How does Shakespeare use dramatic devices to show evil in the opening of Macbeth?
There are many kinds of dramatic devices used to create a certain atmosphere or feeling in a play; short sentences, dramatic irony, contrast, suspense, surprise etc. Shakespeare uses many of these devices to show evil in the opening of Macbeth.
Probably the most common, and almost the most obvious device is rhyming couplets. There are many points throughout the play where a character ends a speech or reply with rhyming couplets. This almost always shows two things; that the character has made a final decision, and that the scene has ended. One specific example of hoe the device is used is when Macbeth, at the end of Act 1 Scene 7 is saying to Lady Macbeth and the audience ‘… mock the time with the fairest show/…hide what the false heart doth know’. This is said when he makes the final decision that he is going to murder Duncan. Although he has made his decision, later on in Act 2 Scene 1, he seems to make this decision again, saying ‘I go and it is done…’ continued by ‘Hear it now Duncan for it is a knell /…summons thee to heaven or to hell.’. Here he is so sure about committing the murder, that he is telling himself it is already done, which shows the audience the extent of his decision, which is also backed up again by the rhyming couplets.
