What Does Monologues Mean?

A monologue basically is a speech made by one individual expressing his thoughts distinctly or frankly addressing a reader, the listeners or a personality. It is often seen in a dramas, animated cartoons as well as films.

In a monologue in a play as well as a film, the addressing actor is not required to be unaccompanied on the stage or in the scene, although nobody from the supporting cast speaks. When the character expressing the monologue is all by him self on stage it may be explained as 'soliloquy'.   

Well known writers like Shakespeare applied the soliloquy to immense effect in order to communicate express some of the individual opinions as well as emotions of characters without specially resorting to third-person narration. A written monologue may comprise of stage direction for the artist.

The word monologue comes from the Greek "monologos" which means "speaking alone." Anyone who is speaking alone, without interruption, is uttering a monologue, whether they have an audience or not. So a poem is a kind of monologue, for instance.

In literature there are different kinds of monologue; the best known is the soliloquy, in which a character is alone on the stage and makes a speech which only the audience can hear. Very similar is the dramatic monologue; here, a character speaks to a real or imagined audience, and unconsciously reveals his or her character at the same time (Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" is an example.)

Another term is "interior monologue." This describes the stream of thoughts that run through our heads when we are alone; some authors, like Dorothy Parker, have turned this into stories.

Finally, it is a sad fact that some people don't know the difference between monologue and dialogue! If someone talks all the time and never lets anyone else get a word in, that person is a monologuist.