Hamlet Essay Redo

Performative utterance is when something is said and because it is said, it is turned into a fact. For example, when the boss tells his employee "You're fired!" it is now made into a fact. The idea of performative utterance is one that makes a great impact in some literature and one example would be Hamlet by William Shakespeare. In Hamlet, performative utterance plays a big role because it is the one main thing that gives us insight on how the character is going to act and it makes the play even more interesting. "Self-overhearing" is another component that creates an impact on the plot and also in my experiences while reciting "to be or not to be".

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet has a conversation with the ghost and at the end of their conversation, he promises the ghost that he will take revenge for the his father's death. At that point, once Hamlet had said he promises to do something, performative utterance is done. With that statement that Hamlet made, it created all the action in the play and it was what kept many people wanting to know what was going to happen next. Even though Hamlet did not do much, the fact that he made that promise was what made what he said real.

Throughout the play, Hamlet, recites many soliloquies which end up being "self-overhearing". This component is what makes up the plot in the play Hamlet because without it, nothing would really be happening or the people would not know why it's actually happening. An example would be when Hamlet is reciting "To be or not to be" without that soliloquy, the people would not know why he is doing whatever he is doing, everyone would be confused unless it were just stated there but at the same time, that would not be as interesting. Also "self overhearing" is what Hamlet did to make the other characters think that he was a crazy man, and with that, the whole plot was made even more interesting.

"Self overhearing" for me while memorizing "To be or not to be" went from negative to positive thoughts. At the beginning, I saw the soliloquy and saw how long it was, and at that moment I began to think that I was definitely not going to be able to learn it. Later once I had learned more than half of it, that's when my "self-overhearing" became positive since I was actually getting something done.


Performative utterance and "self-overhearing" are two main components that can make writing interesting and actually make up what it's going to be about. Hamlet by William Shakespeare is a play that was made up by both of those components and both of those components made a great impact on it. It was what created the plot of the play and it affected the characters.