(now, and serious.)

Contemporary dramatic monologues for women

Serious pieces for women from the last few decades. The sources are mostly copyrighted, so each entry tells you the character, the work and the length, and the search opens the rest.

Search all of them Get started free

1
Anna Christie (nee Christopherson) from Anna Christie
Eugene O'Neill · play · dramatic · 1:21 min
You can go to hell, both of you! You're just like all the rest of them—you two! Gawd, you'd think I was a piece of furniture! I'll show you! Sit down now! Sit down and let me talk…
2
Michelle from 12
Nikita Mikhalkov · film · dramatic · 0:56 min
3
Anna Christie (nee Christopherson) from Anna Christie
Eugene O'Neill · play · dramatic · 1:15 min
Not on your life, it wasn't. It was true for two years. I didn't go wrong all at one jump. Being a nurse girl was yust what finished me. Taking care of other people's kids, always…
4
Beatrice from The Changeling
Peter Medak · film · dramatic · 1:00 min
5
Eleanor of Aquitaine from The Lion in Winter
Anthony Harvey · film · dramatic · 0:46 min
6
Anna Christie (nee Christopherson) from Anna Christie
Eugene O'Neill · play · dramatic · 1:43 min
I s’pose if I tried to tell you I wasn’t--that--no more you’d believe me, wouldn’t you? Yes, you would! And if I told you that yust getting out in this barge, and being on the sea…
7
Ellie Dunn from Heartbreak House
George Bernard Shaw · play · dramatic · 1:28 min
Oh, don’t slop and gush and be sentimental. Don’t you see that unless I can be hard -- hard as nails -- I shall go mad? I don’t care a damn about your calling me names: do you…
8
Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre
Cary Joji Fukunaga · film · dramatic · 0:44 min
9
Larita from Easy Virtue
Noël Coward · play · dramatic · 1:45 min
I'm completely out- side the bounds of your understanding — in every way. And yet I know you, Marion, through and through — far better than you know yourself. You're a pitiful…
10
Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
Mike Nichols · film · dramatic · 0:59 min
11
Dianora from Madonna Dianora
Hugo von Hofmannsthal · play · anguished · 3:24 min
Falsely, quite falsely, you interpret now My silence. How can I tell you who might know?— But if you think that I am one of those Who hides behind her hireling's her joy, You know…
12
Marthe from Monsieur Lamblin
George Ancey · play · dramatic · 1:04 min
That you say nice things about him? Nonsense! He pleases and amuses you. You don't want me to apply for a separation because you want him near you, and because you are afraid of…
13
Helen from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 0:58 min
Yes, that's what you are—a great artist—an eminent artist. Can't you understand how much I must love you? You are the first man whose superiority I have felt and whom I desired to…
14
Helen from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 1:16 min
Oh, leave your art alone. What do I care about your art? Has God created a man like you to make a puppet of himself every night? You should be ashamed of it instead of boasting of…
15
Helen from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 2:24 min
I can no longer live without you. Either you take me with you or I will kill myself. Yes, kill myself. A day like yesterday, without even seeing you—no, I could not live through…
16
Helen from The Tenor
Frank Wedekind · play · anguished · 0:54 min
Oscar, I didn't say that I would shoot myself. When did I say that? Where would I find the courage to do that? I only said that I will die, if you don't take me with you. I will…
17
Rosamund from A Good Woman
Arnold Bennett · play · dramatic · 1:07 min
The sight of this poor youth fills me with sorrow and compunction and shame. For it reminds me that four years ago I lied to him. That is beside the point. At an earlier period of…
18
Mrs from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 0:32 min
A. My pretty, my pretty, there's never a one of us can 'elp a man that thinks 'isself a man an' strong, poor fool, an' there's never a one of us can 'elp a man that's got a curse…
19
Mrs from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 1:13 min
A. Now you're strong and you're young.—'Ope's with ye still and life all before ye—and so I thought when my day came, and so I did. There was a day and 'alf a day of peace and…
20
Mrs from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 0:56 min
A. Ay, for this: that ye may send 'un back to 'is rottenness, for back to it 'e'll surely go when 'tis too late, an' you a poor old woman like me, with never a creature to come…
21
Mary from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 1:24 min
It's a weary waitin' that I've had, and better the day and 'alf a day of peace and content with all the long years of thinking on it than all the long, long years of my life to go…
22
Mary from Mary's Wedding
Gilbert Cannan · play · anguished · 2:42 min
It 'as come to this day an' there is no goin' back. D' ye think I've not seed t' soft, gentle things that are given to other women, an' not envied them? D' ye think I've not seed…
23
Mrs from The Baby Carriage
Bosworth Crocker · play · anguished · 1:08 min
Lezinsky. Thank God, that don't happen for a little while yet. But in the hottest weather—maybe—some Septembers—even so late yet—ain't it, Mrs. Rooney? Always trouble by us. Such…
24
Louise from Louise
J. H. Speenhoff · play · anguished · 1:06 min
Father, I cannot go back. Don't you see that it is utterly impossible? I am changed now. And then I am not strong enough. Life is so long and I cannot bear to face it alone.…
25
Grandmother from The Grandmother
Lajos Biro · play · dark · 1:25 min
Really, my child, a great anxiety came upon me. I stood still and tried to fix my direction. Then I turned to a path which I figured ought to lead me home. After I walked a half…
26
Anna from The Rights of the Soul
Giuseppe Giacosa · play · anguished · 2:28 min
Ah, no. Remain here—now you hear me. You wished that I speak, now I do.... It is I now who command you to stay. You must understand very well that after a scene such as this,…
27
Mrs from The Boor
Anton Tchekoff · play · anguished · 0:54 min
Popov. Please, don't speak of these things to me again. You know very well that since the death of Nikolai Michailovitch my life is absolutely nothing to me. You think I live, but…
28
Thekla from The Creditor
August Strindberg · play · anguished · 1:07 min
Yes. Gustav. And a minute ago you loved me? Is that really so? Thekla. It is. Do you know what you are, then? You despise me? No, I pity you. It's a characteristic—I don't say a…
29
Lydia from Mansions
Hildegarde Flanner · play · dramatic · 1:02 min
Oh, no, Joe! Please, please don't do that. I should be frightened, really. It is a matter of religion with her. Yes, some. I sneak into the church when no one is there and play on…
30
Hale from Trifles
Susan Glaspell · play · anguished · 2:04 min
Why, I don't think she minded—one way or other. She didn't pay much attention. I said, "How do, Mrs. Wright, it's cold, ain't it?" And she said "Is it?"—and went on kind of…

Length is estimated at a spoken pace of about 150 words a minute. Public-domain pieces are printed in full on their own page; copyrighted ones list the character and the source.

Not the one yet?

Describe the piece the way you would to a coach and the search reads the whole corpus, not this shelf. Free to start, no credit card.

Search the corpus Get started free