Identifying the features of a soliloquy
I can explain what a soliloquy is and identify its features.
Identifying the features of a soliloquy
I can explain what a soliloquy is and identify its features.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- A soliloquy is a type of monologue that occurs when a character voices their thoughts and feelings aloud.
- Playwrights include soliloquies to give the audience an insight into characters' feelings.
- In Shakespeare's plays, high status characters' soliloquies follow iambic pentameter structure.
- Soliloquies are written in the first person.
- Other characters are silent during the speaker's soliloquy.
Common misconception
Pupils will find this lesson difficult if they do not have a secure understanding of what a syllable is.
Ahead of the lesson, ask pupils to show you how many syllables there are in three different words (using their hands to 'clap the syllables') so you can assess if there are any pupils who need support prior to the lesson.
Keywords
Soliloquy - an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play
Monologue - a long speech by one actor in a play or film
Blank verse - unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter
Iambic pentamenter - a style of writing poems in lines of ten syllables with emphasis on the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth syllable
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
- Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).
Video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Exit quiz
6 Questions
a long speech by one actor in a play or film
an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself
a main character who might say a soliloquy in a play