He takes a certain critical
moment in one person's life, and by permitting the individual to
speak, his character, the whole course of his existence, and
sometimes the spirit of an entire period in the world's history are
revealed in a brilliant searchlight. With very few exceptions, one
of which will be given in our selections, a dramatic monologue is
not a meditation nor a soliloquy; it is a series of remarks, usually
confessional, addressed either orally or in an epistolary form to
another person or to a group of listeners. These other figures,
though they do not speak, are necessary to the understanding of the
monologue; we often see them plainly, and see their faces change in
expression as the monologue advances. At the dinner table of Bishop
Blougram, the little man Gigadibs is conspicuously there; and
Lucrezia is so vividly before us in _Andrea del Sarto_, that a
clever actress has actually assumed this silent role on the stage,
and exhibited simply by her countenance the effect of Andrea's
monologue.
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