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