soliloquy

In drama, thinking aloud. A soliloquy is a speech for the benefit of the audience only and by convention is not heard by any other actor on stage at the time.

Soliloquy is a form of monologue. It literally means ‘talking to oneself’ and, in dramatic convention, it usually means a character is talking about him- or herself, revealing their innermost thoughts to the audience. In the famous soliloquy beginning ‘To be or not to be’, Shakespeare's Hamlet reveals to the audience his thoughts about death. In a novel, the author can simply tell the reader what the character is thinking; in a play, the soliloquy is a way of putting across information that does not fit naturally into dialogue.