A speech where a character speaks their private thoughts aloud, alone on stage or unheard by others, giving the audience direct access to their mind.
A soliloquy is a dramatic device where a character vocalizes their inner thoughts and feelings, typically while alone or unaware of being overheard. It's most associated with theater - Shakespeare practically made it his signature move - but the concept translates into fiction whenever a character's internal world is rendered with the directness and intensity of spoken speech. The soliloquy breaks the normal rules of realism to give the audience unfiltered access to a character's psyche.
In fiction, the soliloquy's spirit lives on in interior monologue and close point-of-view narration. Understanding how soliloquies work teaches you something crucial: the difference between what a character shows the world and what they actually think. That gap is where the most interesting characters live. When you let a reader hear a character's uncensored private thoughts, you create intimacy, sympathy, and sometimes delicious horror.
Contains seven soliloquies, each revealing a different facet of Hamlet's paralysis. 'To be, or not to be' is arguably the most famous speech in the English language.
'Is this a dagger which I see before me' shows Macbeth's mind fracturing in real time as he talks himself into murder.
Fleabag's direct addresses to the camera function as modern soliloquies - private thoughts shared with the audience but hidden from other characters.
A monologue is addressed to other characters. A soliloquy is addressed to no one (or to the audience). The distinction matters because the character's level of honesty changes when no one in-story is listening.
A character privately reviewing plot mechanics ('I must remember that the potion takes effect at midnight...') feels contrived. Soliloquies should reveal emotion and inner conflict, not logistical information.
Real private thinking is messy, contradictory, and circular. If your character's inner soliloquy reads like a prepared speech, it won't feel authentic.
Write a 300-word soliloquy for a character who just lied to someone they love. They're alone now - in a car, a bathroom, a stairwell. Let them argue with themselves about whether the lie was justified. Include at least one moment where they almost convince themselves, and one moment where they know they're wrong. Make the thought process messy and human.