The fourth wall is a performance
convention
Convention may refer to:
* Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct
** Treaty, an agreement in international law
* Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...
in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onward, the rise of
illusionism
Illusionism in art history means either the artistic tradition in which artists create a work of art that appears to share the physical space with the viewer"Illusionism," ''Grove Art Online''. Oxford University Press, ccessed 17 March 2008 or ...
in staging practices, which culminated in the
realism and
naturalism of the
theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept.
The
metaphor suggests a relationship to the
mise-en-scène behind a
proscenium arch. When a scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a
box set, the fourth of them would run along the line (technically called the
proscenium
A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...
) dividing the room from the
auditorium. The ''fourth wall'', though, is a theatrical convention, rather than of
set design. The actors ignore the audience, focus their attention exclusively on the dramatic world, and remain absorbed in its fiction, in a state that the theatre practitioner
Konstantin Stanislavski
Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski ( Alekseyev; russian: Константин Сергеевич Станиславский, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin sʲɪrˈgʲejɪvʲɪtɕ stənʲɪˈslafskʲɪj; 7 August 1938) was a seminal Russian Soviet Fe ...
called "public solitude" (the ability to behave as one would in private, despite, in actuality, being watched intently while so doing, or to be 'alone in public'). In this way, the fourth wall exists regardless of the presence of any actual walls in the set, the physical arrangement of the
theatre building or performance space, or the actors' distance from or proximity to the audience. In practice, performers often feed off the energy of the audience in a palpable way while modulating performance around the collective response, especially in pacing action around outbursts of laughter, so that lines are not delivered inaudibly.
Breaking the fourth wall is violating this performance convention, which has been adopted more generally in the drama. This can be done by either directly referring to the audience, the play as a play, or the characters' fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance. This act of drawing attention to a play's performance conventions is
metatheatrical. A similar effect of
metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended. The phrase "breaking the fourth wall" is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
s and
book
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this phys ...
s.
History of the convention
The concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic and dramatist
Denis Diderot in 1758.
The acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the
suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief, sometimes called willing suspension of disbelief, is the avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for ...
between a work of fiction and an audience, allowing them to enjoy the fiction as though they were observing real events.
Critic
Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible scrim that forever separates the audience from the stage".
In theatre
The fourth wall did not exist as a concept for much of dramatic history. Classical plays from Ancient Greece to the Renaissance have frequent direct addresses to the audience such as
asides and
soliloquies.
The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern
realistic theatre, which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comic effect when a boundary is "broken" when an actor or character addresses the audience directly.
Breaking the fourth wall is common in
pantomime and children's theatre where, for example, a character might ask the children for help, as when
Peter Pan appeals to the audience to applaud in an effort to revive the fading
Tinker Bell ("If you believe in fairies, clap your hands!"). Many of
Shakespeare's plays use this technique for comic effect.
In cinema
One of the earliest recorded breakings of the fourth wall in serious cinema was in
Mary MacLane's 1918 silent film ''
Men Who Have Made Love to Me'', in which the enigmatic authoress – who portrays herself – interrupts the vignettes onscreen to address the audience directly.
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Norvell Hardy (born Norvell Hardy; January 18, 1892 – August 7, 1957) was an American comic actor and one half of Laurel and Hardy, the double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted from 1926 to 1957. He appeared with his c ...
often broke the fourth wall in his films with
Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy double act, duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Ha ...
, when he would stare directly at the camera to seek sympathy from viewers.
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
spoke directly to the audience in ''
Animal Crackers'' (1930), and ''
Horse Feathers'' (1932), in the latter film advising them to "go out to the lobby" during
Chico Marx's piano interlude. Comedy films by
Mel Brooks,
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...
, and
Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker frequently broke the fourth wall, such that with these films "the fourth wall is so flimsy and so frequently shattered that it might as well not exist", according to ''
The A.V. Club''.
Woody Allen broke the fourth wall repeatedly in his movie ''
Annie Hall'' (1977), as he explained, "because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them." His 1985 film ''
The Purple Rose of Cairo'' features the breaking of the fourth wall as a central plot point.
The fourth wall was used as an integral part of the plot structure and to demonstrate the character played by Michael Caine, in his eponymous breakout role in the 1966 film ''Alfie'', who frequently spoke to the audience to explain the thinking and motivation of the womanizing young man, speaking directly to the camera, narrating and justifying his actions, his words often contrasting with his actions.
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...
wrote in his 1971 book ''The Total Filmmaker'', "Some film-makers believe you should never have an actor look directly into the camera. They maintain it makes the audience uneasy, and interrupts the screen story. I think that is nonsense, and usually I have my actors, in a single, look direct into the camera at least once in a film, if a point is to be served."
Martin and Lewis look directly at the audience in ''You're Never Too Young'' (1955), and Lewis and co-star
Stella Stevens each look directly into the camera several times in ''
The Nutty Professor'' (1963), and Lewis' character holds a pantomime conversation with the audience in ''
The Disorderly Orderly'' (1964). The final scene of ''
The Patsy'' (1964) is famous for revealing to the audience the movie as a movie, and Lewis as actor/director.
In the 1986 teen film, ''
Ferris Bueller's Day Off'', the titular character breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience.
Mike Myers broke the fourth wall in ''
The Love Guru'' when he looked directly at the camera for a split-second when a
Queen song came on as a reference to the famous ''
Wayne's World'' head-banging scene. Eddie Murphy makes two brief, wordless glances at the camera in ''
Trading Places''. Near the end of ''
Nobody's Fool'', Tiffany Haddish breaks the fourth wall by declaring that the film is not over and then proceeding to ruin a wedding ceremony.
In ''
The Railway Children'' the entire cast breaks the fourth wall and performs a curtain call as the credits roll. The camera moves slowly along a railway track towards a train that is decked in flags, in front of which all of the cast is assembled, waving and cheering to the camera. At the start of the credit sequence, a voice can be heard shouting "Thank you, Mr. Forbes" to acknowledge producer Bryan Forbes. In the end, Bobbie Waterbury (Jenny Agutter) holds up a small slate on which "The End" is written in chalk.
In ''
Mr. Bean's Holiday'' the entire cast, together with massed extras, break the fourth wall while joining in singing "
La Mer La Mer may refer to:
* ''La mer'' (Debussy), an orchestral composition by Claude Debussy
* "La Mer" (song), a 1946 song by Charles Trenet
*La Mer (horse)
La Mer was a thoroughbred racehorse, who raced from 1976 to 1979.
La Mer was sired by Co ...
" by
Charles Trenet, accompanied by a recording by the song's writer.
Leonardo DiCaprio repeatedly breaks the fourth wall in the 2013 film ''
The Wolf of Wall Street'' directed by
Martin Scorsese.
The movies ''
Deadpool'' and ''
Deadpool 2'' are specifically known for the main character
Deadpool, played by
Ryan Reynolds, consistently breaking the fourth wall.
In
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
, ''
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', the last movie depicting the original cast, ends with the cast looking and smiling at the camera, breaking the fourth wall.
''
Funny Games'' has Paul and Peter repeatedly breaking the fourth wall by turning around and winking at the camera, talking to the audience by saying they are probably rooting for the family, addressing the film isn't at its feature runtime and smiling at the camera at the end of the film.
The 2022 ''
Persuasion
Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for Social influence, influence. Persuasion can influence a person's Belief, beliefs, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, Intention, intentions, Motivation, motivations, or Behavior, behaviours.
...
'' film was criticized for its modernization take on the classic 1817
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots oft ...
novel by having the main protagonist
Anne Elliot
Anne Elliot is the protagonist of Jane Austen's sixth and last completed novel, ''Persuasion'' (1817).
Anne Elliot was persuaded, when she was 19 years old, to break off her engagement with Frederick Wentworth, a promising young lieutenant in th ...
(played by
Dakota Johnson) constantly breaking the fourth wall by interacting with the audience.
On television
On television, breaking the fourth wall has been done throughout the history of the medium.
Fourth wall breakage is common in comedy-based programs, used frequently by
Bugs Bunny and other characters in ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. '' and other later animated shows, as well as the live-action sketch comedy of ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
'', which the troupe also brought to their feature films. George Burns regularly broke the fourth wall on ''
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show'' (1950). The Marvel television series, ''
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law'', has its center character, Jennifer Walters/
She-Hulk
She-Hulk (Jennifer "Jen" Walters) is a fictional Character (arts), character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in ''The Savage She-Hulk'' #1 (cov ...
, frequently use fourth-wall breaking as part of its comedy, and on its finale episode, literally broke the fourth wall by "breaking out" of the
Disney+ app, take to the real Marvel Studios, and demand changes from the robot K.E.V.I.N., an in-joke for the
Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Mar ...
head
Kevin Feige
Kevin Feige ( ; born June 2, 1973) is an American film and television producer who has been the president of Marvel Studios and the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise since 2007. The films he has produced have a combin ...
.
Another convention of breaking the fourth wall is often seen on
mockumentary sitcoms, including ''
The Office''. Mockumentary shows that break the fourth wall poke fun at the documentary genre with the intention of increasing the satiric tone of the show. Characters in ''
The Office'' directly speak to the audience during interview sequences. Characters are removed from the rest of the group to speak and reflect on their experiences. The person behind the camera, the interviewer, is also referenced when the characters gaze and speak straight to the camera. The interviewer, however, is only indirectly spoken to and remains hidden. This technique, when used in shows with complex genres, serves to heighten the comic tone of the show while also proving that the camera itself is far from a passive onlooker.
In the sitcom ''
How I Met Your Mother
''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...
'', the fourth wall gets broken by
Robin Scherbatsky in the episode "
Mystery vs. History
"Mystery vs. History" is the sixth episode of the How I Met Your Mother (season 7), seventh season of the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' and the 142nd episode overall. It aired on October 17, 2011.
Plot
When Ted Mosby, Ted decides to date ...
".
Another approach to breaking the fourth wall is through a central
narrator character who is part of the show's events, but at times speaks directly to the audience. For example,
Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series ''
House of Cards'', ''
To Play the King'' and ''
The Final Cut'' addresses the audience several times during each episode, giving the viewer comments on his own actions on the show. The same technique is also used, though less frequently, in the American adaptation of ''
House of Cards'' by main character
Frank Underwood.
The
Netflix series ''
A Series of Unfortunate Events'', based on
Daniel Handler's book series
of the same name, incorporates some of the narrative elements from the books by having Lemony Snicket as a
narrator character (played by
Patrick Warburton) speaking directly to the television viewer that frequently breaks the fourth wall to explain various literary wordplay in a manner similar to the book's narration. Every episode of the sitcom ''
Saved by the Bell'' breaks the fourth wall with an introduction by the character
Zack Morris. Most episodes have several other fourth wall breaks. This is similar to how ''
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'', ''
Clarissa Explains It All'' and ''
Malcolm in the Middle
''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American family television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes.
The series follows a dysfunctional ...
'' use fourth wall breaks to set up stories or have characters comment on situations.
Furthermore, breaking the fourth wall can also be used in
meta-referencing in order to draw attention to or invite reflection about a specific in-universe issue. An example of this is in the very first episode of the final season of the show
''Attack on Titan'', where a newly introduced character,
Falco Grice, starts to hallucinate about events that took place in the last 3 seasons. This
literary device utilises
self-referencing to trigger media-awareness in the recipient, used to signpost the drastic shift in perspective from the Eldian to the Marleyan side, and can be employed in all sorts of media.
The use of breaking the fourth wall in television has sometimes been unintentional. In the ''
Doctor Who'' episode "
The Caves of Androzani", the character of Morgus frequently breaks the fourth wall when he is alone in his office. This was due to actor
John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction. But the episode's director,
Graeme Harper, felt that this helped increase dramatic tension, and decided not to reshoot the scenes.
In video games
Given their interactive nature, nearly all video games break the fourth wall by asking for the player's participation. But beyond the obvious ways in which video games break the fourth wall (for example, by having User Interface (UI) elements on the screen, teaching the player controls, teaching the player how to save, etc.), there are several other ways that games have done this. These can include having the character face the direction of the player/screen, having a self-aware character that recognizes that they are in a video game, or having secret or bonus content set outside the game's narrative that can either extend the game world (such as with the use of
false documents) or provide "behind the scenes" type content. Such cases typically create a video game that includes a
metafiction
Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...
narrative, commonly presently characters in the game incorporating knowledge they are in a video game.
For example, in ''
Doki Doki Literature Club'', one of the characters (Monika) is aware she is part of a video game, and at times, asks the player to delete game files that are the other in-game characters via their computer's operating system (an action they take outside of the game) to progress the story. The plot of the game ''
OneShot
''OneShot'' is an adventure game developed by indie studio Future Cat and published by Degica. Based on a 2014 free version, it was released for Steam on December 8, 2016, and on itch.io on March 12, 2020. A version adapted for consoles, ''OneS ...
'' revolves around the fictional universe of the game being a
simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the ...
running on the player's computer, with certain characters being aware of this fact and sometimes communicating directly with the player. In other cases of metafictional video games, the game alters the player's expectation of how the game should behave, which may make the player question if their own game system is at fault, helping to increase the immersion of the game.
But since video games are inherently much more interactive than traditional films and literature, defining what truly breaks the fourth wall in the video game medium becomes difficult.
Steven Conway, writing for ''
Gamasutra
''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...
'', suggests that in video games, many purported examples of breaking the fourth wall are actually better understood as ''relocations'' of the fourth wall or expansions of the "
magic circle" (the fictional game world) to encompass the player.
This is in contrast to traditional fourth wall breaks, which break the audience's illusion or
suspension of disbelief
Suspension of disbelief, sometimes called willing suspension of disbelief, is the avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for ...
, by acknowledging them directly.
Conway argues that this expansion of the magic circle in video games actually serves to more fully immerse a player into the fictional world rather than take the viewer out of the fictional world, as is more common in traditional fourth wall breaks. An example of this expansion of the magic circle can be found in the game ''
Evidence: The Last Ritual'', in which the player receives an in-game email at their real-life email address and must visit out-of-game websites to solve some of the puzzles in the game. Other games may expand the magic circle to include the game's hardware. For example, ''
X-Men'' for the Mega Drive/Genesis requires players to reset their game console at a certain point to reset the X-Men's in-game Hazard Room, while ''
Metal Gear Solid'' asks the player to put the
DualShock controller on their neck to simulate a back massage being given in-game.
Other examples include the idle animation of
Sonic the Hedgehog
is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...
in his games where the on-screen character would look to the player and tap his foot impatiently if left alone for a while, and one level of ''
Max Payne
''Max Payne'' is a neo-noir third-person shooter video game series developed by Remedy Entertainment (''Max Payne'' and ''Max Payne 2'') and Rockstar Studios (''Max Payne 3''). The series is named after its protagonist, Max Payne, a New York Ci ...
'' has the eponymous character come to the realization he and other characters are in a video game and narrates what the player sees as part of the UI.
''
Eternal Darkness
''Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Silicon Knights and published by Nintendo, using themes of psychological horror and cosmic horror. Originally planned for the Nintendo 64, it was switched to ...
'', which included a sanity meter, would simulate various common computer glitches to the player as the sanity meter drained, including the
Blue Screen of Death.
''
The Stanley Parable'' is also a well-known example of this, as the narrator from the game constantly tries to reason with the player, even going so far as to beg the player to switch off the game at one point.
In literature
The method of breaking the fourth wall in literature is a
metalepsis (the transgression of narrative levels), which is a technique often used in
metafiction
Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...
. The metafiction genre occurs when a character within a literary work acknowledges the reality that they are in fact a fictitious being. The use of the fourth wall in literature can be traced back as far as ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus' ...
'' and ''
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
''. ''
Northanger Abbey'' is a late modern era example. However, it was popularized in the early 20th century during the
Post-Modern literary movement. Artists like Virginia Woolf in ''To the Lighthouse'' and Kurt Vonnegut in ''Breakfast of Champions'' used the genre to question the accepted knowledge and sources of the culture. The use of metafiction or breaking the fourth wall in literature varies from that on stage in that the experience is not communal but personal to the reader and develops a self-consciousness within the character/reader relationship that works to build trust and expand thought. This does not involve an acknowledgment of a character's fictive nature. Breaking the fourth wall in literature is not always metafiction. Modern examples of breaking the fourth wall include Ada Palmer's ''Terra Ignota'', and William Goldman's ''
The Princess Bride''.
Sorj Chalandon
Sorj Chalandon (born 16 May 1952 in Tunis) is a French writer and journalist.
Biography
Chalandon grew up in Lyon with his parents and brother. His father was intensely paranoid and violent, making his family life difficult. When Chalandon was t ...
wrote a novel called "The 4th wall" of the setting-up of a theatrical performance of Antigone in Beirut, while the civil war is raging.
See also
*
Aside
*
Audience participation
*
List of narrative techniques
*
Meta-reference
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
List of films that break the fourth wall on the Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Metafictional techniques
Stage terminology