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"