NAME: Vanessa akram

ROLL NO: MS20265

BS ENGLISH
5TH B MORNING
PAKISTANI LITERATURE
SUBMITTED TO: MAAM HUMA RASHID

Dramatic Monologue:
A dramatic monologue is a literary form in which the writer implies the voice of a character and
speaks through them. It tends to refer to a self-conversation, speech, or talk that includes a
dramatic presentation of the addressee. In dramatic monologue, a person speaks to himself or
someone else to reveal specific intentions of his actions.

A dramatic monologue has these common features in it:

• A single person giving a speech about one part of his life.

• There may or may not be an audience.

• Only the speaker's words reflect his temperament and character.

Mohsin Hamid employs dramatic monologue in his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist to
describe the clashing ideas of east and west.

A monologue is typically spoken by a single character to explain mental thoughts to another

character or the audience. Monologues and soliloquies have a lot in common. The life of
Changez (Protagonist), a student from Lahore, is portrayed in Mohsin Hamid's novel Reluctant
Fundamentalist. He is a Pakistani with a Princeton degree who gets an excellent position at
Underwood Samson after graduating from college. He becomes so accustomed to the American
way of life that he no longer considers himself a Pakistani. Changez falls in love with Erica in
America. He is leading a peaceful and stable life there when two planes crash into the World
Trade Center's twin buildings on September 11, 2001. Following the incident, Americans start to
treat Muslims horribly, and Changez begins to rethink America's international transgressions. He
quits his work and returns to Lahore, where he meets a stranger from America. The novel is
narrated in the form of a monologue to a stranger.

To convey the clashing viewpoints of east and west, Mohsin Hamid used the dramatic
monologue approach. In a dramatic monologue, one character converses with another character
whose speech is not recorded but inferred from the first narrator's. The speaker continues to
speak, but the listener merely listens. The speaker is just as important as the listener in the
narrative. We never hear him talk, but we are aware that he does. We deduce his reaction from
the speaker's words. In the novel, an American gets lost in the old Anarkali bazaar, and Changez
approaches him and invites him to tea. Changez starts off by saying:
“Excuse me sir, but I may be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you? Do not be
frightened by my beard I am a lover of America tell me what are you looking for?

These two gentlemen represent two cultures. When visiting the café, it is reported that the
Americans insist on sitting with their backs to the wall. We learned about this through Changez,
who says:

“Oh you want to sit with your back to the wall?”

Changez quickly reveals personal details of his life and the story begins when his forts landed in
Princeton and continues until his return to Pakistan after sipping tea. This is a dramatic
monologue since the listener is mute throughout the story, and we can't tell whether what
Changez says is the truth or not. We only have one side of the narrative, and it would be foolish
to judge the story's credibility just on the basis of its one side. The usage of dramatic monologue
is effective because it establishes a connection with the audience. By inventing a nameless
American character that mimics the audience, the writer is able to draw the reader immediately
into the story. Another major element of the monologue is that it silences American viewpoints,
making it easier for the writer to portray Pakistani viewpoints. This monologue has certain
benefits, but it also has some drawbacks. For example, it portrays an unreliable narrator, and we
have no way of knowing if the narrator is telling the truth or not because we are only hearing his
side of the story.

Changez gradually reveals himself to be an unreliable narrator. In the novel, Changez admits that
each story is fragile. The American listener begins to dislike Changez as the story progresses
since Changez stated at the start of the novel:

“I am a lover of America”

But after the attack of 9/11 he said:

“He is the activist against America. His perception about America changes after the attack”.

The reliability of the Changez is also questioned because we see in the novel that he is himself
confused and he is ensure of where he belongs and what he actually wants. He was living a
happy life in America and he was so fond of American culture that he had completely adopted it.
He was also in love with Erica who was an American but still we see that in the novel he said:
“I attempted to act and speak as much as my dignity would permit, more like an American.”

But he felt a sense of satisfaction inside him when the World Trade Center was demolished, he
said:

“Of the twin towers of new York world trade center collapsed and then I smiled. Yes,
despicable as it may sound my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased”.

Moreover Changez also said that:

“I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought
America to her knees”.

Hamid wrote the novel from a narrow point of view to persuade readers to seek out the other side
of the tale, as it is important to take into consideration both sides of a particular topic before
passing judgement. Throughout the novel, the author builds an atmosphere of mistrust
surrounding Changez persona, causing readers to get anxious and question Change's credibility
as a narrator. This helps the writer to underline the fact that any story is only as credible as its
storyteller.

Preference:

As long as the choices are concerned, I do not prefer the dramatic monologue because even at
one side it does keeps the reader engaged throughout the story and the readers or the audience
engage themselves in the narrative and try to judge the credibility of the speaker by his words
and the reaction of the listener in the story but the fact this dramatic monologue is not reliable
because the words of speaker cannot be trusted so this form of narration is very unreliable and
faulty. Although the speaker is not allowed to partake in the story in the similar way that the
American was not allowed to speak but the importance of his character cannot be denied as he is
an embodiment of American culture and the way he ends the novel with his suspicious act ends
the novel on a high note creating a cliffhanger for the readers and alongside the credibility is also
questioned alongside the speaker Changez in the novel. Though there are many drawbacks of
using dramatic monologue in the novel, but the fact cannot be denied it keeps the audience
engaged and the emotions of the speaker are conveyed directly to the audience through the
addressee. And the readers try to question the credibility of the speaker that whether the
speaker’s facts are reliable or not.