Hamlet Revised Essay

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is based on a man named Hamlet who seeks to avenge his father’s death. Throughout the play, his use of performative utterance influences the way he behaves toward other characters, and Hamlet eventually transforms from a man of words to a man of action. As a result of self-overhearing, it changed the way I behaved similar to Hamlet.

In the beginning of the play, the apparition (King Hamlet) informs Hamlet that Claudius has murdered him while he was asleep. Hamlet swears to the ghost that he will remember him and set out to accomplish his mission. His mind was full of grief and hatred towards Claudius, the murderer of his father. Instead of putting his thoughts into action, Hamlet waits patiently to confirm the crime and delays the kill. Having this in mind, Hamlet starts to act strangely in front of others. When Polonius comes to greet him, Hamlet pretends like he doesn’t know him and asks if he is a fishmonger. Polonius, flabbergasted by his bizarre reaction, believes that Hamlet is “mad”. Hamlet’s act of mimesis allows him to cover up his scheme to kill Claudius.

Hamlet was a man of words than action. Many of his soliloquies consist of his inner feelings and how he should deal with the current situation. When Hamlet had an opportunity to kill Claudius who was praying, he didn’t take action because he was aware that it wouldn’t be a good revenge to let Claudius go to heaven so he delayed the act. Not only until the battle with Laertes does he realize the long, postponed action. All of a sudden in Act 5, the tempo speeds up and literally everyone dies in an instant. First the queen dies after drinking the poisoned cup prepared for Hamlet, followed by Claudius who dies by Hamlet, then Laertes, and finally Hamlet himself who is cut by the poisoned sword.

Self-overhearing influenced the way I perceived things. Whenever I make a decision, I talk to myself consciously or unconsciously, to make the wisest decision. Whenever something goes wrong, I think to myself what went wrong and change my perspective on the same topic. Whenever I make the change, it goes well and I tell myself that I should look at every outcome possible before I make a decision.

Hamlet’s strange actions throughout the play were very confusing, but after reading about J.L. Austen’s explanation on performative utterance, his motive is justified. Hamlet is able to put his words into action at the end of the play where the perlocutionary force took place. The oath he made with the ghost is finally settled and he can rest in peace free from all the discrepancies he went through. Similar to Hamlet, I too was able to change the way I perceived the consequences beforehand and make wise decisions.