A soliloquy is a speech in a play where a character speaks their thoughts out loud while alone on stage, as if thinking aloud. Unlike a regular conversation, no other characters hear what's being said. The audience gets to listen in on the character's private thoughts, feelings, and plans.

One of the most famous soliloquies in all of theater begins “To be, or not to be,” from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In that scene, Prince Hamlet stands alone, working through a difficult problem in his mind, and the audience gets to hear his struggle.

Soliloquies reveal what characters really think and feel, which might be completely different from what they say to others. A villain might act friendly around other characters, then deliver a soliloquy revealing evil plans. A hero might seem confident but share doubts during a soliloquy.

While soliloquies appear most often in classic theater, you'll sometimes see similar moments in movies when a character narrates their thoughts in a voice-over, or in books when we read a character's internal thoughts directly. The technique helps us understand characters more deeply by letting us hear what they'd never say out loud to another person.