Hamlet Essay: Performative Utterance

Despite Hamlet being the namesake of the play, as well as the perspective through which the audience views the story, he remains a remarkably cryptic character.  At times, it may seem that he is indecisive, but at others, he is evidently ready to kill at a moment’s notice.  This has sometimes been attributed to madness, or even inconsistency on Shakespeare’s part.  In truth, it is simply a matter of performative utterance, a theory developed by J. L. Austin, and applied directly to Hamlet by Fredrik deBoer in his paper “The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet”.  On a very basic level, performative utterance is the antithesis of the classic playground chant, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  It holds that words have a physical effect on people, circumstances, and intention.  This theory has a profound impact not only on Hamlet, but also on virtually anybody’s life.

Growing My Personal Learning Network: Follow Up

I contacted Dr. Delahoyde from Washington State University (found through this resource).  To my pleasant surprise, I got a prompt response.  I took the opportunity to ask about some of the oddities surrounding Ophelia's death, which was a source of contention within our small group discussions.  You can check out the full conversation below:

Growing My Personal Learning Network

I ran into an awkward problem while attempting to contact the learning communities I listed.  I could not find a way to get into contact with any of them.  Granted, most of them are old, so getting a reply was doubtful any way.  I had stupidly forgotten that a learning network would actually require communication.  I had a pretty good set of Hamlet resources, but an actual network was nonexistent.

So, to solve the problem, I went with what has been a classic solution for this class -- collaboration.  I went through several of my peers' blogs.  While many had the same problem I did, I eventually found a contactable and current resource on Ubi Kim's blog.  He gave me permission to use his resource (thanks!) and I sent out my email:

I blurred out the name for good measure.  If I get a reply, I'll make sure to ask if I can post the entire conversation.  Updates will come in the future!

Update: I got a response; you can see it here.

AP Hamlet Personal Learning Network

Here's the top five courses with online presence that I found studying Hamlet.  The top five are in no particular order.  I had trouble finding communities that were still active, so I chose based on the assumption that I could still contact these courses.

Notes on Hamlet: Particularly Polonius

Of all the elements of Hamlet, I would say that my view of Polonius as a character has changed the most.  Over the course of the play read so far, he has become my favorite character.  He is by far not the most likable character, but he is the closest thing to comic relief in the play.  While he initially just seems like a prolix old man, he is eventually revealed to be a fool.  Almost with no exception, scenes involving both Polonius and Hamlet result in outrageous dialogue, usually ending in Polonius's befuddlement.

Polonius has a deceptively complex character.  He is a humorous character, but also villainous and obsequious.  The audience loves to hate Polonius, but enjoys what he contributes to the plot.  When Hamlet kills him the audience is glad for his death (he's a "bad guy" after all).  However, even in his humiliating death he is able to make people laugh.  His unfortunate comedy makes him some kind of bizarre villainous butt monkey.  Despite his generally deplorable role in the play, the variety of different sentiments he brings makes him my favorite character, if only on the merit of design.

"Where do you see things going from here?"
Pulling from what I already know about the end of plot, as well as Shakespeare's typical idea of an ending, I would guess that things are going toward a massacre.  Tension has been building the entire play.  With the killing of Polonius, blood has been spilled, and it should not be too long before swords start swinging.

Who was Shakespeare?

A surprising amount of Shakespeare's life is unknown.  Everything that is known about him is found either through the influences on his writing, or official records from important points of his life.  From these records we know that he was born around April 23, 1564.  Interestingly, there is little record of his education, leading to some wild speculation about the credibility of Shakespeare's authorship.  Shakespeare married, then had a daughter and twins.  After the twins were born, seven years pass with no record of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is generally received poorly among students.  It is most commonly associated with difficult to understand text.  His reputation is further tarnished by the fact that Romeo and Juliet is used by many to sarcastically describe a cliche romantic situation.  This establishes the idea that Shakespeare's work is outdated, with all its value being academic.

If I'm honest, as far as Shakespearean reading comprehension goes, I've progressed slowly.  I'm certainly better than I was freshman year, but I'm far from seamless understanding of the text.  The biggest part I struggle with is the extended sentences.  The dialogue tends to wander between several different topics in a single sentence, making it difficult at times to relate everything back to the original statement.  However, I definitely get the comical aspect of Shakespeare's work much more.  When it was first explained to me while reading Romeo and Juliet freshman year, part of me guessed that the teacher was making it up the help the play appeal to us as a modern audience.  Doubtlessly that was part of the purpose, but I didn't realize how deliberate the humor was.  Additionally, I'm enjoying the cultural benefits of reading the classic plays.  A lot of previously esoteric references ("Et tu Brute?) make much more sense now.

Source:
http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323
Found via DuckDuckGo, in accordance to our "filter bubble" discussion.

Hamlet Act III: Remix

My initial idea was a remix of Hamlet set in a junior high.  The setting seemed like a reasonable premise for "modernizing" the text.  However, to differentiate it from a number of other similar parodies, I decided to only change the dialogue and leave Hamlet's brutal situation as it was.  The entire thing is incredibly contrived, so I made little attempt to justify it logically.  I added in some short bits that fit with the theme (nothing that changes the story) and cut down the length, but did my best to keep  it within the spirit of Shakespeare.  Besides that, I didn't tone down the plot at all.  At the time, I thought it would be a good opportunity for some dark humor, but it turned out a lot more disturbing than I anticipated.  It was written with a sarcastic tone in mind--I'm not psychopathic, I promise!  Apparently, pairing a mild setting with a violent story makes the whole thing a bit more messed up.  Regardless of how it turned out, it's an interesting look at how important context is to plot.  Obviously, take it all with a grain of salt.

If you can't figure it out, here's the characters and their changed names.
Hammond = Hamlet
Clive = Claudius
Paul = Polonius
Gary = Guildenstern
Ralph = Rosencrantz
Harry = Horatio
Georgina = Gertrude
Olivia = Ophelia

Background
Hammond is a young student attending Denmark Preparatory School, a private institution for Denmark's finest (or richest) students.  Hammond's father, the extremely high paid principal of the school, was recently murdered.  Hammond suspects that his uncle/stepfather (Clive, scandalously married to his mother shortly after his father's death) committed the murder by pouring Clorox into the ear of Hammond Sr. in order to gain the principal position through some archaic hereditary system of succession.  Hammond plans to show the murder of his father at the school's talent show in order to gauge Principal Clive's reaction. If he can confirm his suspicious, he will carry out his bloody revenge.  The scene begins as Hammond instructs the actors.

Dear Ophelia

"My name is O. and I'm trapped in this weird sort of dating thing--a prince says he loves me, but my family and brother hate him and tell me to stay away.  What should I do?"

Dear O,

I will do my best to impart what acumen I have on the subject.  I can understand why this situation may be somewhat of a quagmire for you--you want to make your family happy, but you cannot deny the euphoria you feel.  Indeed, the beatitude of youthful love is wondrous.  Perhaps there is a way to palliate your family while still maintaining sub rosa liaison with your "prince" (is this a literal prince, or some quixotic idealism?).  While secrecy may be parlous, it could be the only solution that appeases your family without stigmatizing your prince.  However, be wary of the mercurial nature of young lovers.  Maintain your own volition, and you should be fine.

Contacting Hamlet Learning Communities

I wasn't quite sure what would be the best way to approach this.  I was hesitant to send out mass messages contacting other learning communities for fear of being construed as a spammer, so I split the work with Justin Thompson (admittedly, it also made the work easier).  Once I had decided on this, I figured Twitter would be a decent place to start.  I searched for the people tweeting things about Hamlet.  Not being exactly sure what I was asking for, I started with a general statement asking for their experiences with Hamlet.  Twitter presented the unique challenge of 140 characters, which may have hindered the effectiveness of communication.  Neither of the people I contacted have replied, but I will update this post if there is a change.  However, I have my doubts that two random people on twitter will care enough to reply,especially if it means extending the conversation.  

"Pre-Will" Questions

What do you know about Hamlet, the "Melancholy Dane"?

I don't know too much about Hamlet, either as a character or a play.  I know that it is a tragedy that centers around revenge and a couple famous quotes ("Alas! Poor Yorick.") but that's really about it.

What do you know about Shakespeare?

Again, my knowledge of Shakespeare is limited.  I've only ever learned about him in school, and probably forgot a majority of what was taught.  I know he was an English playwright who wrote primarily tragedies and comedies, and that he is widely regarded as the founder of "modern English".  Besides that, I can only vaguely recall random tidbits of information (there was something about his theater burning down?).

Why do so many students involuntarily frown when they hear the name "Shakespeare"?

To start with, a lot of it is not voluntary.  Through older siblings or friends, most people begin reading Shakespeare with the expectation that it is going to be an unpleasant experience.  It has become the school norm to dislike Shakespeare.  To some, it may even be somewhat of a social stigma to enjoy his work.  Granted, the fact that it is difficult to read does a lot to back up peoples' expectations.  Students (myself included) tend to dislike what things they do not understand.  While Shakespeare's stories may be appealing to most people, the "archaic" way in which they are written turns many away.

What can we do to make studying this play an amazing experience we'll never forget?

While it may not go as far as making the play amazingly unforgettable, simply explaining some of the more difficult terms used helps a lot.  Having a solid understanding of what Shakespeare is writing about goes a long way towards making his work more enjoyable.  I am also not a huge fan of the ever popular high school Shakespeare role playing.  To me, having people acting out the roles detracts from the story, as it affects my perception of the characters.  It's a bit like watching a book-movie before reading the book--the book will never be quite the same.