Hamlet Essay Redo

        A sense of “self” is something someone can only determine, literally, with in themselves.  How your thoughts connect with your actions, and how your actions coincide with your morals.  Your sense of “self” is just you and your mind.  Hamlet and other characters with in the play of Hamlet have a sense of “self“ that is complicated because they all have different intentions at hand.  Hamlet’s sense of “self” is to avenge his father’s death, but his actions state otherwise showing him as a very confused character. Ophelia, Guildenstern, and Rosencrantz all really have no sense of “self” because they do not think for themselves, instead they let others influence all there actions.  Then there is the King and Queen whose actions all show that they almost have no sense of “self” at all, meaning there morals and standards are so low that their minds cannot tell the difference between right and wrong.  The idea and context of each characters sense of “self” defines the plot within Hamlet because each action that is portrayed in the play is solely determined on the individual characters “self” decisions.

           

            The play Hamlet is a combination of revenge, confusion and sadness that leads into a tragedy of an ending. The play is written to captivate its audience and allow them to know more than every other character present within the play does. I feel Hamlet, the character, had an indecisive state of mind, and was caught between his thoughts and his actions. This is where we see his revengeful threats not coinciding with his conclusive actions. The performative utterance came into affect because it didn’t really matter whether Hamlet talked about what he did and whether he actually followed through with it.  Words can speak just as loudly as actions do in many cases.  This is so in Hamlet’s case because his words, or thoughts, define him as a character not his actions; even though he did not follow through with his revenge his utterances throughout the play defined him as a character. Hamlet’s words, not actions, impact the characters specifically through out the play.  Ophelia is thrown into a sense of madness when Hamlet reveals his real feelings towards women and Rosencrantz was called out by Hamlet with numerous offensive lines.  The performative utterances’ impact the play because no character had to actually carry out any kind of action to stir the pot of drama and suspense they simply had to use their power of speech.

           

            Diction and Syntax proved to be greatly cherished in the writing of this play because each line has a point to it, while having a point, it also has a separate interpretation.  Shakespeare wrote each word down, but not everything we see is the intended interpretation because one persons mind differs from their neighbor.  This idea therefore shows that everyone’s self-overhearing will alter the meaning for another person if discussed.  Hamlet words are faulty, in a sense, because he never follows through with any of his revengeful actions, but this does not mean they have no meaning at all according to De Boer. This idea leads into the fact of how Hamlet’s words don’t constitute his actions, but it does effects the performative utterance intended by Shakespeare with in the play.

           

            Performative Utterances’ impact on my self over-hearing is different than what I would have thought in the beginning of the play.  With De Boer’s paper in mind I see myself realizing that the words with in the play have more of an effect on the plot than the actually actions or events that are carried out.  The words are the focus and the importance.  As I read, and thought thoroughly about the play, my mind altered greatly. I went from thinking Hamlet was a coward who wanted to kill himself to thinking his words/ thoughts were not in sync with his actions, making him more complicated than first thought.  The idea of self-overhearing allows me to replay each and every soliloquy stated by Hamlet and form it as my own in my mind, making it different.  Sometimes I learn it’s not what I think and sometimes I alter it to make it what I think, after all our minds change things to make them what we want them to be right? What we want to remember is what we do remember, and that is what I feel self-overhearing his; learning in your own mind from event, words, or even plays like Hamlet.  Your interpretation is the ultimate learning cycle come to an end.

           

            The idea of self-overhearing, and performative utterance now reminds me to put meaning behind my words, and if they result into actions, put meaning behind that too!  The experience and exploration of these ideas will reflect my real world experiences because I will not allow the end result of my words to be my demise, like what was seen in Hamlet. Reflecting on certain experiences and allowing your mind to change the past is what our brains are trained to do and this is seen consistently through out Hamlet. Hamlet talks himself in and out of things all of the time in the play, and I can closely relate to this idea.   I feel, that if you put stronger meaning behind your words, the actions will portray your ideas, but even if no events come about, your words are still a meaningful impact.  This idea completely differs from what people hear everyday, “actions speak louder than words,” but with the idea of performative utterance in the play and in my own life experiences, (with De Boer’s paper in mind) words can impact people in the same way as actions do.  Overall because of self-overhearing and performative utterance, the power of words can overcome the power of actions in the right context and the right state of mind, this is seen through Hamlet as well as real world experiences.