# Audition Monologues From Classic Novels: Austen, Dickens, Brontë, and When a Novel Is Allowed

> Can you use a monologue from a novel for an audition? What Juilliard, UNCSA, and Guildhall actually say, then eight spoken passages from Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations, each with the setup, what the character wants, where it starts and ends and the key line from the public-domain text, a run time, and how to cut the narration so it plays as speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/audition-monologues-from-classic-novels
- Published: 2026-11-03
- Last updated: 2026-11-03

You reread *Jane Eyre* last month, and one speech has followed you around ever since. It's angry, it's pure want, and it isn't one of the usual audition speeches. Then the question: is a novel even allowed?

Sometimes it is. Many notices quietly say no, in words that are easy to skim past. And when it is allowed, the best lines are wrapped in narration, speaker tags, and replies.

The short version: read the notice word by word before you fall for a passage, use the original novel and never a stage adaptation, and pick a stretch of the character's own dialogue spoken to someone in the scene. Below are eight speeches from Austen, Dickens, and the Brontës, each with the setup, the want, where it starts and ends, the key line, and a run time, quoted from the free texts on Project Gutenberg.

## Check what the notice says before you choose

Start with the actual words on the audition page. UNCSA and Guildhall rule a novel out without ever using the word, simply by asking for plays. The UNCSA School of Drama's [high school audition requirements](https://www.uncsa.edu/admissions/drama/high-school/audition-requirements.aspx) ask for monologues from a published play, and say applicants are expected to have read the entire play. Guildhall School of Music & Drama's [drama audition advice](https://gsmd.ac.uk/node/18592) says monologues must be taken from published plays.

Juilliard's FAQ left the door open a crack. Its [2020-21 monologue FAQ](https://www.juilliard.edu/sites/default/files/monologue_faqs_2020_21.pdf) answered this exact question for the contemporary monologue. The faculty preferred pieces from published plays, it said, but if you felt strongly about a piece that wasn't from a play, you could prepare it as long as your other monologues were from plays. Check the current requirements before you rely on it.

In that FAQ, the contemporary slot meant writers from roughly Chekhov and Ibsen onward, and the classical slots asked for poetic or heightened text. A speech by Austen or Dickens fits neither box neatly. Use these speeches where the notice welcomes them, and ask first where it doesn't say.

When the notice just says "a monologue," it doesn't promise a novel will be welcome. The New York State Theatre Education Association's [monologue audition tips](https://www.nystea.org/uploads/1/3/2/1/132114392/2025-2026_nystea_mono._adj._tips_copy.pdf) say a monologue must be from a published play, and that if you have questions, you should call the college. Call or email the school; a short question costs less than a wasted slot.

## Use the novel, not a stage adaptation

Every novel below is in the public domain in the United States, so the words are free to learn and perform. A modern stage version may not be. The U.S. Copyright Office's [Circular 14](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf) explains that a derivative work, such as a film based on a novel, carries its own copyright in whatever new material it adds, while the public-domain original underneath stays free. A modern adaptation's new lines are that new material.

Learning from the original also means that a panel member who knows the book never hears lines the novelist didn't write.

Every excerpt below is copied from the [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/) edition of each book, linked from each title. Their British spellings, like *honour*, sound the same out loud, so leave them as printed.

## Pick dialogue, not narration

A novel gives you two kinds of words: what the narrator tells the reader, and what a character says to someone else. Only the second kind is a monologue. A character's speech has a listener in the room, a reason to talk now, and something to win.

Even Jane Eyre, who narrates her own story, gives you a monologue only where she speaks out loud to someone in the scene, as she does to Rochester. Look for a long run of one character's dialogue, broken only by short replies or a line of description, with a change of tactic somewhere in the middle.

Run times below assume 140 words a minute, a conversational pace, with the narration removed. Several run past 90 seconds, so check each one against your time limit with a run of your own.

## Eight speeches from Austen, Dickens, and the Brontës

### Darcy, "And this is your opinion of me!" ([*Pride and Prejudice*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342))

Darcy has proposed, Elizabeth has refused, and she has just accused him of ruining Wickham. Darcy answers from *And this is your opinion of me!* to *so decidedly beneath my own?*, about 150 words with the narration removed, just over a minute. What he wants: to make her admit her pride is hurt, not her judgment. Cut both tags. For *cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room*, play the walk; for *added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her*, stop and turn on *But, perhaps*.

### Elizabeth Bennet, "the last man in the world" ([*Pride and Prejudice*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342))

Her reply to Darcy's speech, so the two cue each other. He has just asked whether she expected him to rejoice in her family's low connections. Her answer comes in three bursts with narration in between. From *You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy* to *prevailed on to marry* is about 150 words, just over a minute. What she wants: for him to understand that no proposal from him could ever have worked. The last line is the knife: *the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.*

### Jane, "Do you think I am an automaton?" ([*Jane Eyre*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1260))

Rochester has let Jane believe he will marry Miss Ingram and send her away. She tells him she must go, and he says she must stay. From *I tell you I must go!* to *equal,—as we are!* is about 155 words, just over a minute. What she wants: to be treated as his equal, once, out loud.

### Catherine, "I am Heathcliff" ([*Wuthering Heights*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/768))

Catherine has accepted Edgar Linton. The housekeeper, Nelly, has just called her plan to use Edgar's money to raise Heathcliff the worst motive yet. From *It is not, it is the best!* to *it is impracticable; and—* is about 220 words, around a minute and a half. What she wants: for Nelly to understand that she and Heathcliff can't be separated, whoever she marries. Its center is *Nelly, I am Heathcliff!* For a shorter piece, take her earlier dream speech, spoken after Nelly has refused to hear her dream: from *This is nothing* to *frost from fire*, about 165 words, a little over a minute.

### Anne Elliot on loving longest ([*Persuasion*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/105))

Anne is arguing with Captain Harville about whether men or women love more faithfully, knowing Captain Wentworth is in the room, writing a letter. Her last speech, from *Oh! I hope I do justice* to *when hope is gone*, is about 140 words, about a minute. What she wants: to win the argument without saying what it's really about. The line to land is *loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.*

### Mr. Knightley, "It was badly done, indeed!" ([*Emma*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/158))

On a picnic, Emma has mocked poor, talkative Miss Bates in front of everyone. While they wait for the carriage, Knightley finds a moment alone with her. From *They are blended, I acknowledge* to *you can do now* is about 215 words, a little over a minute and a half. What he wants: for Emma to see what she did, without losing her. Don't lecture; he hates saying it.

### Sydney Carton, "the last dream of my soul" ([*A Tale of Two Cities*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/98))

Carton, a brilliant lawyer drinking his life away, visits Lucie Manette to tell her he loves her and expects nothing. From *To none. No, Miss Manette, to none* to *you inspired it* is about 165 words, a little over a minute. What he wants: for her to know, once, that she mattered. To extend it (if the notice allows a joined cut), add his next speech, which ends *idly burning away*, and cut Lucie's one line between them: about 230 words, around a minute and 40 seconds.

### Joe Gargery, "life is made of ever so many partings" ([*Great Expectations*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400))

Joe, the village blacksmith, has visited Pip in London and been treated like an embarrassment. Leaving early, he says goodbye. From *Pip, dear old chap* to *GOD bless you!* is about 230 words, around a minute and 40 seconds. What he wants: to set Pip free without blame. In the full version, keep his grammar exactly as printed, *Diwisions* and all. For a shorter piece, start at *It ain't that I am proud*, about 150 words, though that loses the partings line and *Diwisions*. Joe isn't hurt here, he's clear, and that's what breaks the room.

## Cut the narration so it plays as speech

Dickens faced this problem himself. He gave public readings from his own books, and Charles Kent's 1872 book, [*Charles Dickens as a Reader*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21332), describes his marked reading copies. Kent writes that small bits of description were *unhesitatingly erased* as, from Dickens's point of view, *not necessarily to the purpose*, and that Dickens wrote notes to himself in the margins, such as *Tone to mystery.* The rest he left to his voice.

Do the same with your copy. Here's Miss Havisham telling Pip how to love Estella in *Great Expectations*, as printed: *I'll tell you,* said she, in the same hurried passionate whisper, *what real love is.* Cut the tag and it becomes one line: *I'll tell you what real love is.* The whisper doesn't vanish; it moves into how you say it.

Work through your passage in this order:

- Strike every speaker tag, such as "said she" and "he continued", and keep the spoken words exactly as written.
- Turn a line of description into an action or a pause, such as Darcy's walk across the room, rather than saying it.
- Cut short replies from the other character only where your speech still makes sense without them, and only if the notice allows lines joined across a cut.
- Never add words of your own to bridge a gap; if two sentences don't join, choose a different start or end.

Our guide on [how to cut a monologue](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-cut-a-monologue) walks through choosing where to start and stop, and you can check the length with our free [monologue timer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/monologue-timer). For speeches written for the stage, start with the [monologue library](https://www.offbook.com/monologues).

## Learn it word for word

Prose gives you no rhyme or meter to tell you a word is missing. As our guide on [how to memorize prose for performance](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-memorize-prose-for-performance) explains, memory tends to keep the meaning and let the exact wording slip, and the guide shows how to build a passage sentence by sentence and test yourself instead of rereading.

Keep the other character's line just before your speech, too, because it's your cue. In Offbook, upload your cut as a PDF or TXT file, pick your role, and realistic voices read the lines around yours. As the video below shows, you can hide your own lines while everyone else's stay on screen, or swap your words for first-letter cues on the way to a blank page.

Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07)

You can try the cue step on any passage with our free [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer). Jane's *Do you think I am an automaton?* becomes *D y t I a a a?* Say the line from the letters, check it against the page, and go again.

## Questions actors ask

### Can I use a monologue from a novel for an audition?

Only if the notice allows it. Many schools, including UNCSA and Guildhall, ask for published plays. Juilliard's 2020-21 FAQ allowed one non-play piece if your other monologues came from plays, but that opening was for the contemporary slot, so a 19th-century novel is a poor fit there. When the notice says only "a monologue," call or email and ask before you commit.

### Do drama schools accept monologues from books?

Many conservatory pages, including UNCSA's and Guildhall's, ask for monologues from published plays, and some ask you to have read the whole play. A novel speech works better in class or where the notice, or the school when you ask, welcomes non-play material. If you use one, read the whole novel.

### How long should a novel monologue be?

As long as the notice says, and usually a minute or two. At a conversational pace of 140 words a minute, 150 words runs just over a minute. If a speech runs short, join two by the same character only if the notice allows a joined cut.