Idiom
break the fourth wall
Meaning
To apparently communicate with reality directly, such as when characters of literature comment on the existence of a reader.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The actor breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience.”
“The movie becomes much funnier when the main character breaks the fourth wall and makes jokes about the plot.”
“By choosing to break the fourth wall, the playwright forces the audience to acknowledge their own presence as observers within the theatrical experience.”
Examples
simple
“The actor breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience.”
contextual
“The movie becomes much funnier when the main character breaks the fourth wall and makes jokes about the plot.”
complex
“By choosing to break the fourth wall, the playwright forces the audience to acknowledge their own presence as observers within the theatrical experience.”
Origin
break + the + fourth wall
Key words
Related idioms
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