In Act 3 scene 4, there is rhyming in a monologue, and this occurs in Hecate’s lines (act 3, scene 4, lines 2-35). We do not know anything about Hecate, but we know that she is associated with the witches since witch 1 talks to her like a friend or acquaintance. Shakespeare uses rhymes to tell the reader that that Hecate is a witch through her monologue. Also, the fact that she was given a name and not named witch 4 makes her character more significant than the other witches. Without looking at the side notes in the book, we can see that she is the head of the witches by looking at what she says.
When a person says a spell or chant, the chant/spell would have rhymes. In the previous acts (act 1), witch 1 speaks in rhyme (act 1, scene 3, line 14-26). So by this we can deduce that Hecate is a witch, and the way she chides them tells us that she is the leader or head of the witches. Hecate’s monologue is written in the form of rhyming couplets, which gives us the effect of a chant, spell or curse.
The choice of words also gives us the impression that Hecate is a witch. Charms, harms, destiny, illusions are some of the words that Hecate uses in her monologue. In act 1, the witches tell Macbeth his “destiny” or fate. In this monologue, charms are also mentioned. Charms are associated with witches most of the time, we reinforces the fact that Hecate is a witch. So by Shakespeare’s choice of words we can see that she is a witch. This monologue is also very different from other characters in the book. Characters such as Macbeth, Macduff, Duncan hardly every speak in rhyme in this play, making it more evident that Hecate is a witch.
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