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Dramtic Monologue

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, revealing his or her temperament and the dramatic situation.

Detailed Definition
A Dramatic Monologue is a lyric poem in which a single character (not the poet) speaks to a silent listener at a critical moment, revealing personality, situation, and often unintended self-contradiction; perfected by Robert Browning (“My Last Duchess”), it blends theatrical immediacy with psychological depth, using irony, idiom, and situated speech to explore moral ambiguity and historical consciousness.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dramtic Monologue|Browning's "My Last Duchess" revealing Duke's nature; "Porphyria's Lover" exposing disturbed mind; Speaker addressing silent listener; Single character revealing psychology inadvertently
Additional Notes
Dramtic Monologue is a poem spoken by one voice addressing an implied audience, revealing character indirectly through words and tone.
Also Known As
Persona poem Character monologue Assumed voice poem Theatrical soliloquy
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