Dramatic Monologue

Dramatic Monologue

Dramatic monologue is a well-known form of a lyric poem. It is a kind of soliloquy by a speaker who speaks in front of the audience. Indeed, a dramatic monologue is a kind of lyric poem in which a single character speaks to a silent listener. It is dramatic because it begins suddenly and unexpectedly and it takes several sudden turn in the development

of its thought. Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” and “Andrea del Sarto” are the examples of dramatic monologues. Tennyson’s “Ulysses” and “Tithonus” are excellent dramatic monologues. T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Robinson and Robert Lowell also wrote some good dramatic monologues.

 

The chief features of dramatic monologue are as follows:

i.       There is an abrupt beginning.

ii.     In a dramatic monologue, a speaker, not essentially the poet speaks.

iii.  There are listeners who listen silently without commenting anything.

iv.  A series of remarks usually confessional are made in front of the listeners.

v.     The speaker employs a plethora of moods and emotions, ideas and reflections while exposing everything going on within his interior heart.

Therefore, a dramatic monologue is a lyric poem which includes an abrupt beginning, a single speaker, silent listeners, psycho-analysis of the speaker with narrative, catechistic and descriptive presentation.