Performative Utterance

            Performative Utterance is a sentence, which does something in the world rather than describing something about it. Throughout the entire Hamlet play Hamlet’s actions were written in words, which is the basis of performative utterance. The words that Hamlet spoke constituted his actions and decisions. Performative utterance is not only affects Shakespeare’s works characters, but also affects everyday people.

            The entire plot of Hamlet was set in motion by performative utterance. For instance, Hamlet’s revenge towards his uncle was written in words. It was right there for the reader to see. "Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes." Hamlet’s intentions were laid out on the page. In everyday live although our lives are not compromised in books, peformative utterance can be seen. In life when you say statements like “I’m sorry”, or “Your fired”, your words are performing an action. Without performative utterance words would have no use.

            Along with performative utterance comes the idea of self-overhearing. Self-overhearing is basically thinking about your own thinking, or thinking about the words you say. Self-overhearing can ultimately change what actions you take in life. For instance Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”, was an entire segment of self-overhearing. What Hamlet was saying out loud to himself caused him to rethink the pros and cons of death rather than making a rash decision. In my everyday experience I constantly self-overhear. For instance if I friend talks to me about a situation, then I go discuss that situation with someone else I find myself changing my views based on what I am saying out loud. In Hamlet, self-overhearing drove the plot of the play and ultimately, along with performative utterance decided the outcome of the play.

            When it came to memorizing the “To be or not to be” soliloquy, I found that the idea of self-overhearing was very relevant. As I read aloud the soliloquy I found myself deducing a different meaning than what I thought when I just read the words. I assume this was the same affect that Shakespeare had on his characters. When they read their thoughts aloud the meaning was different than what might have been assumed just by seeing words on paper. Voicing their thoughts, especially in Hamlet’s case, caused the characters to change their mind about ideas or decisions they had.

            Self-overhearing and performative utterance also changes expectation and real world results. In cases of self-overhearing, what one person might expect might change after they really think about say their thoughts allowed. Real world results are entirely connected performative utterance. They words you choose to say can relay in an action just like in Hamlet. Everything that was said resulted in some sort of action. Both self-overhearing and performative utterances are crucial to plays like Hamlet and to everyday life. They are some of the driving forces of our thought processes and actions.