What is the fourth wall and where does it come from?
The fourth wall is a term invented by the film and theater director Andre Antoine. French was inspired by Discourse on dramatic poetry by Denis Diderot. As early as 1758, Diderot had formulated his fourth wall principle. For the writer and philosopher, there had to be an invisible wall, a virtual wall that had to separate the actors from the spectators: «Imagine, just at the edge of the theater, a great wall that separates you from the stage: interpret as if the canvas did not rise.» Obviously, the other three remaining walls were the sides and back of the theater stage.
Years later, this concept was assimilated by many playwrights. It was just a kind of method to get the most out of the actors. Stendhal (Henri Beyle) gave the concept a bit more depth in the 19th century. A few years later, this fourth wall illusion underwent a revolution when it was applied to theatrical realism. Konstantin Stanislavski applied it in the cherry orchard of Chekhov. It can be said that the fourth wall was also the seed of the controversial «Stanislavski Method», although without a doubt, that topic would be for another article.
What then is breaking the fourth wall?
If the theater, the cinema, a series or a video game fictitiously possess an invisible glass or fabric in which those who are inside do not see us, breaking the fourth wall is nothing more than turning the situation around. Interrupt the viewer and make a point to completely shatter that illusion.
As a general rule, breaking the fourth wall is a pretty creative way of doing things. humor. Simply because it is a resource that you rarely expect. The figure is moderately used in movies and television series. However, where it is most often used is in role-playing video games (RPG), theater and comics. In the video that we have attached, the example is shown very well in Shin Megami Tensei V. A few minutes into the game, after trying to recruit a character, we can convince him to join our ranks simply by telling him that we are the protagonist of the game.
Deadpool, She Hulk and other cases of breaking the fourth wall
This resource is usually used very occasionally, but there are works that abuse this concept to generate humor by repetition. dead pool is probably the textbook example. The antihero movies are full of moments in which Ryan Reynolds addresses the public directly, something that already happened in the comics.
However, the subject of the fourth wall is being talked about a lot around the premiere of the series of she-hulk. Apparently, Lawyer Hulka will use quite a lot of this resource. What not many people know is that, in the comics originals, this character also used this narrative trick quite a bit. Knowing that the mutant superheroine was born before the antihero, we can affirm that She Hulk already broke the fourth wall long before Deadpool make it fashionable.