Breaking Down the Fourth Wall

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”

-Shakespeare

Anyone remotely familiar with Shakespeare knows that he sometimes employed the use of a commentator or “observer” in his plays, who periodically remarked, often satirically, on the action. Unlike a mere narrator, however, this type of character speaks essentially as a member of the audience, openly acknowledging that, yes, this is a play. In theater, this device is called “breaking the fourth wall,” with the idea that the stage has three walls (two sides, one back), with the fourth being the imaginary wall between the players and the audience. Wikipedia describes it as follows:

“The fourth wall is the imaginary ‘wall’ at the front of the stage… through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play…. Speaking directly to or otherwise acknowledging the audience through a camera in a film or television program, or through this imaginary wall in a play, is referred to as ‘breaking the fourth wall’ and is considered a technique of meta-fiction, as it penetrates the boundaries normally set up by works of fiction.”