What is a dramatic monologue?

Answer 1

A dramatic monologue, a poetic form perfected by Robert Browning, has one speaker [mono=one; logue=speak] in a dramatic situation. That is the speaker is talking to another character (not directly to the audience or to him/herself, as in a soliloquy) in a dramatic setting. For a true dramatic monologue, you can always identify (1) the speaker, (2) the other party, and (3) the dramatic situation. Sometimes you can tell what the other party is saying or doing by the way the speaker reacts.

The best way to define the term is to look at an example. Perhaps the best known is Browning's "My Last Duchess." The poem begins,

"That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive."

In the course of the poem, we learn that the speaker is the Duke. He is pointing to the portrait of his deceased wife. Later on he reveals whom he is addressing and why:

"Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir."

(1) The one speaker, then, is the Duke; (2) the person being addressed is a representative of a Count, who is negotiating with the duke to engage the Count's daughter as his second wife; (3) they are in the Duke's art gallery, ostensibly looking at a portrait of his former wife, then preparing to join the company below; but actually he is warning the negoiator that he requires a wife who is both subservient and faithful, not flirtatious. Speaking of the late duchess, the Duke has said,

"Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together."

Answer 2

Do the comedic one. Keep working on the dramatic piece, but don't audition for something important with a piece that you haven't completed work on. I had an acting coach once say that you should never use a monologue for an audition until you've rehearsed it at least 100 times. She had a point - you need to be completely comfortable and confident with it before you do it in an audition.

Answer 3

a dramatic monologue is scipt performed by a single actor whether it's dramatic or not depends really

Answer 4

its a speech given by a character to the audience

Answer 5

go to well i dont really know i do the comdey