Monologue: A Dramatic Strategy in Alfred de Vigny's Rhetoric

• Published in: Nineteenth-century French studies 1998-04, Vol.26 (3/4), p.253-265
• Main Author: McLeman—Carnie, Janette
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; Anonymous writers. Authors; Discourse; Dramatic monologues; France; French speaking and English speaking literatures; French speaking literatures; History and sciences of litterature; History of literature; Monologues; Narrative poetry; Narrators; Poetry; Prayer; Romantic poetry; Sympathy; Visual rhetoric
• ISSN: 0146-7891; 1536-0172

In keeping with the poet's theory of the "dramatique," this article stresses the value of the monologue in several of Alfred de Vigny's dramatic allegorical poems. Prayer and/or attempted dialogue with a silent and unresponsive audience are seen as linguistic representations not only of a breakdown in verbal communication but also of the abject isolation of the speaker, a recurring theme in Vigny's works. The monologist's rhetorical style, in particular questions and apostrophes, as well as striking imagery, helps to condition reader/audience response, and is seen as an integral part of the "drama" in the poems. In addition, if the text is not subject to interference from a narrator, then the reader can be easily swayed by the monologist intent on dramatizing his situation. Not unlike a monologist in a theatrical drama who plays essentially to an audience in order to persuade it, the monologist in a poem addresses the reader/audience to that same end. Vigny's monologues with their provocative imagery, compelling rhetoric, and absence of narrator intervention are, we argue, "dramatique" in both style and content.