SOURCE: “The Monologue as Monodrama in Grillparzer's Hellenic Dramas,” in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 37, October, 1938, pp. 513-23.

In the following essay, Dunham analyzes the structure and motivation of the dramatic monologues in three of Grillparzer's dramas: Sappho, Das goldene Vließ, and Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen.

Hans Sittenberger in his essay “Der Monolog”¹ distinguishes three types of monologue: (1) the expository monologue; (2) the lyric monologue; (3) the dramatic monologue. The dramatic monologue, according to his definition, is the one which not only fits into the dramatic structure of the play, but which “in seinen einzelnen Gliedern deutlich erkennbar dramatischen Bau aufweist.”² He continues: “Das trifft bei allen jenen Monologen zu, die aus widerstreitenden Empfindungen zu einem Entschlusse führen, der eine Aenderung der Lage und damit neue Verwicklungen oder Entwicklungen bewirkt.”²

A monologue of this third type is sometimes built up as though it were a...