Lines for a Minor Character

This monologue is from a marginalised character. It critiques the modern workplace and capitalist structure which treats individuals as replaceable. The themes of identity and purpose are discussed here. It is part of a thinking activity task which explores marginalisation of characters from the play ‘Hamlet’. You can check it out here - Exploring Marginalization in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Lines for a Minor Character 

If my life was a play, this moment… this would be the twist. The shocking turn. The audience would gasp. Right now, they’d be watching me, breathless, wondering—how could this happen?

You see, I kept expecting a promotion. Any day now, I’d tell myself. Any minute! I’d whisper. “You’ll be rewarded. It’ll all be worth it. Every sleepless night, every hard-working day… every drop of sweat you poured into this place—worth it.”

And now? Now I’m out of a job. Just like that. My future, chaos. My career, a joke. And here I am, hiding in the company washroom, gripping the cold edge of the sink, trying not to cry.

If my life was a play—a tragedy—this is the moment things start to spiral. This is where the hero goes mad. I would wander into the storm, crying on some scenic English moor, calling out to the skies.

But… who am I kidding?

My life would never be a play. Those are for people with power. For names hold incredible significance. Me? I’d be a footnote. A nobody. A minor character with a name no one can pronounce. A pawn—moved, removed, discarded in someone else’s grand design.

And if I asked the big question, the one that has echoed through the ages — to be or not to be?—no one would even hear me.

No one ever does.