The Importance of Soliloquies in Drama, and its Relevance in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love

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Theatre, and particularly drama, uses all kinds of rhetorical and situational tools to create a particular ambience that permeates everything from setting to the actor's performances. One of these rhetorical tools is soliloquy. Creating a sort of intimacy between a character and the audience, and giving people more information, soliloquy is a useful form of speech. In ?Fool For Love', Sam Shepard imagined a much more complicated relationship between The Old Man, Eddie and May, and the audience. Discussing the history of soliloquy, and analyzing The Old Men interruptions in the play, I'll try to point out what kind of speech the latter is using, and why his form of speech is more appropriate to understand his role in the play than a soliloquy.

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[...] The Importance of Soliloquies in Drama, and its Relevance in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love Theatre, and particularly drama, uses all kinds of rhetorical and situational tools to create a particular ambience that goes from setting to the actor's performances. One of these rhetorical tools is soliloquy. Creating a sort of intimacy between a character and the audience, giving people more information, soliloquy is a useful form of speech. In Fool for Love, Sam Shepard imagined a much more complicated relationship between The Old Man, Eddie and May, and the audience. [...]

[...] Introduction au théâtre grec antique. Paris : LGF-Le livre de poche Hirsh, James. Shakespeare and the History of Soliloquies. Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses Electronic Resources Stanford, Judith. Mc Graw Hill Online Learning Center, Mc Graw Hill University http://highered.mcgraw- hill.com/sites/0767422783/student_view0/glossary_of_drama_terms.html#aside Dictionary.com, April 24th 2009. dictionary.reference.com/browse/soliloquy Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, April 24th 2009. [...]

[...] It usually gives some information to the audience, and some advice to the protagonist, helping him, or warning him about the gods. In Sam Shepard's Fool For Love, the character of The Old Man acts pretty much as a Greek chorus. Firstly, the setting is relevant. The Old Man is indeed placed on the side of the stage, on a small extended platform. He is not directly on the stage, but is part of the play, like a chorus would be in Greek tragedy. [...]

[...] Although the use of soliloquy can be very relevant in Shakespeare's play for example, its use in Fool For Love would not have given the play the right ambience. The role of the Old Man working as a Greek chorus is much more appropriate in a play in which relationships between characters are so complicated. It gives the relationship between the character's and the audience another dimension, and that is what makes this play so complicated, but interesting. References Books Bowman, Walter Parker, and Ball, Robert Hamilton. [...]

[...] The Old Man gives indeed the audience his version of his story, which Eddie does not accept, as he is not telling the entire truth. Here the speech of the Old Man is not heard by Martin, as he does not see the Old Man, and is an indication on the life of the characters given to the audience. It indeed works like a soliloquy, but since Eddie hears it, it is not. On page 10, the Old Man talks lengthily to May, telling her a story about her childhood. [...]