This is a very old trope: William Shakespeare's characters often addressed the audience. Breaking the fourth wall would occur when the actors would step through where the virtual fourth wall should be and address the audience directly. Named for the theatrical convention of building sets with right, left and back walls, while the audience observes the action through an imaginary 'fourth' note or sometimes 'third', depending on if or how the designers chose to number their walls wall located at the front of the stage. Such if the person is suffering from insanity or goes under some kind of existential crisis. Our definition is a bit narrower: Breaking The Fourth Wall only occurs if the characters acknowledge the audience or the author, whether directly or indirectly, got it? It's not enough that I recognize my status as a wiki page, it's the fact that I'm commenting to you about it!Īlthough Breaking the Fourth Wall are mostly Played for Laughs nowadays, serious fourth wall breaking is not unheard of. It should be noted that other sources will refer to any fiction that draws attention to its fictionality as 'Breaking the Fourth Wall'.

This trope is usually used for comedic purposes. This is more akin to breaking one of the walls of the set, but the existence of a director implies the existence of an audience, so it's still indirectly Breaking The Fourth Wall. Alternatively, they may interact with their creator (the author of the book, the director of the movie, the artist of the comic book, etc.).

Sure, I don't get as much attention as some of the other pages, but I try my hardest.Īnyway, the Fourth Wall is the fact that in any work of fiction the characters are unaware of the fact that they are fictional characters in a work, the audience observing them, and whatever medium conventions occur in between the two.īreaking the fourth wall is when a character acknowledges their fictionality, by either indirectly or directly addressing the audience.

Hey! How're you doing out there? It sure is nice to be the Breaking The Fourth Wall page on TV Tropes.

Flat character definition in literature