: What does a character in a short story/novella/novel really do while "soliloquizing"? What does a character in a short story/novella/novel really do while soliloquizing? Are they talking to themselves

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Unless the author tells me otherwise, I always picture the character going about his business half talking to himself out loud and half talking to himself in his head. I picture it that way because that's what I do when I'm alone and in deep thought. OTOH, if the author actually uses the word soliloquy (or a form of it) to describe what the character is doing, then I would picture the character almost orating, out loud, to himself. How melodramatic my mind-picture would be would depend upon the character's previously described behavior.

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There are different kinds of ways a soliloquy might be presented in writing. In a play or a movie, the character is usually shown to be either talking out loud to themselves (some people do this in real life) or they are breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience. In writing, it's common for the narrator to break the fourth wall and address the reader, or to present at length the thoughts of the author, narrator, or one of the characters. This is typically just considered part of the narration and not necessarily part of the story. Therefore nothing happens while it is going on.
However, in-story characters presented as talking out loud, as Jane is in Jane Eyre:

As the wet twilight deepened, I stopped in a solitary bridle-path, which I had been pursuing an hour or more.
"My strength is quite failing me," I said in a soliloquy. "I feel I cannot go much farther. Shall I be an outcast again this night? While the rain descends so, must I lay my head on the cold, drenched ground?...."

from Google Books
In the above passage, the literal interpretation is that Jane is actually talking out loud. It doesn't seem unbelievable for her to do that, but you could choose to interpret it as a bit of dramatization of the telling of her story. If you do opt for the literal interpretation (as I do), then as to what else she might be doing at that moment, I'd say, is up to your imagination.

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