Hamlet Essay

Jose Sagrero

11/3/13

Period 3

 

Hamlet and Performative Utterance

 

     Hamlet's performative utterance is a very complex one, a large part of this is Hamlet being a dynamic character. Hamlet's apparent madness would constitute as such because he would out loud show his supposed "madness" but then when in his soliloquies, he reveals himself as a deep intellectual fully aware of his surroundings. His "act" could be considered as an enormous part of the overall feelings and actions of the other characters towards Hamlet and to other characters. Performative Utterance in Hamlet was very essential to the plot because it showed Hamlet as a dynamic character. Self overhearing is also apparent because it shows that people go with their personal perception to analyze the situation. Real world experiences are also relatable to the play because the entire world has been analyzing and relating Hamlet since the play's existence.

    

     Hamlet was a perfectionist when it came to performative utterance because he was able to appear to be insane with his speech he was and then when alone he was able to show how intellectual he actually was. The "To be or not to be" speech was a prime example of the performative utterance that helped developer Hamlet as an analyst to his surroundings. Some may argue that he was insane but in reality, would an insane person be able to use the performative utterance to near perfection? Calling him insane without the proper evidence does not prove his insanity. Other characters stating that he is crazy does not conclude that he is insane, in fact Shakespeare never tries to imply that Hamlet is crazy because Hamlet himself knows the consequences and the possible outcomes when he goes through with his plans.

 

     Self-overhearing was important because it was able to make each character seem like the have a feeling of what is going on. Hamlet may have been self-overhearing when he spoke with the ghost of his father. While Hamlet was not the only one who saw the ghost the first time he saw it, when he spoke to his mother he was able to see it but his mother could not. This may be an implication of Hamlet Ghost served as Hamlet's form of self-overhearing. A real-world experience would be when I was not sure if I wanted to take a certain AP class, I doubted myself on whether or not I could handle the work, but then I convinced myself to take the challenge and not back down from myself. Although this is not the situation Hamlet was in, the comparison could be in the doubt that both of us had.

    

    The importance of the performative utterance in this play was very effective because it helped develop Hamlet's character by making him seem insane in speech but vey elaborate in private. This may possibly be credited to the fact that he may not of been his own self over-hearing, but instead the ghost of his father helping him with his self-overhearing. The longevity of Hamlet also allows people to relate Hamlet to real-world situations and having Hamlet as a reference.