It’s Future Me’s Problem

Why do we procrastinate? Is it because we like laziness or is it that we hate taking decisions? And what does the reasoning behind it tell us?  Author Rowan Pelling looks to answer this very question in her article “Why do we procrastinate so much?’ As a procrastinator myself I relate to the author’s situation and I too find myself wondering on why we procrastinate. No one likes to be rushed by a deadline and yet most of us end up being harassed by one. What is it that makes us procrastinate and what does this tell us about the nature of humanity?

Procrastination is a very juvenile course of action. I often put off homework until the last minute. Instead of working efficiently and finishing quickly, I will rather do any other menial task before starting on my homework. It’s only when I feel pressured by the deadline that I start working. As the author “I am, as you will have guessed, a fully paid member of the hardcore procrastinator’s gang.” But unlike Hamlet, literature’s most famous procrastinator, I do not have to hassle with life changing decisions. For the prince, the more he waits, the more he reconsidered, and the more he hates himself. But from a modern perspective Hamlet is reasonable, he doesn’t act impulsively, he is no child. But “I am not prince hamlet nor was I meant to be” I only have small decisions to take and by putting them off I am only making it worst for myself in the future. We are stubborn and by procrastinating we hold onto childhood wishing recess never ends.

Decisions are things for adults. But as we grow up, more and more decisions need to be taken, people grow up. Procrastination is a way to avoid taking the decisions we most dread. Humans hate responsibility but soon enough all of us must accept that we are adults and recess is over.

The Stage of Reality

Acting can only reach a certain level of emotion, after that it’s just pretending. The best actors are those that can assimilate with their character and truly transform into them. Yet no matter how great an actor is the audience will know staging is upon them. Having committed what Hamlet ponders on in the play, the inmates interviewed in the podcast were able to play him in a way no other amateur actor could have ever done. What is it about having felt the true emotions Hamlet went through that allowed these inmates to perform so exceptionally?

Great actors tend to draw back into their own experiences in order to perform. They can’t jut think of crying and do it, they reminisce on a grandfather dying or on some past event that made them feel similarly.  By imitating how they felt in the past they bring these emotions on stage. The inmates were no different, they used the memories of the crimes they had committed to bring Shakespeare’s characters to life. But unlike any professional actor one could hire, the inmates had actually done it: they had hurt or killed a human being.  This knowledge empowered a group of rookie actors to deliver an incredible performance. Does an actor need to be a criminal to perform as one? The answer would clearly be no, talented actors often do so. The advantage the inmates had was they had already lived through similar experiences and they just needed to recount these. The experience change the audience’s perspective over the characters, it connects them for as soon as terrible acting disappears the story becomes real. Knowing the actors have done some of these procedures, the audience is sympathetic and immerses in the characters problem. We are able to sense the emotional struggle being performed. James Ward, an inmate interviewed in the podcast claims “I am Laertes. I am. I am” The authenticity of the inmates creates a new play, a real one. The players and the audience converge by understanding the values as real.

This unique performance reveals the true nature of acting. Emotions can not be imitated, they must be felt. The greatest performers know how to feel their characters. “Rather than close off all feeling and look tough, you have to open your vulnerable self up and withstand often cruel laughter as you try to find some authentic emotion within you” It’s about opening your heart towards the audience, holding it out in front of a room of strangers and hope they don’t rip it apart/

Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
~ George Burns

Fearing Fear

Overthinking: the enemy of success. Whether it’s asking the woman you love out on a date or killing the uncle you hate, people are driven by emotion and throughout literature authors have long fought to find what is that makes us stutter. Elliot and Shakespeare take us through the journey of hesitant characters to uncover the blockade between the conscious mind and sentiment and offer a solution.

Hamlet and J. Alfred Prufrock are spears of literature aimed at revealing the internal conflict characters face as they take decisions. Even though these two character’s goals are far from the same, the mindset they possess in order to tackle this goal is the comparable. They are unable to deduce how to deal with repressed emotions. Hamlet claims,

“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sickled o’er with the pale cat of thought” 3.1 L91

Much like Hamlet, J Alfred encounters the same problem: hesitation. He is unable to confront his feelings toward an unnamed woman and lacks “the strength to force the [decision to ask her] to its crisis?” (line 80) They’ve met a barrier that has led them to hesitate and being aware of the barrier both characters fill with self-loathing. When Prufrock mentions Hamlet, “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be” (line 111) He realizes he has encountered the same problem the famous prince of Denmark faced, a wall. This psychological barrier that both characters encounter represents a real and ever present barrier between emotion and human understanding. Shakespeare and T.S Elliot leave their characters feeling helpless against indecision in the hopes that readers will reflect on its moral and practical implications.

Shakespeare explores more of the moral implications Hamlet’s indecision has. By hesitating, Hamlet is a being normal. He actually considers the effects murder would have. Perhaps Shakespeare suggest that being a reasonable human being entails having indecision. However human hate it, Prufrock despises himself for being unable to commit and act. He became such a reasonable man that he became weak. Combining the meaning behind both of the pieces of literature we can conclude that indecision takes part of being normal but we must be careful not to become too normal and have indecision take over.