Throughout the play, Shakespeare sometimes ends a scene
with a rhyming couplet. The sound of the two lines together signals the listening
audience to an end of a thought or scene when heard together. If you skim through the
play you will find several other examples for this technique. The first clear example
of this is the end of Act 1 Scene 3 when Hamlet says, "Foul deeds will rise, / Though
all the earth's o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes." Another example is Act 2 Scene 2 when
Hamlet sums up his new-hatched plan, saying, "The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch
the conscious of the King."
In both of the these examples,
and even in the example of the previous post, it is clear that Hamlet is providing a
conclusion to his thoughts that come before these last lines. When reading and
listening to blank verse (unryhmed iambic pentameter) the ear is perhaps aware of the
rhythm of the lines, but there is a distinct lack of rhyme, so there rhymed lines
usually stand out from the rest.
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