Performative Utterance in Hamlet

Hamlet is a man of indecision; he can’t make out what is going on in his thoughts. His problem is thinking too much. If he said everything he thought he would be considered mad, which he is. He has good ideas he just can’t put the proper thoughts to words, instead he just goes on and on about stupid things going on in his head. The way Hamlet speaks influences the reader as well as all the characters in the story. He comes across as a crazy man that really has no plan and just acts off of his emotion. He just makes it seem that way. His performative utterance is what makes him so smart. By rambling on and acting like he is stressing over little things he makes his opponents under estimate him when really he has a plan all along.

Hamlet has some anxiety, I can relate to how Hamlet is because I have similar thoughts. Not that I want to kill my uncle, just that I over think things. The only difference is my thoughts actually stay in my head. I don’t actually say them out loud like Hamlet does. When I reflect on my thoughts, I try not dwell on what came to mind. I usually realize it was irrational and it wasn’t important. If I get excited about something in my thoughts, I give it huge expectations and if whatever I was excited about doesn’t end up happening, I’ll be devastated.

One example of performative utterance in my life is memorizing Hamlets soliloquy. That was a huge struggle mentally. It was very hard to stay confident that I could do it, because as I was memorizing I caught my self thinking, “this will never work, I’ll never be able to memorize this.” Obviously those are not good thoughts to have when you are trying to memorize a soliloquy like “To be or not to be.”

I think it’s ironic that I experienced performative utterance while reading an article about performative utterance. It was a very long article and I had just gotten out of surgery, so I was tired and every part of me was telling me to stop reading and go to sleep, but I couldn’t let my self do that. I was fighting my thoughts just so I could finish the article and catch up with the rest of the class.

I don’t think Hamlet and I share much in common, but I know we share the traits of anxiety and over thinking. I’m just glad I can handle my sanity better than he can. He is very dramatic with his thoughts and it causes him to get in a lot of trouble. I just hope I never end up plotting to kill my uncle, he’s quite a nice man.