A very common fictional concept is that the characters are unaware of the fact that they are characters in somebody else's work of fiction.

This separation between the characters' world and the audience is the Fourth Wall -- named for the imaginary wall at the front of a stage play beyond which the actors are (usually) not supposed to cross. It's an [[OmnipresentTropes Omnipresent Trope]], because the separation of fiction and audience helps preserve the latter's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: The fictional characters treat their story as RealLife, and the audience interprets it the same way. See ThreeWallSet for the production implications of this concept; for example, TheCouch often directly faces the Fourth Wall. The exploration and subversion of the Fourth Wall is a common trait of Post Modernism.

!No examples, please; this merely [[Administrivia/DefinitionOnlyPages defines the term]]. Straight uses of the Fourth Wall are ''far'' too numerous and trivial to list, compared to examples of BreakingTheFourthWall or when there is NoFourthWall. %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1644184945085449000&page=2#comment-28
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!!Big list of related tropes (overlaps somewhat with MetafictionDemandedThisIndex):
[[index]]
* AddressingThePlayer: Talking to the player in a video game
* AsideComment: A line directed to the audience and apparently not heard by other characters, as if the speaking character is thinking aloud
* AsideGlance: Someone casts a look in the direction of the audience or screen (usually as reaction to what's happening), doesn't say anything, and doesn't get acknowledged.
* AssumingTheAudiencesAge: {{Fourth Wall Observer}}s and characters in works with NoFourthWall assume the viewer/reader/player's age.
* AudienceWhatAudience: Someone mentions something that implies the work is fictional (like writers, an audience, etc) and another person is just confused.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Characters talking directly to the audience through the wall of the set that's missing because the audience or camera are there, but is still assumed to exist. Also used more broadly to mean acknowledging that their world is a fiction and they are performers within it.
* BreakingTheReviewersWall: Reviewers interacting with the work's characters.
* CameraAbuse: Something affects the camera so that the screen will appear wonky.
* EndOfSeriesAwareness: A character is aware they're fictional and that their work is ending.
* EndsWithASmile: Doesn't always break the fourth wall, but often does.
* ExploitingTheFourthWall: Using the fourth wall for practical reasons.
* FoundFootageFilms: Putting the camera on the character's side of the fourth wall.
* FourthWallMailSlot: Fictional characters answer questions from the real viewers/readers/etc.
* FourthWallMyopia: Where fans forget that fictional people won't know as much as their watchers do.
* FourthWallObserver: One person is aware the work is fictional.
* FourthWallPortrait: In a work with cartoony-looking people, someone thinks a realistic drawing of a person looks crazy.
* FourthWallPsych: The fourth wall appears to be broken but isn't really.
* FourthWallShutInStory: An author gets trapped in their own work.
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Implications that the fictional danger will affect the audience, such as the villain acting like they're going to hurt/kill/etc the viewers.
* FrameBreak: Breaking through (or even just hitting) the frame of the panel.
* FromBeyondTheFourthWall: Someone in a work gets items from the author or us.
* InteractiveNarrator: The characters interact with the narrator of the story.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Acknowledging aspects of the fiction without quite being aware of it, such as saying things like "If this were a movie".
* LoggingOntoTheFourthWall: Fictional websites.
* MediumAwareness: Beyond being aware of being fictional, characters know their story's format; marking time in "episodes" or "issues", knowing that everything happens over length of a TV show, etc.
* NinjaProp: Props that should've been beyond the fourth wall suddenly affects the world in some way.
* NoFourthWall: Everybody is well aware they're fictional characters.
* NoInnerFourthWall: Characters in a ShowWithinAShow break their own fourth wall.
* NoticingTheFourthWall: Characters suddenly realise they're fictional.
* PaintingTheMedium: Some part of the fiction is stylized to convey an information for the audience; this stylizing won't be noticeable to the fictional characters themselves.
* ThePlayerIsTheMostImportantResource: Video game characters state that they need the players.
* {{Prop}}: Something an actor holds or physically interacts with in a production.
* ReachingThroughTheFourthWall: The characters, objects, or concepts in non-physical realities move across the story-device boundary and become physical non-animated characters or objects.
* ReadingAheadInTheScript: The characters predict the future by reading their script.
* RefugeeFromTVLand: Someone goes through the fourth wall and enters the land of reality.
* ScoldingTheFourthWallBreaker: A character scolds another character in-universe for breaking the fourth wall.
* ScreenTap: Tapping the screen.
* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: There are gradations of how much of a break some of these others can be; for example, an AsideComment can just be a character thinking on the "harder" side, while adding in some MediumAwareness into your Aside ("She'll run ''out of the room'' now, I just know it" vs. "She'll run ''off stage'' now, I just know it.")
* StopPokingMe: Characters in a video game tell the player to stop poking them with the cursor.
* ThisIsReality: "That only works in a movie" say the characters in a movie.
* TitleReadingGag: A joke centred around characters reading the title.
* TrappedInTVLand: Someone goes through the fourth wall and enters the land of fiction.
[[/index]]
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