men monologues

7/21/2019 Men Monologues

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From the play "Fences"

written by August Wilson

(From August Wilson's play Fences. In 1957, Troy is a hard-working, strong black man with awife, Rose, with whom he had a son, Cory and another son by a previous marriage, Lyons. His

brother, Gabriel is slightly crazy and he just got a job driving the truck for the sanitation

department. Trouble is, he has no driver's license...so he's got a few things on his mind. The

conversation has turned to fathers and Troy gives us some valuable insight into why he is the

way he is.)

Troy: My daddy ain't had them walking blues! What you talking about? He stayed right there

with his family. But he was just as evil as he could be. My mama couldn't stand him. Couldn't

stand that evilness. She run off when I was about eight. She sneaked off one night after he had

gone to sleep. Told me she was coming back for me. I ain't never seen her no more. All his

women run off and left him. He wasn't good for nobody. When my turn come to head out, I was

fourteen and got to sniffing around Joe Canewell's daughter. Had us an old mule we calledGreyboy. My daddy sent me out to do some plowing and I tied up Greyboy and went to fooling

around with Joe Canewell's daughter. We done found us a nice little spot, got real cozy with each

other. She about thirteen and we done figured we was grown anyway . . . so we down there

enjoying ourselves . . . ain't thinking about nothing. We didn't know Greyboy had got loose and

wandered back to the house and my daddy was looking for me. We down there by the creek

enjoying ourselves when my daddy come up on us. Surprised us. He had them leather straps off

the mule and commenced to whupping me like there was no tomorrow. I jumped up, mad and

embarrassed. I was scared of my daddy. When he commenced to whupping on me . . . quite

naturally I run to get out of the way. (pause) Now I thought he was mad cause I ain't done my

work. But I see where he was chasing me off so he could have the gal for himself. When I see

what the matter of it was, I lost all fear of my daddy. Right there is where I become a man . . . at

fourteen years of age. (pause) Now it was my turn to run him off. I picked up them same reins

that he had used on me. I picked up them reins and commenced to whupping on him. The gal

jumped up and run off . . . and when my daddy turned to face me, I could see why the devil had

never come to get him . . . cause he was the devil himself. I don't know what happened. When I

woke up, I was laying right there by the creek, and Blue . . . this old dog we had . . . was licking

my face. I thought I was blind. I couldn't see nothing. Both my eyes were swollen shut. I layed

there and cried. I didn't know what I was gonna do. The only thing I knew was the time had

come for me to leave my daddy's house. And right there the world suddenly got big. And it was a

long time before I could cut it down to where I could handle it. Part of that cutting down was

when I got to the place where I could feel him kicking in my blood and knew that the only thing

that separated us was the matter of a few years.



Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller

(Biff confronts his father about the truth of his life, and the false images that Willy had for his

son)

Biff: You know why I had no address for three months? I stole a suit in Kansas City and I

was jailed. I stole myself out of every good job since high school. And I never got

anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from

anybody! That's whose fault it is! It's god**** time you heard that! I had to be boss big

shot in two weeks, and I'm through with it! Willy! I ran down eleven flights with a pen in

my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in the middle of that office

building, do you hear this? I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw - the sky. I

saw the things that I love in the world. The work and the food and the time to sit and

smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the **** am I grabbing this for?

Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office,making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for

me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can't I say that, Willy? Pop! I'm a dime a

dozen, and so are you! I am not a leader of men, Willy, and neither are you. You were

never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in the ash-can like all the rest of

them! I'm one dollar an hour, Willy! I tried seven states and couldn't raise it! A buck an

hour! Do you gather my meaning? I'm not bringing home any prizes any more, and you're

going to stop waiting for me to bring them home! Pop, I'm nothing! I'm nothing, Pop.

Can't you understand that? There's no spite in it any more. I'm just what I am, that's all.

Will you let me go, for Christ's sake? Will you take that phoney dream and burn it beforesomething happens?



Hamlet - Prince Hamlet gives advice to his actors before their performance. He

discusses the art of acting.

Hamlet: Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the

tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke

my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, by use all gently, for in

the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire

and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a

robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of

the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb

shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-

herods Herod. Pray you avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be

your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special

observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from

the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as'twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and

the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come

tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the

censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O,

there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to

speak profanely), that neither having th' accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian,

pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's

journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so

abominably. Reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns speak no more

than is set down for them, for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some

quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary

question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous and shows a most pitiful

ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready.



You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown! Musical - Clark Gesner

(Charlie Brown shares his thinking with the audience as he eats his lunch during a

typical school day for him.)

Charlie Brown: I think lunchtime is about the worst time of day for me. Always having

to sit here alone. Of course, sometimes, mornings aren't so pleasant either. Waking up and

wondering if anyone would really miss me if I never got out of bed. Then there's the

night, too. Lying there and thinking about all the stupid things I've done during the day.

And all those hours in between when I do all those stupid things. Well, lunchtime is

among the worst times of the day for me. Well, I guess I'd better see what I've got. Peanut

butter. Some psychiatrists say that people who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely...I

guess they're right. And when you're really lonely, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of

your mouth. There's that cute little red-headed girl eating her lunch over there. I wonder

what she would do if I went over and asked her if I could sit and have lunch withher?...She'd probably laugh right in my face...it's **** a face when it gets laughed in.

There's an empty place next to her on the bench. There's no reason why I couldn't just go

over and sit there. I could do that right now. All I have to do is stand up...I'm standing

up!...I'm sitting down. I'm a coward. I'm so much of a coward, she wouldn't even think of

looking at me. She hardly ever does look at me. In fact, I can't remember her ever looking

at me. Why shouldn't she look at me? Is there any reason in the world why she shouldn't

look at me? Is she so great, and I'm so small, that she can't spare one little

moment?...SHE'S LOOKING AT ME!! SHE'S LOOKING AT ME!! (he puts his lunchbag

over his head.) ...Lunchtime is among the worst times of the day for me. If that little red-

headed girl is looking at me with this stupid bag over my head she must think I'm the

biggest fool alive. But, if she isn't looking at me, then maybe I could take it off quickly

and she'd never notice it. On the other hand...I can't tell if she's looking, until I take it off!

Then again, if I never take it off I'll never have to know if she was looking or not. On the

other hand...it's very hard to breathe in here. (he removes sack) Whew! She's not looking

at me! I wonder why she never looks at me? Oh well, another lunch hour over with...only

2,863 to go.

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