The Performative Utterance

William Shakespeare  utilizes one of the basic human conditions as the underlying them in “Hamlet.” This idea is called the performative utterance; this concept outlines the instance when someone literally speaks their destiny. Hamlet is a great example of this when he speaks in his soliloquies not only do we get his inner feelings but we also get to see what his words end up causing. Hamlet is not the only to show such phenomenon, it has even happened in my life.

                Hamlet’s use of soliloquies allows the audience to see into his mind and thought process, and we see an intelligent master of words out for revenge. But because Hamlet expresses who he is basically we literally get him.  In act 3 Hamlet’s famous soliloquy exemplifies Hamlet’s use of murder to get revenge and how he is starting to question his motive but at the end he basically is sure that he is going to kill Claudius after Hamlet says, “With this regard their currents turn awry.” Hamlet means that after this everything is basically going downhill and will only get rougher. By this notion the reader can only infer that Hamlet is probably going murder Claudius indefinitely. This also shows that Hamlet uses the performative utterance by showing Hamlet’s internal feelings by speech and later putting his words into action.

                In my life I have encountered this almost as personal irony. The moment I bring up something that I verbally say and is not just a thought in my mind. It happens.  It can be positive or negative but it happens. Freshman year I talking to my friends and I told them that I was going to probably end up pulling an all-nighter on the Odyssey Project and fall asleep in a class. Well, that happened exactly. On another instance I was motivated to get an A in Mrs. Byrne’s class I even told her at the beginning of the semester, after this I had a drive to work hard in her class to raise my grade to an A. No matter the task it is important to acknowledge your course of action and to literally verbalize it and it increase the chances of it occurring, likewise don’t verbalize the negative.

                Whether it is Hamlet, you, or I; the performative utterance is around everywhere. The verbalization of a sentence directed at oneself is what can bring a huge positive or the demoralizing negative. Words are more important than the casual lingo, as they act with a sort of gravity that can attract such a variation of instances to oneself.