Study: The difference between drama and dramatic monologue

Now I will give you two paragraphs, and you tell me which one that you think is a drama, and which one that you
think is a dramatic monologue.

Paragraph one: Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, finding
Romeo dead, stabs herself with his dagger. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead.

Paragraph two:
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

KEY: the answer is that the first one is a drama, the second one is a dramatic monologue
Why?

The drama has a plot but not a thesis in it,

The dramatic monologue has a thesis but not a plot in it.

The first paragraph is from Romeo and Juliet, it has a plot and contains its story. The second paragraph has a
thesis, the thesis is the desperation of life. It is written by the nobel prize winner T S Eliot. He defined the
dramatic monologue as a PERSONA POEM, that is, a type of speech with a personality and thesis.

Remember, the ending is your last chance to make your audience like you, so it has to make a difference. That is
to say, no matter in what form that you choose to conduct your speech, the last paragraph should carry a lot of
power.

You can end your ted speech either with a drama or with a dramatic monologue. The former means that you are
still SITUATED INSIDE YOUR STORY, the second means that you JUMP OUTSIDE OF YOUR STORY.

So, in short, there are three ways to end a ted speech, regardless of your personal style:

1. Use drama: Conclude your speech with an end of your drama

In this type of speech ending, you should imagine it as a end of a novel you just casually throws it at your
audience, and they will be impressed by your storys content. Remember, YOU DONT HAVE TO JUMP OUT OF
YOUR STORY.

so, in sampsons case, I suggest that he can write a ending with a drama:

well, I think I do carry this quirky problem. I then looked my self in the mirror and thought: what the hell,
its not all a drag. And Im thinkin to myself, Jeez, I should stop ruining my life searching for answers Im
never gonna get, and just enjoy it while it lasts. And, you know, after who knows, I mean, you know,
maybe there is something, nobody really knows. I know maybe is a very slim reed to hang your whole
life on, but thats the best we have. And then, I started to sit back into my old chair, and I actually began
to enjoy myself.

In this paragraph, Sampson simply finishes his drama and be at peace with himself. The denouement of his drama
is that he finally overcome his psychological barrier and makes the decision to enjoy his life. He makes HIS OWN
HAPPY CONCLUSION OF THE SPEECH, instead of giving to the audience any problem to solve.

2. use dramatic monologue

2.1 dangling challenge

In kathies case, who as I have noticed didnt write a ending at this point. I can see you dont know how to end it,
because you dont have a very effective and sound solution to your problem for now. My suggestion can be that
why dont you leave that challenge to your audience?

Heres my version of your last paragraph :

It seems to me that my hope for gender equality has become a fairy tale. It is a tale of how sometimes
the connections we perceive across gender, culture and distancesour hopes for an
underlying unity of human virtue, our belief that underneath it all we are somehow the
samecan turn out to be nothing more than the fictions of our own imagination. And when
we the girls congratulate ourselves on seeing through the darkened window that separates
us from another sex, heartened to discover the familiar forms that lie hidden on the other
side, sometimes we do so without ever realizing that we are only gazing at our own
reflection, but only stronger and more privileged. Wheres the path towards equality? I
want to see it.

2.2 A rallying call

in this type of speech ending, you simply summarize your idea, and then deliver the solution that you already
have in your mind. It is a rallying call, an urgent call for action that you have with your audience.

So, Kevins environmental protection speech can be a good representative of this type of ending.
Heres our suggested version:

I can not settle the air pollution. But I can see problems, keep digging and analysis, and ultimately find a solution
of it. But theres another way, and this is the reason I am standing here today in front of you is because I want to
leave this task to all of us, I want to turn environmental protection into a democratic initiative, regardless of your
credential, if I am just a high school student and able to understand the science behind the strew, so can you be
successful to make an effort. I believe you can, all the people sitting there can. Let us therefore brace ourselves to
our duty and so bear ourselves that if we can give our descendents a better earth, they will say: This was their
finest hour.