Breaking the fourth wall

Breaking the fourth wall

Breaking the fourth wall in a narrative, particularly in drama, is the action of characters violating the convention of the fourth wall, for instance when performers in a play speak directly to or even interact with the audience, when movie or television characters speak directly into the camera, when protagonists in a novel acknowledge the artificiality of the story they are in, or generally whenever fictional characters openly refer to themselves as such. Such moments, which draw attention to the lack of separation between character and audience or that remind the audience that the fourth wall does not really exist, are a form of metatheatre or metafiction.