Hamlet Essay (Rework)

Integrity: the name given for doing what one states and turning one’s thoughts and spoken words into the reality that was stated or thought. This definition closely follows what English philosopher J.L Austin’s idea of performative utterance. His theory was based off the fact that what people said could actually change or impact the reality we live in. This is also true for Hamlet; the guy who most people think talked too much and couldn’t make up his mind about anything. Not surprisingly, performative utterance plays a critical role in the play Hamlet as well as my own life.

Hamlet confronts the ghost of his father and swears to avenge him. This statement says that he will avenge his father’s death through locution: the ability to create a message in an understandable way, with the illocutionary effect letting the ghost know that the action will actually be done and Hamlet isn’t just blowing smoke, and finally the perlocutionary effect of Hamlet doing what he swore by slaying Claudius in Act five Scene two. If Hamlet did not do this, this very text would probably look more like this: Ghost tells Hamlet to avenge him and after a long series of weird and almost connecting events, Claudius is slain by Hamlet in apparent act of trying to kill the person who killed him at the end of the play. The madness that Hamlet showed to Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and pretty much all other characters in the play except Horatio would be just as confusing to the audience as well.

In my self-overhearing, I reflect on what I’ve done, mostly about the faux passes I’ve committed and try to better myself from those experiences. Compared to Hamlet, I do not try to influence others as so much myself. Whether it is in “To be or nor to be” or some other soliloquy, Hamlet needs to influence people with what he says to achieve the murder of Claudius. I on the other hand typically say to myself, “Did I really just do that? Or, “Oops! What do I do from here?” and even, “Ok this situation pretty much sucks for everybody involved, what can I take away from this though?” By thinking and saying these thoughts I help get myself to that goal where hopefully I will not make the mistake again. 

I am not really trying to influence anyone as much as take myself from point A to point B. In my process of reflection, recollecting past events or incidents by nature brings a feeling of nostalgia, or remembrance by nature. Remembering the mindset I had when I was going through and goals I had back then brings back the expectations I had and reminds myself about how badly I wanted some of those goals to succeed. The actually arrival at point B or where I am now was when I took those memories and expectations and turned them into an actual reality.

Hamlet is the greatest manipulator in the play Hamlet through the use of his performative utterances. Although the only action he actually commits in the entire play, based off of what he says, he is able to lead the entire cast of the play on a wild goose chase, whether it be through taking the appearance of misery or madness. Performative utterance is also critical to how I work as a person as well because it gives me the outline of the probable future actions I will take. They get me at least halfway to whatever goal I am going for by refining my thoughts in the process. Without performative utterances, the actions of the play as well as my life would be very disjointed and very jerky in sense of fluidity from one action to the next. This is a result of the heavy role performative utterance has in planning and actually committing to action.

Literature Analysis #2 The Aenied by Virgil

1. Aeneas and the remnants of Troy flee over the Mediterranean Sea to Italy where the fates prophesized that Aeneas would be the founder of a great empire. Along the way across the sea, Juno shows her hate towards the Trojans and beguiles Aeolus to scatter and destroy the fleet by sending in a massive storm. Neptune hears the commotion above and quiets the seas and scatters the winds reminding that he is lord over the oceans and to spite Juno, grants the Trojans safe passage from then on.

            The fleet is in horrible shape and searches for the nearest land in sight and happens on the Libyan coast and Venus shows Aeneas he should take his seven remaining ships to Carthage as well as beg Jupiter to make a hospitable greeting for them once the Trojans have arrived at the city. Jupiter complies but Venus is alarmed to discover that Carthage is firmly under Juno’s command. Venus usurps her control by sending down Cupid to make Queen Dido of Carthage desperately in love with Aeneas as soon as he arrives.

            The Trojans arrive and are greeted hospitably by the Carthaginians. Aeneas recounts the fall of Troy and how he sailed off to Crete mistakenly thinking that the fabled prophesy meant to build a city there and not in Italy. A plague hits them in Crete and forces the fleet seaward again and in the dark land on the island of the Harpies. Upon landing they see many wild cows and goats and kill them in preparation for a feast. This angers the Harpies greatly and they place a curse on the fleet so that they will not reach Italy until they have known extreme hunger. The Trojans flee yet again just barely avoid an encounter with the blind Cyclops and finally land in Carthage.

            The Trojans stay in Carthage for a while with Aeneas and Dido as lovers. Mercury warns him of his duties though and Aeneas is forced to depart. Dido is terribly upset by this and makes a pyre of all the remnants the Trojans left behind and seeing the fleet departing stabs herself with Aeneas’s sword and burns on the pyre.

            The Trojans then sail to the Sicilian coasts and rest for a couple days in which Juno turns the women of the Trojans against the rest and attempt to set fire to the ships. Jupiter, taking pity on Aeneas, douses the fire at Aeneas’s request and later Aeneas is taken down to the underworld to see his father and the importance of him going to Italy. Aeneas sees the Golden Age of the Roman Empire and is invigorated upon returning.

            The Trojans land on Italy and are greeted peaceably by King Evander of the Arcadians while met by great hostility from the other neighboring nations. A great war breaks out of which King Evander’s son, Pallas, is slain in battle by the leader of the opposing force, Turnus.  Jupiter is angered by this bloodshed thinking that the Trojans would land peaceably and declares he will no longer aid either side. Aeneas’s forces are almost defeated but later get reinforcements from Tuscany and win the war. At the end, Aeneas deals Turnus a fatal blow and Turnus begs for mercy. Aeneas almost complies, but seeing Pallas’s belt on him, is angered and finishes him.

2.  The theme of the novel is the preordination of Fate and how mortal lives are always subject to the will of the supernatural powers that control mankind.

3. The tone of the author seems almost boastful. There are many passages glorifying the future Roman Empire as seen here: “To cherish and advance the Trojan line. The subject world shall Rome's dominion own, and, prostrate, shall adore the nation of the gown. An age is ripening in revolving fate when Troy shall overturn the Grecian state,” Book I

“See Romulus the great, born to restore the crown that once his injur'd grandsire wore.” Book VI

“Rome, whose ascending tow'rs shall heav'n invade, involving earth and ocean in her shade;” Book VI

4. Rhyme: Rhyme helped me out a lot throughout the books in the Aeanied if not to understand the flow of the book. The book is an epic poem consisting of rhyming couplets throughout.

Syntax: Again this helps with the overall flow of the book. It helped maintain the rhythm of the poem and an example can be seen just above.

Ok, beyond these literary elements helping the flow of the story, I have nothing as to help with the interpretation of it. I came in liking the Roman legends but got heavily bogged down in the ancient English that the poem was translated into two or three centuries ago. Any discussion at all on this post will help everyone including myself as to the understanding of the meanings and hidden messages of the poem. I know what happened and why it happened but got lost beyond that. I do apologize in advance for not being particularly helpful in this area.

"Tools That Change the Way We Think."

The internet/media/technology only changes the way I think in a very minimal way. I do not look for information on the internet unless it is used for a school assignment. I know that the internet is a vast sea of information which was created by a multitude of informed and uninformed minds. I know for a fact that I will probably “short out” by trying to absorb so much information so I naturally lean away from using online sources to learn. Plus I can never fully know what I want to know until I run past something in life that strikes my interest and start asking myself and others present if they are around. I use life as a learning experience and my ability to concentrate and memory solely are dependant on that drive to search out an answer. Since there are no real features online that advertise knowledge about particular subjects, my curiosity is next to none when it comes to surfing the web for answers that I don’t have the questions for. I do not trust the internet with subjects that interest me too much because I keep finding advertisement everywhere for various things related to that subject in particular. There’s just nothing like reading a book or article about psychology or philosophy and not have some pseudo scientific ad flash in the corner of the page as a “sponsor” and makes you question the very integrity of the article. I see the internet as very manipulative and being lazy on the internet, I do not like having to check 5 articles to make sure one point out of five in a given article is correct. It is much harder to print erroneous information in books.My sense of time and priorities get really messed up online or even on the computer. There are so many ways of distraction that unless I sit down on the computer with a mission to get something done that I lose my focus and sense of priority within a matter of minutes by either looking up Facebook or playing a game. I need the mentor aspect or the feel that I have knowledge in my hands when reading a book and that it is up to me to unlock the knowledge within. I will never be able to let go of books. I see books as a way to learn and the computer as a way to blow off steam and relax and I dare not attempt to change it. I will admit, I love the technology of word processors that aspect of technology has been able to truly convey the ideas of my mind and let them be viewed by the world at large. In that sense technology has given depth and complexity to my thoughts because I can attempt to use words I typically wouldn’t use and look them up really quickly to make sure I used the word correctly.

“In search of”

A) I learned that the internet is actually trying to custom tailor everything we see and hear when we search for things based off our first click responses and location we are in.

B) I now see the information that is brought to me by search engines such as Google pretty much as a history/ track record of what I choices I have made in the past on the internet and as a means of spoon feeding me stuff that should “make the baby happy” information rather than information that challenges my intellect, beliefs, morals, and essentially all other types of information that allows a person to grow individually in life.

C) If people at large are not aware of this customization, will the few that do enlighten the others and show people what the world is really like, or will they use it for their personal advantage; attempting to use the algorithms as a type of self induced propaganda filter for the masses while slipping behind the stage and attempt to orchestrate the world events to their own agenda instead of for the good of the people as a whole?

D) I think when we search on the internet now, we must search for the good, the uncomfortable, the confusing, and the relevant with equal importance and stay away from the school honored tradition of hunting and pecking information out of a textbook style search by just grabbing the answer that is most relative to your grade for tomorrow in class.

By pushing my filter bubble I was able to find these new facts about Shakespeare: His father was a glove maker and wool merchant. His mother was Mary Arden, the daughter of a well-to-do local landowner. He married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and had a daughter together in 1583 with twins coming up in 1585. The first collection of Shakespeare’s work was published after his death in 1623 and is known as 'the First Folio'.

What I did that allowed me to come up with new information is by typing up the word “Shakespeare” and be as vague as possible. I then looked past page 1 into the infinite pages behind the first until I found a new approach in getting the same old news I look for in when I typically do searches. (I actually got this information from the BBC history site.) It was crazy because the first couple links where to Wikipedia and then various Shakespeare interpretations, famous monologues, and soliloquies by Shakespeare (including Mark Anthony’s speech from Julius Caesar) because whenever I have looked up Shakespeare, that was what I was after. It took me at least three pages to get the single news, television information link to get to this result with the added bonus of seeing Google actually being somewhat random since I disregarded its spoon feed diet of the first few pages.

Almost as a side note, I have come to realize that pushing one’s filter bubble can be very hard in practicality because we are all geared for looking for one answer and being done rather than look at a variety of good answers and picking the best one from them.

"Who Was Shakespeare?"

Shakespeare was baptized 26 April, 1564 and died 23 April 1616, known as England’s national poet and was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon and had a successful career as playwright, actor, and part owner of an acting company. Not much else is known about his private life with the exception that we know that he retired three years before he died. No one knows how Shakespeare actually looked like.

            Shakespeare is perceived by most students nowadays as famous writer who wrote incredibly hard novels to understand both in diction and in content matter that English teachers seem to adore. I get more of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter but knowing full well I will never be able to write in it and I get that Shakespeare had to design plays that could be read by all audiences. I still have a lot of struggle with grasping his language because the English used is so different from today’s but I feel that if I keep fully immersing myself in it and openly question and learn it that this learning curve will decrease dramatically.

“Notes on Hamlet”

When I first picked up Hamlet my first thought was, “Great! Another book I need a word for word dictionary for with the bonus of the language being my native tongue!” I was constantly flipping to the foot notes and side definitions at the beginning of the play. While I have not come far in understanding the Shakespearian language, my knowledge of the play has increased quite a bit. At the beginning I thought Hamlet was just a cry baby and his friends were very superstitious; now I know that behind the wish washy and sometimes erratic appearance, Hamlet is actually very cunning for his age and that there are millions of circles within the play that are all pretty much trying to ensnare each other. The relationship between the characters could be seen as a scale with ever increasing weight on it so that when the scale tips then everyone goes down with it. I see the play evolving more mistrust and more deception in the plot and the eventual deaths of more of the players. Hamlet himself said that Polonius was only a casualty! I wonder how many more will die though.

"To Facebook or Not to Facebook?"

When I first signed up for a Facebook account, it was to stay connected with my cross country team and merely thought Facebook was a means of sharing pictures and an alternative way of contacting people other than via email. I saw maybe child pornography as a risk and the benefits almost limitless. I was pro-Facebook.

Now after reading the article and getting actual information from the class, I am completely against Facebook and at the point of deleting my own if I cannot make it do some basic functions without completely opening my ways of communicating pictures and text to friends but mostly family. With how much advertizing and how much revenue Facebook makes off advertising, I am partially sickened to know that I am basically using a website that wants to drain me of every dollar I make by using my “personal information” against me.

What truly got me was how insecure Facebook was, a friend of mine had her Facebook hacked by her boss to check her online profile. Taken into a different situation, someone hacks your Facebook account and has the notion to completely trash you by posting horrible comments and the like. I focus on the comments and posts because the written word has a lot of power. Dr. Preston proved this point by giving our class the example of a senator who a journalist didn’t like. The journalist posted junk about that senator online and then flooded Google with searches about that one item which resulted in changing the fill in algorithm for that guy’s name to only show that bad incident. I highly doubt that the senator in question had a good time finding a job after that. I now see Facebook as a potent online weapon for even rudimentary hackers. Destroying a person’s reputation used to be hard because they had to commit faux pases to get them. Now all one has to do is destroy a person’s online profile and one has destroyed the person by using the “hard” evidence of the written word from a very insecure online profile that can be broken into and sabotaged. This is all the based off the new information I read from the article and from the discussion in my class.

"(Don't) Be Hamlet"

“To be or not to be-that is the question:” Hamlet is stuck in between what many of us call a rock and a hard place. He is given two choices, kill his uncle who killed his father, or kill himself and forget about the entirety of his life altogether. Both options include someone dying and there is no middle road to take either. He is being overwhelmed by the current events that are happening and doesn’t know which course of action to take. He believes that suicide is the easier course of action because he thinks that by ending himself, he will end all his worldly cares, “And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” Sounds tempting but part of him is drawn by duty or conscience to live and carry out his fathers ghost’s wishes.

            Though the thought of death may be pleasing to Hamlet, he is still scared about dying as seen when he laments, “But that the fear of something after death,” he doesn’t know if things will get better or if he will be at peace if he just dies. He also has the lovely memory of his father’s ghost saying it was being tortured to add more to his fears.

            I honestly think that Hamlet should carry out the murder of his uncle. That way his beloved father can finally rest in peace and the wrongs that have been committed will be righted. Also as a nifty motivator, since Hamlet is of the Christian faith, his conscience reminds him that if he doesn’t do this and kills himself then he will probably be going straight to the place of fire and brimstone for all eternity. “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” Hamlet is motivated by fear and a little bit by duty. This choice is an extremely tough one to make because his father died, mom re-married to his uncle, Ophelia is in love with him, and the ghost of his father decides to drop by and tell him his uncle killed him. All this happened in the space of a month or so. No one can blame Hamlet for being so overwhelmed. I had a similar situation by trying to juggle more AP classes than I could manage and the stress nearly tore me apart. If Hamlet does make it through this ordeal, he will see how strong of a person he has become and be glad he did made it. After all, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.