Hamblet vs Lion King free essay sample

The Lion King was strongly influenced by William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, they differ in many ways. The movie shadows Shakespeare’s work so closely that parallels between the main characters themselves are readi ly apparent. Simba, Mufasa, and Scar are direct representations of Young Hamlet, King Hamlet, and Claudius, but there are some scenes that set the two apart. The renowned deaths of both Simba’s and Hamlet’s fathers (Mufasa and King Hamlet) are carried out in different manners; Mufasa is pushed off of a cliff into a stampede, and King Hamlet is poisoned. Another key difference is between Nala and Ophelia the lovers of the main characters. Simba never stops loving Nala and ends up marrying her, but Hamlet claims to have lost interest in Ophelia and wants nothing to do with her. By far, the most crucial difference is the ending. At the end of The Lion King , Simba becomes kin g of The Pride Lands, but Hamlet dies at the end of the play. Althou gh Young Hamlet in Hamlet and Simba in The Lion King share some differences, they are alike in their loss of fathers, their uncles’ usurpation of the throne, and their revenge against the new ki ngs. Comment: Thesis  statement  with  three subpoints Comment: Wonderful  introduction! You’ve  focused  on  the  differences,  and  then you  use  that  as  a  springboard  to  focus  on the  similarities. Your  thesis  provides  the energy  for  the  remainder  of  your  essay. Great! YourLastName 2 The death of King Hamlet negatively affects young Hamlet, but a fter his death, Hamlet Sr. ecomes more than the king and father he once was. Not knowing exactly how his father died, Hamlet feels lost. He becomes a herald for his son. When h e approaches his son as a ghost, he explains that he wasn’t bit ten by a snake, like everyone in Denmark thought, and told him what Claudius has done: â€Å"The serpent that did sting thy fat her’s life / Now wears his crown† (1. 5. 44-45). Hamlet previously susp ected him as the killer and is disgusted at the thought. According to The ghost â€Å"[†¦] has been disobliging enough to leave the task of defining revenge squarely up to Hamlet† (Skulsky 78). He knows what to do, but he is so upset that his father is gone that he is drawn to madness. Since King Hamlet was dead, Claudius decided to act quickly and get Gertrude (young Hamlet’s mother) to fall in love with him, so he could become the new King. Young Hamlet is disgusted: â€Å"Within a month, / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married † (1. 2. 156-58). Hamlet couldn’t believe that his mother had committed incest. The throne wasn’t the most important thing to him, but it was the principle that made him uneasy. In his speech to the people of Denmark, Claudius says, â€Å"Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature / That we with wisest sorrow think on him, / Together with remembrance of ourselves† (1. 2. 5-7) . Claudius doesn’t care about the death of his brother; he is only worried about being king. Young Hamlet takes his father’s appearance to heart and knows he must avenge his death and take responsibility for what his uncle has done . He delays this process. He runs from his responsibility even though he knows what needs to be done. After his uncle’s killing his father, marrying his mother, taking his place as king, and poisoning his Comment: 1 st topic  sentence,  Hamlet  = loss  of  father Comment: This  is  not  on  the  Works  Cited list! Comment: 2 nd topic  sentence,  Hamlet  = uncle’s  usurpation  of  throne Comment: 3 rd topic  sentence,  Hamlet  = revenge  against  father’s  killer YourLastName 3 mother, Hamlet knows he has to act in honor of his father: â€Å"Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? / Follow my mother. † (5. 2. 14-16) Although Hamlet dies shortly after this, he can rest assured that he fulfilled his duty of revenge. Because Shakespeare’s Hamlet is among the most powerful and influential tragedies, numerous modern narrat ives and films, such as Walt Disney’s The Lion King , have been greatly influenced by it, and Simba can be readily compared with Ham let. (Excellent transition! ) First, Simba is beyond devastated by the death of his fath er . Being a young cub when the accident occurred, Simba had nobody to look up to except for Scar, who blames him for Mufasa’s death and orders him to go far way and never return. He decides to leave the past behind and never think back on it again. Simba lives his whole life with the burd en of his father’s death on his shoulders; he blames himself. He sometimes looks to the stars for guidance , remembering what Mufasa had once told him: â€Å"Those kings will always be there with you and so will I† (Lion ). Although Mufasa said they would always be together, Simba rarely feels his presence. He feels alone , and it isn’t until he reaches adulthood, when he and Nala are reunited, that he is able to face reality. After Scar recommends that Simba should flee the Pride Lands, the true reason for his actions is revealed – to obtain the title as King of the Pride Land s. Acting as if both Mufasa and Simba were killed by the stampede, Scar makes his announcement: It is with a heavy heart that I assume the throne. . . . This is the dawning of a new era, in which lion and hyena come together in a great and glorious future † ( Lion). All the Comment: Transition  sentence  or paragraph,  between  the  conclusion  of  three points  about  Hamlet  and  the  next  three points  about  Simba Comment: 1 st topic  sentence,  Simba  = death  of  father Deleted: to Comment: 2 nd topic  sentence,  Simba  = uncle’s  usurpation  of  throne YourLastName 4 animals of the land are completely appalled and fear for their future. Scar becomes a dictator and turns the Pride Lands into a wasteland. There is no food for any of the animals, and they’re all completely miserable. They all wish it could be like it was before Scar usurped the throne. Eventually Simba reaches adulthood and reunites with Nala, who encourages him to seek vengeanc e. He is horrified by the news that Scar ha s become the new king and destroyed everything his father had worked so hard to maintain while he was king. She urges him to come back to the Pride Lands and claim what is rightfully his. Although throughout his whole life Simba has been trying to forget his past, he is quickly reminded by a ghost of his father in the sky of who he truly is: â€Å"Remember who you are. You a re my son and the one true king† (Lion ). Simba finally realizes he needs to face his past, and go back to his home. The sight of his father was enough to convince him: â€Å" The appearance of the ghost of Simbas father, who reiterates ‘Remember ’ like the ghost of Hamlets father, illuminates the archetypal conflicts between Simba and hi s evil and usurping uncle, Scar† (Smith 138) . When he retu rns, Scar immediately begs for forgiveness. Still thinking he was the cause of his father’s death, Simba demands that Scar leave the Pride Lands and never return. They begin to fight, and as Simba hangs of the cliff of Pride Rock, he is taunted by Scar: And now heres my little secret. I killed Mufasa! (Lion). With all his might, Simba leaps up from the edge of the cliff and triumphs over his uncle by kicking Scar to a lower cliff where he is killed by the hyenas. Although killing him isn’t Simba’s goal, he successfully avenges his father’s death and takes his place as king. Comment: 3 rd topic  sentence,  Simba  = revenge  against  father’s  murderer YourLastName 5 Although Young Hamlet in Hamlet and Simba in The Lion King share some differences, there are distinct parallels between the two, such as the murders of their fathers, the usurpation of the throne by their incestuous uncles, and the plots to avenge their fathers’ deaths and retrieve what is rightfully thei rs . To many, much of modern entertainment may look like new entertainment on the surface, but after being analyzed, many connections to great literature can be found. Shakespeare is one of the greatest writers of all time, and his plays influence the plots of many modern films.