Refined Hamlet essay

Hamlet‘s character in the play subconsciously displays examples of “performative utterance. Performative utterance is when someone says something and it already has an action to it without having to complete such action. He consistently displays performative utterance with his “To be, or not to be“ soliloquy. When he recites his “To be, or not to be” soliloquy he states actions such as suicide and murder that we the audience take as an action he will carry out. Using performative utterance and self utterance helps me decide about a situation that I would be having trouble with, so seeing Hamlet do it shows us how smart and deep his character really is. Hamlet’s “To Be, Or not to be” soliloquy lets us see Hamlet’s true character for the first time. The audience sees Hamlet’s raw emotions and how much dept he has to his character. It lets the audience put a sort of trust into Hamlet, the way Hamlet speaks to himself in such a deep and intelligent manner makes the audience strongly believe that he will do exactly what he is saying. The way Hamlet uses performative utterance lets the audience see Hamlet in a very intimate way. Thus also letting the audience predict what Hamlet’s next move will be.
Hamlet has many examples from the play that display performative utterance, his “to be or not to be” soliloquy as well as many other of his soliloquies. Each time Hamlet uses performative utterance in his soliloqies it gives the audience a unique picture of Hamlet’s soon to come actions, just as if you were to hear someone in real life speak aloud to if they would commit suicide or not, it would give you a side of that person that you would have to believe just because they were so deep into their thought of “performative utterance,” so when Hamlet uses performative utterance the audience believes that the things Hamlet is saying he will actually do. Making the audience see a special side of Hamlet that the rest of the cast does not get to see giving the audience a more in dept relationship with the character. People who read Hamlet often take his performative utterance and have no choice but to believe him because of his signs of “madness,” but this shows a very intelligent side of Hamlet not a sign of madness.
People use performative utterance every day and never even notice it. Words like “I love you” and “I now pronounce you Joe and Shmoe” have actions in themselves. They mean all these different things to people but really mean nothing with out an action. You say you love someone but how do you prove that? Words mean nothing without an action to prove what you really mean. People subconsciously use examples of performative utterance in everyday life.
Hamlets use of perfromative utterance throughout the play, which shows his inner most thoughts which imply certain actions thus letting the audience know something about Hamlet that the rest of the cast does not know. This use of performative utterance is seen by many critics as a sign of madness, but in reality it’s really is a sign of intelligence, Hamlet puts a lot of thoughts into his actions and words in a way that not one word is used in a way he does not intend it to be.