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

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. (JMcL-C)