Act III Notes

Scene I

• Polonius, Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, Gertrude and Ophelia are all together talking about Hamlet's madness
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reveal that Hamlet has a lot of interest in the actors for the play which raises a red flag for Claudius although he does not know what Hamlet is is plotting, or if he is even plotting anything
• All but Ophelia exit as Hamlet enters without noticing that Ophelia's presence and delivers his "to be or not to be..." speech
• Hamlet has a short conversation with Ophelia in which he questions her thinking and pretty much leaves her confused
• Polonius and Claudius have been spying on the two, and when Hamlet exits, they come out, talk to Ophelia and decide to send Hamlet off on an educational trip put pf the country to save themselves from whatever trouble Hamlet may be devising

Scene II

• the play begins and Hamlet sits with his family and by Ophelia and has Horatio(who is in on Hamlet's plan) sits in a seat where he can easily observe the king's reaction to the play
• the play goes on and Claudius gets so angry at the play that he orders it to end and Hamlet and Horatio laugh aside from the scene
• After the play, Hamlet's mom wants to speak with him in the chamber and Hamlet plans to be very cold to his mother

Scene III

• Claudius furthers his plan to send Hamlet away to England by having Rosencrantz and Guildenstern give him a nicely written envelope granting Hamlets departure
• Hamlet knows what Claudius is trying to do and spies on Claudius who is praying and admitting to the fact that he killed Hamlet Sr.
• Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius but decides against it because Claudius is praying and will most likely be sent to heaven in the middle of a prayer and decides to kill him later when he is performing some other sinful act

Scene IV

• Hamlet goes to his mother's chamber to talk to her and Polonius hides to spy on them
• Gertrude starts to speak to Hamlet with authority but Hamlet replies back with more fury and scares her making her scream
• Polonius also screams for help and Hamlet hears the voice and thinks it is Claudius and stabs him through the curtain
• Polonius falls dead on the ground and Hamlet just calls him a "rash, intruding fool"
• Hamlet continues to talk to his mother comparing Claudius to Hamlet Sr. and condemning her for her foolish decisions
• The ghost of Hamlet Sr. shows up and sternly commands Hamlet to stop torturing his mother and to focus on the true objective: to kill King Claudius

The Performative Utterance Notes

• Hamlet is a very vocal character and is saying rather than doing for most of the play
• The performative ability of language is divided into three forces: locutionary(ability to deliver a message), illocutionary(what is done in being said), and the perlocutionary force(what is done in being said)
• Shakespeare's characters learn from their own utterances in a play
• The moment when Hamlet meets the ghost of his father is important because  it demonstrates how the "illocutionary force can influence or compel the prelocutionary force."
• Apparently, when the text is read closely, it is found that Hamlet doesn't necessarily swear to avenge his father
• "Hollow performatives" can still "spur" actions that can greatly affect the outside world
• "Hollow performatives" are performatives that don't have much reason behind them and are done with little motive
• The story of Hamlet is sometimes described as the play about a man who cannot make up his mind
• according to deBoer, Hamlet is a play about a man who could not make real what was found in his mind
• for much of the play Hamlet is able to speak but not do
• when instructing the players on how to act, Hamlet is insistent that they do not overact. He wants the passion to be smooth and sound unscripted. 
• this exemplifies the use of self performance to create a social context which supports a visage of sincerity. 
• to over do a self performance would be to undercut the socially excepted notion of a sincere emotional state, taking away your power to create a performative utterance that relies on a context of emotional appropriateness 
• as Hamlet is instructing the players to not overact he needs to be mindful to not overact himself, as he is putting on a show of madness. According to Hamlet, madness is defined by the kind of exaggerated actions in movements associated with poor acting or overacting
• Hamlet suggests that the goal of the theater has been to "hold up a mirror to nature"