Hamlet & the Performative Utterance

The cliche saying of "actions speak louder than words" suggesting that actions are more important than words was challenged by Hamlet through his internal conflicts conveyed through his words in Shakespeare's legendary play Hamlet. His choice of words were explained in Fredrik De Boer's essay "The Performative Utterances in Hamlet." De Boer slams the misinterpretation that Hamlet was a trouble-minded man and up brings the idea that Hamlet was rather a man "who could not make real what was found in his mind." Hamlet's performative utterances is what starts to stir his thoughts and begin to doubt his courage in completing the burden weighed on his shoulders.

Many of Hamlet's lines can be described as run on in depth thoughts, where he struggles with bringing himself to commit the murder of his uncle, Claudius, that will avenge his father's death. Hamlet knows exactly what he needs to do and doesn't question whether he should or shouldn't do it, but the problem arises from committing the action itself. To go beyond the words and create actions troubles Hamlet the most causing him to contemplate the before and after effects: whether he will actually have the courage to act when accompanied with Claudius, or if he will be able to live with himself after the murder is committed, and the effects on himself and everyone around him.

Hamlet's soliloquy represents speech as a transformative action turning the tides from certainty to a wavering decision. In his soliloquy, Hamlet describes whether it's better to bear a guilty, sorrowful life(after murdering his uncle) or slip into an unconsciousness completely foreign to man(taking his own life and entering the afterlife). The soliloquy accurately describes how performative utterances work in shaping our actions. In the heat of the moment, Hamlet was so sure of himself and confident in his decision to kill his uncle, but as his thoughts started turning his confidence began to dwindle as he thought of the consequences that would occur. Although actions speak louder than words, words predict whether the action becomes a reality or not.

In conclusion, performative utterances are significant elements in determining people's actions. Hamlet's acceptance of bearing the life after murdering his uncle wasn't finalized without deep contemplation and words that actually accomplished enough to give Hamlet the courage to commit the crime.

Continuing the Masterpiece: Yosemite

Recently I met with Melissa Steller to talk about possibly continuing her masterpiece and sending interested seniors on a trip to Yosemite. With that said, I'd love if another student is interested in helping lead this trip as well since it might be tough for me to take the reigns on top off my Africa trip next June. So if you're interested, please let me know and you can also check out the NatureBridge website and take a look at the process and necessary info for planning the trip. I hope we can continue this trip for our seniors this year! You can contact me through email @breerodriguez97@gmail.com

The Geniusness of Ignorance

Today my grandma asked what I was doing as I was trying to memorize "To Be or Not To Be" and I explained to her how I had less than 24 hours to memorize a 35 line soliloquy. Being my crazy grandma that she is, she started reading the soliloquy very dramatic, acting out every scene ridiculously. By the time we reached the end of the soliloquy I began to understand what he was actually saying rather than hearing a bunch of old shakespearean gibberish even though I still haven't memorized it. When my grandma came across words she didn't know, she made me look them up in a 10-pound-10 year-old dictionary that you'd only see in a 90s decade home. She also began to explain that the soliloquy was about sin as she pointed out words like "suffer, troubles, heartache, calamity of so long life, whips and scorns, cowards, etc.." and as she pointed out the words she also realized he was contemplating his actions and he was greatly troubled by something. As she was explaining what she believed it to mean my mind was blown that my 58 year old grandma whose highest form of education was 8th grade and knew absolutely nothing about Hamlet at all completely understood the basic point Hamlet was making, basically restating what Dr. Preston said in class today about the soliloquy, compared to majority of my classmates and I who were looking for the most prestigious interpretation(which was in some way a cliche correct answer but missed several key elements that could only be found by reading between the lines). This realization struck me with the thought that maybe the best way to learn is to actually think in basic terms as if we weren't fed all this "prestigious way of thinking" for 6 or so years in honors and AP courses, rather think as if we only knew the bare minimum and build onto that. From personal experience, I believe AP and honors classes set you at the top of a redwood tree and expect you to get down with tools we have no idea how to use. As next generation college students and leaders of America, I think it's essential to start at the base of the trunk and work our way up learning from our small slips rather than 20 foot free falls.

Despite my 12 years of schooling in AP and honors courses, I can honestly say my uneducated grandma was more knowledgable about Hamlet than I was.

HAMLET ACT II (snapchat style)