(I) THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE ~ Literary Hunt

(I) The Dramatic Monologue

The literary meaning of Monologue is, 'Dialogue with the Self.' In the Dramatic Monologue, there is only one character who expresses out his innermost feelings and thoughts through a long poetic speech. In this speech, he opens out his mind and heart and soul with the presumption that nobody hears him, or the hearer is a passive hearer with no reaction from his side. The aim of the dramatic dialogue is character-study or psychological analysis of the solo-speaker on the stage. The author is intent on showing us the inner man. Saintsbury comments, "The poet takes a character, shakes it about, dissecting, or trying to dissect, its soul, analyzing its constituents, folding or unfolding it to get different lights and aspects, but never exactly summing up, or giving us the whole". It is a part-drama, part-poetry; and it is a speech with a dominant dramatic note. Browning and Tennyson are the most important exponents of dramatic monologue.

SOME IMPORTANT DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES

Sn.No	Dramatists	Dramatic Monologues
1	Robert Browning	The Ring and the Book; Bishop Blourgram's Apology; Andrea del Sarto; Rabbi Ben Ezra; Mr. Sludge the Medium; The Last Ride Together; My Last Duchess; Meri and Women; The Epistle of Karshish; Prospice; Evelyria Hope; The Bishop Order His Tomb; Porphyria's Lover; Fra Lippo Lippi; Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
2	Tennyson	Ulysses; Tithonus; Locksley Hall; Maud
3	T.S.Eliot	The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock

OBJECTIVE TYPE OF QUESTUONS

1. Rabbi Ben Ezra was :

(a) a Jewish Novelist

(b) a renowned Egyptian Poet

(d) an Iranian Statesman

2. The theme of Bishop Blougram's Apology is a:

(a) satire on Roman Catholic Faith

(b) satire on Italian Faith

(d) defense of the clergy

3. Which of the following monologues is written by Alfred Tennyson?

(a) Evelyn Hope

(b) The Epistle of Tarshish

(d) Prospice

4. A dramatic monologue is a .....................speech by a character expressing his innermost feelings or thoughts :

(a) Novel

(b)Poetic

(d) Satirical

5. ...................... has written the maximum number of dramatic monologues?

(a) G.S. Shaw

(b) Robert Browning

(d) Alfred Tennyson

6. Andrea del Sarto was a renowned....................on whom Robert Browning has written a monologue :

(a) Singer

(b) Painter

(d) Novelist

7. Fail I alone, in words and deeds? Why ? all men strive and who succeeds? Name the dramatic monologue of the above lines :

(a) My Last Duchess
(b) Ulysses
(c) Rabbi Ben Ezra
(d) The Last Ride Together

8. Caliban is a character in a famous play by Shakespeare. Browning got the idea for the title of his dramatic monologue.' Caliban upon Setebos'. Name that play
(a) As You Like It
(b) The Tempest
(c) Twelfth Night
(d) Much Ado About Nothing

9. Which monologue is written by Browning?
(a) Tithonus
(b) Locksley Hall
(c) Andrea del Sarto
(d) Maud

10. "The Ring and the Book' by Robert Browning is a series of............monologues :
(a) three
(c) twelve
(b) nine
(d) ten

11. ..............the author of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock':
(a) Browning
(b) T.S. Eliot
(c) G.B. Shaw
(d) John Galsworthy

12. "To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield' From which dramatic monologue is this line taken?
(a) Porphyria's Lover
(b) Ulysses
(c) Fra Lippo Lippi
(d) The Last Ride Together

13. "Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made." From which monologue are these lines quoted
(a) Rabbi Ben Ezra
(b) Prospice
(c) Ulysses
(d) The Bishoporders His Tomb

(I) THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

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