Hamlet Essay

Per formative Utterance

Often one might find him/herself rationalizing an action, or deciding on a course of action aloud. In part we do this to act as the voice of reason for ourselves, we split our personalities into the rational and irrational. More times than not the irrational wins the day because in the heat of battle emotions are stronger then logic. This is per formative utterance, the moment when a person acknowledges their own thoughts and wishes in a sort of third party way. Hamlet was a victim of this throughout the play, he would constantly talk the talk, and rarely walk the walk. Which is not always a bad thing but when one utters their convictions out loud to their friends and then does not act, there develops a bad impression of one’s character.

The first real per formative utterance in public that we see from Hamlet is when he swears to kill Claudius in front of Horatio. This really sets a tone for the passion that this man feels, for in that day to make a vow of that magnitude was next to unbreakable. As a result we continue through the play waiting for the moment that the Melancholy Dane finally avenges his father’s murder, but the moment never comes. So now we are left to ponder why a son would invoke god in his swear and not carry out his deed. Which leads us to further question his character as a man and prince. In this case his provado in his utterance made this man seem like a talker and not a walker.

The best example of per formative utterance are Hamlet’s five soliloquies. These are the only time we see hamlet in his true skin, not acting mad for the king or guarded around his friends, but true raw emotion. This type of per formative utterance is different in that in this case he is using his own word as reasoning to rationalize his thoughts. In each speech he focuses on great self-reflection. In each he uses himself as an example to put under the microscope and examine. Besides the fact that this inevitable breaks down his mental psych, it also shows us how introspective he is.

Hamlet embodied all that per formative utterance was, one helping oneself through problems by acting as a third party, and thinking out loud to the audience and his peers. Both introspective and self over hearing are both very common traits in humans, and this is why Shakespeare gave hamlet these qualities, to make a connection with his audience.