How did Shakespeare use couplets?

Answer 1

In Shakespeare's works, rhyme can be used for many different reasons.

One way is to accentuate a short saying - to give it more emphasis and to make it easier to remember. For example, Hero's line from Much Ado About Nothing: "If this be true than loving goes by haps; Some Cupid gets with arrows, some with traps" and Hamlet's line from Hamlet: "The play's the thing; that will catch the conscience of the king." (Quotes are inexact. They're mostly memorized and I didn't look them up again. They're close though!)

Another reason is that it fits the scene. For example, the players in Hamlet speak in rhyme during their show.

Also, the ability to speak in rhyme can characterize. Again, an example from Hamlet, we often see that he rhymes when he speaks, and it informs us something is wrong when he starts a rhyme but doesn't end it, such as in Act III, when Horatio asks Hamlet why he didn't rhyme - he randomly said "Pajock" instead. When Polonius uses rhyme earlier in the same play, it is almost comical because, while speaking with the king, he rhymes similar words and doesn't keep a particular rhyme scheme.

Answer 2

Because the rich people speak in a poetic way while the poor have to speak in regular sentences.

This was only to make the rich look posh and snobby whilst it made the poor look un-educated etc

Answer 3

Rhymed couplets give a sense of finality so they bring a scene or act to a resounding close, such as "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king!". They could be used at the end of a speech for the same purpose if the speech is long. Sometimes (especially earlier in his career) he wrote whole dialogues in couplets. It also gives a good, interesting sound to the story.

Answer 4

A poetic couplet is a pair of lines of meter that rhyme. William Shakespeare often used rhyming couplets in both his sonnets and his plays.

Answer 5

because he loves it!