Monologues for the "Femme Fatale / Seducer" type
Classic monologues matched to the "Femme Fatale / Seducer" acting type.
11 monologues
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth · William Shakespeare
«The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits…»
'Come, you spirits…' — a summons to darkness, unsexing herself for power. Cold force, not shouting.
Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra · William Shakespeare
«I dream'd there was an Emperor Antony: O, such another sleep, that I might see But such another man! His face…»
Take it for the apotheosis of love and grief: Cleopatra makes the dead Antony into a cosmic myth — play it on the edge of ecstasy and despair.
Constance
King John · William Shakespeare
«Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace! False blood to false blood join'd! gone to be friends! Shall Lewis…»
A mother just told her cause is betrayed — play mounting disbelief and dread, clinging to hope until the last word.
Olivia
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«'What is your parentage?' 'Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: I am a gentleman.' I'll be sworn thou…»
Olivia catches herself falling in love at first sight — play the surprise and surrender to the feeling.
Lady Teazle
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«Hear me Sir Peter—I came hither on no matter relating to your ward and even ignorant of this Gentleman's…»
The turning-point repentance after the screen falls: from coquette to candour, the wife's tenderness winning out over vanity.
Goneril
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«Not only, sir, this your all-licensed fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp and quarrel;…»
Goneril goes on the offensive against her father — play it cold, with calculated menace masked as concern.
Tamora
Titus Andronicus · William Shakespeare
«Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? These two have 'ticed me hither to this place: A barren detested…»
Cold-blooded lie engineered to provoke murder: a fabricated tale of her own torment with which she sets her sons on to kill.
Katharina
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
«Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy…»
The famous final speech on a wife's duty — play it as submission, irony, or veiled defiance.
Vittoria Corombona
The White Devil · John Webster
«Humbly thus, Thus low to the most worthy and respected Lieger ambassadors, my modesty And womanhood I tender;…»
A woman on trial for her life refuses to grovel: she turns the courtroom into her stage and makes her accusers look small.
Cressida
Troilus and Cressida · William Shakespeare
«Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, He offers in another's enterprise; But more in Troilus…»
A cool, clear-eyed credo of a woman who knows the rules of desire: play her intelligence and self-protection, not coquetry — the love is real, the mask is strategy.
Beatrice-Joanna
The Changeling · Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
«This fellow has undone me endlessly; Never was bride so fearfully distress’d: The more I think upon th'…»
Play a gambler one beat before her move, not a weeping victim: the panic must pivot into predatory scheming the instant she spots the closet.