Rhyming Schemes In Macbeth

Macbeth is story a tragedy of intrigue, power, and murder written by Shakespeare. Many of Shakespeare’s writings have been adapted into plays for his use of soliloquies and rhyming schemes. The rhyming schemes has an impact on the dialog changing between characters. Macbeth’s dialog contains more rhyming compared to Lady Macbeth’s straightforward lines. The rhyme scheme of Macbeth’s speech affects its meaning by changing its tone and enhancing the traits of each character.

Macbeth has changed the meaning of his dialog through the tone in which he speaks. Without the rhyme Macbeth would seem less sinister. The rhyming enhances dark tone of the sentence making it more enticing to the audience. As Macbeth is describing killing the king, he states:

The rhyme is between “fire”() and “desire” which draws more attention and emphasis when reading or speaking the words. If fire was replaced with light or desire was replaced with thoughts, there is not as much of an emphasis placed on either word. It also creates a connection between fire and desire, since they rhyme they enhance the meaning of desire by supporting the “black and deep” part of the second phrase(I.iv). The usage of “black”(I.iv) and “hide”(I.iv) implies Macbeth as a dark and evil person since he is hiding in the shadows.

Lady Macbeth lacks such a rhyming scheme and uses a more conventional soliloquy. As she plots to kill the King she says something similar to Macbeth:

Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

To cry 'Hold, hold!'(I.V)

The message is similar that they are going to the King under the cover of night, so that no one may see what is happening. Compared to Macbeth it isn’t as dark or as sinister as Macbeth. The use of the language “hell”(I.V) and “knife”(I.V) paint a grim picture but it is not as dark as Macbeth’s dark tone. There is not an emphasis on words and it changes the meaning because it doesn’t have the same imagery of the murder. Macbeth usage of words that rhymed enhanced itself where as Lady Macbeth’s dialog is relying on its own wording to cover for its