This chapter considers the soliloquy in the plays of John Ford. His finely wrought and rapid-paced dramatic action is punctuated and facilitated by a great many hurriedly made asides to the audience, often intensifying both the frenetic pace and the sense of claustrophobia that are characteristic of his tragedies. Soliloquies, as distinct from brief asides, are, however, few and far between. This sparing use of the soliloquy might seem like an odd choice for a dramatist who is clearly interested in the wilful resistance of individuals against the incursions of fate or the supposed limitations of their society, and who also clearly draws on Marlovian traditions of self-willed transgression. Where soliloquies do exist in Ford’s plays, they are often determinedly self-defeating. In particular, his soliloquies delineate a pointed and sustained interest in the impossibility of solitude and, through this, the difficulties of self-sufficiency. Being alone is a foundational condition for the soliloquy (as opposed to the aside which requires other characters to be on stage), but Ford’s interrupted soliloquies show time after time that solitude is not sustainable.