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dramatic monologue
noun
: a literary work (such as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually addressed to a second person
Examples of dramatic monologue in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In one of the most creative responses, U.K. actor Christopher Tester turned Trump’s words into a highly dramatic monologue set to lugubrious music.
—Leslie Katz, Forbes, 11 Sep. 2024
In a dramatic monologue also written by Harbaugh, the coach took a direct shot at his former college rival, Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2024
As a fog rolls in, so does Ole with Gator on a leash and a dramatic monologue of his own about useless hands.
—Keith Phipps, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2024
Conversations tend to happen in snappy banter or dramatic monologues laden with jungle metaphors.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Feb. 2024
Richard Howard, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who made the venerable genre of the dramatic monologue speak in a modern voice, and whose translations brought the work of Roland Barthes, Alain Robbe-Grillet and dozens of other French writers to an Anglophone audience, died on Thursday in Manhattan.
—New York Times, 31 Mar. 2022
This novel, hovering somewhere between the older epistolary structure and pure dramatic monologue—between correspondence and a playscript—becomes magically liberated from the more burdensome narrative machinery, that wheezing apparatus of persuasion and pastness.
—James Wood, The New Yorker, 1 June 2020
With Seth Meyers writer Ben Warheit managed to find a new take on the McRib: a dramatic monologue from the perspective of its son.
—Vulture, 4 Mar. 2022
When Jenna was 7 years old, her mom filmed her reciting a dramatic monologue and posted it on Facebook.
—Leah Campano, Seventeen, 7 Dec. 2022
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Word History
First Known Use
circa 1935, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of dramatic monologue was
circa 1935
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Dictionary Entries Near dramatic monologue
Cite this Entry
“Dramatic monologue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dramatic%20monologue. Accessed 25 Dec. 2024.
More from Merriam-Webster on dramatic monologue
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about dramatic monologue
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