The Performative Utterance in Hamlet
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Hamlet knows what must be done yet he can’t
bring himself to do it
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We are exposed to Hamlet’s great influence with
words but notice that he prolongs his revenge as he tries to convince himself
to act
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Performative language ‘acts’, through locutionary
force (mutual intelligibility); illocutionary force (what is being said); and
perlocutionary force (consequences of what was said)
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Language can create reality if used correctly
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Bloom argues revelation comes to characters from
self-overhearing; is it revelation or creation?
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Paper will discuss whether Hamlet realizes that
his speech can actually create change
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Reason for self-overhearing= presenting inner
self to audience
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Can only utilize what was written in the text to
explore what was truly meant
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Meeting between Hamlet and ghost= two oaths;
demonstrate the effect of the illocutionary force on the perlocutionary force
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The oaths (illocutionary) drive action and
result in perlocutinary effect (success or failure)
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Thought à
language à
action
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Problem lies in the fact that Hamlet only swears
to remember the foul crime, not to revenge it
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Therefore the oaths contain no power and
performative utterances are not as driving as they would’ve been
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Playacting is said to only contain locutionary
force but not illocutionary (b/c it lacks context)
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Hamlet knows that he is unable to enact revenge
therefore turns to words, creates a self-loathing
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Hamlet
feels the necessity to accompany words with a display of emotions; mechanism of
performativity
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Connection is established between language and
emotion
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Belief of presence of emotion leads to belief in
authenticity (important)
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Problem of play= misrepresentation of intentions;
mimesis
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Central mimetic act= when Hamlet plays mad to
hide his intention of revenge
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To overreact is to risk authenticity, to lose
the visage of sincerity
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Hamlet must make his madness appear natural, as
he advises his players to do
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In order to pretend you must actually do; therefore
in playacting the locutionary value between when pretending and not pretending
is identical
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Only difference between two statements is the motivation
behind the speaking
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Constative value of utterance + manifestations
of emotions = effective performative utterance
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Hamlets utterances have illocutionary force of
appearing mad
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Polonius believes this because he represents the
formal idea of self (pre-modern)
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Through his madness he can explore his own
identity; his previous identities being unreal
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“all of us create ‘utterly different yet
self-consistent’ visages of ourselves every day”
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Lacking necessary thoughts/feelings causes
performative utterance to fail
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Hamlet knows he cannot determine fate, brings
peace
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Evolution Hamlet undertakes is only one of
closure and acceptance
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“man who uses that performative power in the
unending task of the realization of the self” ; not to perform actions
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Just as he is dying he realizes this