.
William Shakespeare: An English playwright and poet whose works include Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. His plays made extended character speeches central to English-language drama.
Epistolary novel: A novel told through documents such as letters, diary entries, or emails. Its extended first-person passages are written documents, not necessarily spoken performances.