Hamlet Essay

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare a young man seeks vengeance against his father's murderer. The central problem in the story is that Hamlet can't seem to transform his thoughts into actions. This is what Fredik deBoer was talking about in his essay "The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare's Hamlet." Every move Hamlet makes is well planned out. He is a man too cunningly sneaky to be crazy. Could it be that the reason he takes so long to act on his urges to kill is because he is thinking of a plan? Hamlet's actions seem to be effected most by self overhearing and his inability to see past his hatred for his uncle. 

In Fredik deBoer's essay he describes self overhearing as taking your own advice on any given subject. Upon analyzing the "To be or not to be" speech it is clear that Hamlet can very easily either talk himself out of doing something, or convince himself to do something. In this particular case Hamlet was trying to decide if life was worth living in the situation he was in. Later in the play Hamlet mainly struggles with the decision to murder his stepdad/ uncle.

Although Hamlet pretends to be ready to kill his stepdad he seems to struggle with actually killing him. Every decision that Hamlet makes throughout the play ties back to his hatred for King Claudius. He pretends to be mad with love for Ophelia just to get away with this murder. He made cold calculated decisions that lead to many deaths. He doesn't care who he has to hurt to kill King Claudius. These cold calculated choices make readers question Hamlet's character.

In conclusion, there are many instances of Performative utterance in this play. Hamlet struggled with the decision to kill himself and others. Hamlet is a character who thinks about his decisions before he makes them. That being said when he does make decisions he usually makes them, because of self overhearing. His intense hatred for his stepdad profoundly influences all of his actions. Hamlet isn't mad he is simply a great manipulator.