Editing Soliloquy (section)

== Function ==
The primary function of a soliloquy is to provide audiences with direct and unmediated access to a character's internal thoughts, emotions, and motivations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leflore |first=Patti |date=2024-01-01 |title=Exploring the Depths of Shakespearean Soliloquies: A Journey Through Classic Drama |url=https://www.marketproject.org.uk/famous-shakespearean-soliloquies/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Market Project |language=en-US}}</ref> Unlike dialogue, which involves interaction between characters, a soliloquy creates a situation where the character's private world is made publicly visible without the need for interaction with other characters.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2022-09-11 |title=What is a Soliloquy? {{!}}{{!}} Definition and Examples {{!}} College of Liberal Arts {{!}} Oregon State University |url=https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-soliloquy-definition-and-examples |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=liberalarts.oregonstate.edu |language=en}}</ref> This device enables the dramatist to reveal psychological complexities, moral dilemmas, or conflicting desires that might otherwise remain hidden. By voicing inner thoughts, soliloquies offer audiences insights into a character's reasoning processes, emotional vulnerabilities, or ethical uncertainties, often deepening engagement with the narrative and enhancing the overall [[Suspense|dramatic tension]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Soliloquy |url=https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/soliloquy |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=LitCharts |language=en}}</ref>

In addition to character development, soliloquies serve important structural purposes within dramatic works. They often function as expository tools, clarifying events that have occurred offstage, outlining future plans, or contextualizing relationships and conflicts. Through soliloquy, a playwright can convey information to the audience that other characters within the story are unaware of, thereby creating [[dramatic irony]] and heightening audience anticipation.<ref name=":1" /> In this sense, soliloquies are often instrumental in advancing the plot, preparing the audience for critical developments, or justifying actions that might otherwise appear abrupt or unmotivated.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Alam |first=Muhammad Jane |date=May 2015 |title=Soliloquies in Hamlet: Necessary or Unnecessary In the Context of the Play |url=https://www.noveltyjournals.com/upload/paper/Soliloquies%20in%20Hamlet%20Necessary%20or%20Unnecessary%20In%20the%20Context%20of%20the%20Play-211.pdf |journal=International Journal of Novel Research in Interdisciplinary Studies |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=1–10}}</ref>

Soliloquies also play a significant thematic role, allowing for the articulation of larger philosophical, political,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cooper |first=Robert |date=2017-06-20 |title=Shakespeare's Politics |url=https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/06/20/shakespeares-politics/#:~:text=Such%20themes%20are%20most%20abundant,the%20risks%20of%20ungoverned%20power. |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=The American Interest |language=en-US}}</ref> or existential concerns embedded within a play. In many canonical examples, characters use soliloquies not only to discuss personal matters but also to meditate on broader questions about fate, power, identity, or mortality. These speeches can transform individual experience into commentary on universal human conditions, linking personal narrative to collective concerns.<ref name=":2" /> In this way, soliloquies often serve as vehicles for the playwright's thematic exploration and the play's engagement with [[Social issue|contemporary social]] or [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] issues.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hussein |first=Mohammed S. A. L. I. M. |date=2015-01-01 |title=The Significance of a Soliloquy as a Literary Technique in Hamlet |url=https://www.academia.edu/44119304/The_Significance_of_a_Soliloquy_as_a_Literary_Technique_in_Hamlet |journal=Mohammed Salim Hussein}}</ref>