The Monologue Database
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The Monologue Database was created by Kellie Powell and is maintained by These Aren't My Shoes Productions. It is intended to be a resource for actors, and a way to help playwrights promote their work.

On this page, you will find original monologues, monologues reprinted by permission, and monologues which are in the public domain. Clicking on a character's name below will open the monologue in a new window. You will be able to read the monologue in its entirety, and find information about the play it is from.

ORIGINAL
Female | Male

AUTHORIZED
Female | Male

PUBLIC DOMAIN
Female | Male

The Database is currently seeking permission from several playwrights and publishers so that their monologues can be included on this site. We cannot include the text of monologues on our Wish List until we get permission, but you can click on the play title to find out more about the play or purchase it from Amazon.

Search the Monologue Database


ORIGINAL FEMALE MONOLOGUES
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Amy/And Turning, Stay/Powell
Contemporary High School
Amy attains closure by attacking for the last time the guy who led her on and let her down. "You're running from what I've searched for all my life."
Hannah/Bargaining/Powell Hannah, an immortal being, offers her boyfriend a chance to live forever. "Most people, when they say forever, they mean... well, they don't really mean forever. But I do."
Kim/Collaboration/Powell Kim confesses to her friend (and sometimes-lover), that she has been in love with him for several years. "I wanted whatever time and affection you could give me. No matter what it cost me."
Dogface/Dogface/Powell
Contemporary
Dogface confronts her friend, Ethan, demanding to know why he has been ignoring and avoiding her ever since they had sex. "How am I supposed to act casual about something this intense, this rare? You're the first person to see me - how can that not be a big deal?"
Seath/Glass Houses/Powell Seath reassures her best friend, Ken, that recent events have left her wiser and stronger, not in a well of despair. "I've never been so completely on my own before, and right now, I wouldn't trade nights like last night for any amount of security."
Angela/Just Looking/Powell
Contemporary High School
Angela has, against her will, become the one who all her friends run to for advice. Angela "loses it," confesses her pain to Ryan, and ultimately reveals the true reason for her emotional tumult. "I need to stop feeling people's pain for them! I'm trying to step between my friends and their scars."
Jamie/Just Looking/Powell The character explains her cynical view that monogamy is pointless. "We'd stop being people to each other and start being obligations. And, I love you too much to let that happen."
Leah/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell
Contemporary
Leah talks about her daughter's history with depression and her eventual suicide. "Why didn't she come to me? I would have done anything for her. Didn't she know that?"
Natalie/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell
Contemporary
Natalie talks about the night her friend Nell committed suicide. "She seemed normal. She seemed happy. Well, not happy, exactly. But like usual herself."
Nell/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell
Contemporary
Nell tries to explain what being suicidal feels like. "I can make everyone think I'm normal, that I'm coping, that I'm okay. But I've never been okay. I'll never be okay."
Eve/Rage Is Loud/Powell
Contemporary
Eve finds herself faced with the all-but-impossible task of convincing another young woman that her boyfriend is a serial killer. "To Fell, the question isn't, "Why?" It's, "Why not?" Motive is incidental."
Drew/Richard Fisher's Funeral/Powell Drew explains why she can never forgive her dead father. "You don't get it. I've been afraid of my father all my life."
Joan/Spilled Milk/Powell
Contemporary
Joan confronts her friend Helen almost a year after Helen failed to protect Joan from a possible threat of sexual assault. "He could have raped you! And you... you sent him back to me! How generous. How benevolent. Why didn't you fucking warn me?"
Rachel/That Was Then/Powell
Contemporary High School
Rachel remembers high school - a time in her life when her friends meant the world to her. "I'm very lucky, because not everyone still has a friend who knew them when they were seventeen."
Lindsay/What Are the Chances?/Powell
Contemporary
Lindsay is at her ex-husband's art exhibition, when she is forced, by one of his pieces, to confront her past. "I think... I think he was happier when he was pining for me... than when I was actually his."
Carla/Your Money's Worth/Powell
Contemporary
A therapist provides a scalding critique of her depressed patience, and completely unsympathetic advice for how to deal with her mental problems. "You think you're in pain, but that's all in your head. Just SNAP OUT OF IT."
Jessie/Your Money's Worth/Powell
Contemporary
A depressed young woman confronts her criminally insensitive and condescending therapist. "One of us is being insane, and for once, it's not me."


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ORIGINAL MALE MONOLOGUES
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Ryan/Bargaining/Powell Ryan explains why he had to leave the woman who gave him eternal life. "Being with you... was the most meaningful thing I've ever done. It was magic, and it was every day."
Shane/Collaboration/Powell Shane must convince his friend and collaborator, to sign off on a production of his re-write of a script she wrote. "I've got the chance of a lifetime here - Christ, you too. You may never get another opportunity like this one."
Yale/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell
Contemporary
A college student reacts to the suicide of a casual acquaintance. "I couldn't have known what she was feeling. But then, I didn't ask, did I?"
Seth/That Was Then/Powell
Contemporary High School
Seth describes having to lie to his parents and hide the fact that he is gay. "I have to keep lying so they don't throw me out of the house."


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FEMALE MONOLOGUES REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Kim/The Absence of Gray Matter/Weckesser
Contemporary High School
Weckesser's Kim, a minor character lacking much in the way of common sense, speaks about her aspirations and hallucinations. "Would Keanu Reeves please stand up?"
Celandine/Hanging Women/Spector
Contemporary
A 30-year-old intellectual tells her mother and younger sister that she has given up on men. "Men always disappoint you, and I choose to be disappointed with no one but myself."
Peony/Hanging Women/Spector
Contemporary
An impulsive 25-year-old tells her mother and older sister about running away from home to have casual sex with strangers. "I love that moment when you take off, just getting out of here."


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MALE MONOLOGUES REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Thomas/Gray Matter/Weckesser
Contemporary High School
Thomas Moore, the recent high school grad, not the dead philosopher and saint, expands on his disillusionment in the opening and closing monologues of Weckesser's one-act. "Whatever you do in your life, do it with love."
Tim/It Came From Texas/Weckesser
Contemporary High School
Tim, frustrated by the ignorance of those around him, blows up at Beth, attacking her pathetic attempts to recapture her ex-boyfriend. "Do you enjoy the heartache? He'll be there only when he is bored with himself. Run, Beth, run while you can."


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FEMALE MONOLOGUES IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Alice/Arden of Aversham/Anonymous
Elizabethan
A married woman tries to break up with her lover, then changes her mind and begs for his forgiveness. "Look on me Mosby, or I'll kill myself: Nothing shall hide me from thy stormy look. If thou cry war, there is no peace for me."
Cassandra/Agamemnon/Aeschylus
Classical
Cassandra forsees her own brutal death. "Brewing a poisoned cup, She will mix my punishment while sharpening, The dagger for her husband."
Tamyra/Bussy D'Ambois/Chapman
Elizabethan
The Countess of Montsurry is planning to run away with her secret lover. "Our loves like sparkles are that brightest shine, When they go out; most vice shows most divine."
Anna Petrovna/Ivanov/Chekhov
Classical
A sick and depressed woman defends her husband, who she loves despite his poor treatment of her. "I am beginning to think that fate has cheated me, Doctor."
Natasha/Proposal/Chekhov
Classical
Natasha wants nothing more than to get married, and fears Lomov might be her last chance. Lomov comes to propose, and Natasha babbles like a schoolgirl. "You know, you're looking kind of cute these days."
Masha/Seagull/Chekhov
Classical
Masha has resolved to kill her unrequited love for Treplev by marrying someone else. She tells her plan to Trigorin, a writer who she has just met. "My schoolmaster is none too clever, but he's kind, and a poor soul, and he loves me very much."
Nina/Seagull/Chekhov
Classical
Nina, a young Russian actress, left her boyfriend Kostya long ago to have an affair with a world famous playwright. Several years later, she returns, and shares the truths she has learned the hard way. "I've been walking around, walking around and thinking, thinking and even believing that my soul grows stronger every day."
Bellafront/The Honest Whore/Dekker
Elizabethan
A former prostitute resists the advances of a would-be client after undergoing a moral conversion. "She's common as spotted leopards, whom for sport, Men hunt, to get the flesh, but care not for't."
Celimene/Misanthrope/Moliere
Classical
Celimene is a gossip, and she insults a boring elderly woman behind her back for the entertainment of others. "You may consult the clock, or yawn twenty times, but she stirs no more than a log of wood."
Mrs. Morehead/The Women/Boothe
1937
Mrs. Morehead gives her daughter advice about her husband's affair. "There's nothing like a good dose of another woman to make a man appreciate his wife. Mother knows!"
Mrs. Zero/The Adding Machine/Rice
1950's
A housewife archetype rants at her husband, an archetypical white-collar slave. "There's no five-thirty for me. I don't wait for no whistle."
Estelle/No Exit/Sartre
Supernatural
Estelle, now dead, watches the world slip away from her - and she reveals herself to be manipulative, selfish, and vindictive. "What's that she's said? "Poor Estelle wasn't exactly- " No, I wasn't exactly - True enough."
Inez/No Exit/Sartre
Supernatural
In two monologues, sardonic and sadistic lesbian Inez fights with and antagonizes Garcin. "I prefer to choose my hell; I prefer to look you in the eyes and fight it out face to face."
Adriana/The Comedy of Errors/Shakespeare
Contemporary
A jealous wife tries to confront her husband about his philandering ways - but mistakenly attacks his identical twin instead. "Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown: Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects; I am not Adriana nor thy wife."
Countess of Salisbury/Edward III/Shakespeare
Elizabethan
The Countess of Salisbury must resist the overtures of King Edward III, as delicately as possible. "That love you offer me you cannot give, For Caesar owes that tribute to his queen; That love you beg of me I cannot give, For Sarah owes that duty to her lord."
Queen Margaret/Henry VI/Shakespeare
Elizabethan
Queen Margaret of Anjou demoralizes the Duke of York before executing him. "Alas, poor York! but that I hate thee deadly, I should lament thy miserable state."
Lady Anne/Richard III/Shakespeare
Contemporary
Lady Anne curses the man responsible for the death of Henry VI - in front of the man responsible. "Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes! Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it! Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!"
Julia/The Two Gentlemen of Verona/Shakespeare
Elizabethan
Julia asks her servant, Lucetta, to help her disguise herself as a man so that she can follow her beloved Proteus to Milan. "A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary to measure kingdoms with his feeble steps; Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly."


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MALE MONOLOGUES IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Character/Play/Author
Time/Place
Summary Excerpt
Ivanov/Ivanov/Chekhov
Classical
Ivanov talks about the combination of guilt and emptiness he feels about the impending death of his wife, whom he has inexplicably lost interest in. "I am in no way remarkable, and I have sacrificed nothing."
Treplev/Seagull/Chekhov
Classical
Treplev, an aspiring playwright, laments his poor relationship with his famous-actress mother and his disgust for traditional theatre values. "When I'm not there, my mother is only thirty-two, but when I am, she's forty-three - and for that, she hates me."
Alceste/Misanthrope/Moliere
Classical
A jealous boyfriend's subtle accusations. "No, madam, there is no need for a stick, but only a heart less yielding and less melting at their love-tales."
Eliante/Misanthrope/Moliere
Classical
Eliante mocks love, and those who it captures. "Thus a passionate swain loves even the very faults of those of whom he is enamoured."
Enrique/School for Wives/Moliere
Classical
Enrique speaks to the sister of his dead wife. "As soon as I saw you, before anyone could tell me, I should have known you."
Charles/The Adding Machine/Rice
Supernatural
Lt. Charles explains reincarnation to Mr. Zero, an archetypical white-collar slave. "You're a failure, Zero, a failure. A waste product. A slave."
Garcin/No Exit/Sartre
Supernatural
Garcin brags about abusing his wife, puts on a brave face for the valet, attempts to find salvation, and failing, laments the cunning cruelty of his torturers. "So this is Hell. I'd never have believed it."
Shylock/Merchant of Venice/Shakespeare
Classical
In this world-famous monologue, Shylock attacks Anthony, of whom he demands a pound of flesh, and defends his brutality and his race. "Hath not a Jew eyes?"
Ariel/Tempest/Shakespeare
Classical
Ariel, a powerful androgynous spirit, returns with good news to his master, Prospero, and takes the opportunity to brag. "I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement."
Orsino/Twelfth Night/Shakespeare
Classical
Orsino laments his lost cause - his love for the fair Olivia. "If music be the food of love, play on..."


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