Compare And Contrast Simba And Hamlet

Simba of The Lion King in Contrast to Hamlet

The two stories have individual beginning as the play starts as King Hamlet is already murdered and Claudius takes the throne as well as gets married with Getrude, who is Hamlet’s mother and on the other hand, The Lion King begins similarly to other Disney movies that is the delightful time of the main character, which is Simba at a young age. King Hamlet, who is known as the Ghost, appears more than once throughout the story in order to give Hamlet advice what to do and also tells his son the truth behind his death and what he wants, which is to revenge for his father. In contrast, Mufasa, who is Simba’s father, shows up later in the movies when Simba fully grows up and becomes an adult but he

only appears once as a person from the sky. His father’s wish, unlike King Hamlet, is that Simba is taken to his rightful role as the king of the Pride Lands but not for the violence or revenging on Scar. As he says “Scar: I was first in line...until the little hairball was born. Mufasa: That 'hairball' is my son. And your future king.” Mufasa expresses his pride of Simba as well as his trust in his son. Mufasa also reminds Simba of his duty, and repeatedly tells Simba to “Remember” who he is and his main life goals.
Moreover, after hearing the truth from the Ghost, Hamlet becomes so terribly shocked that he changes the way he usually acts and his feelings are more related to feud than that of Simba.

He starts to say some meaningless things so that the others find it difficult to understand what he says “How pregnant sometimes his replies are!” ( II.ii.211) but he still knows what to do “ I am mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw” (II.ii.364-365) and he literally loses all his trust in anyone including his “friends” such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet declares that he was “born to set [the circumstances of his father’s death] right” ( I.v.189), which shows that he is responsible to avenge for his father. The audiences can easily realize how much it affects Hamlet and that Hamlet strongly loves and honors his father. Similarly, Simba is incredibly close to his father and is also upsetting after his father passed away. However, unlike Hamlet, Simba is likely to want to run away after thinking that he is the one who caused the death of his father but he later changed his thought “I just can’t wait to be the

King”.
In addition, the loyalties of the two Queens to their husbands after their deaths are shown clearly in the two stories. One of the most disappointing thing to Hamlet is the fact that his mother gets remarried quickly after his father’s passing away, which makes he feel that his father is betrayed by his lover and he assumes that his mother is unable to manage her desire “As if increase of appetite had grown/ By what it fed on, and yet, within a month” ( I.ii.144). In contrast, there is no sign later in The Lion King showing that Simba’s mother gets married to anyone including Scar after Mufasa’s death.
Furthermore, the two Kings were murdered in different ways and so as the villiains.

In Hamlet, the old Hamlet is murdered by being poisoned in the ear by his brother but in The Lion King, Mufasa is killed by falling off the hill after being pushed by Scar, who is also his brother. Later in the stories, the villiains are killed by the quietly similar ways such as Claudius is killed from the blade’s poison which is supposed to be prepared for Hamlet and Scar is dead after falling off the hill. Moreover, their two love stories are totally unalike to each other as well. Hamlet and Ophelia have a sad love story in general as they are not allowed to be together since the beginning of the play. Polonius would say anything to make Ophelia stay away from Hamlet and later in the story, unfortunately, Ophelia was also found commited suicide after being insane. However, Simba has a happy ending with his lover known as Nala although it is originally a prearranged marriage. They are friends since their childhood but the feelings develop through time and they later build a strong relationship

together.
At the end of the play, all of the main characters including Hamlet are dead. In contrast, The Lion King ends more blissfully with only the villain which is Scar is killed and Simba becomes the king of the land as well as live happily ever after with Nala, who is always by his side and encourages him no matter how bad the situations are. In general, Simba and Hamlet have totally contrasting stories, while Simba is depressed because of his father’s death, he later leads a delightful life with being the King of the Pride Land and gets married with Nala but Hamlet is suicidal and depressed throughout the story and he also has bouts of madness. Simba, overall, is lucky enough to have a more cheerful story compared to Hamlet.
It can be clearly seen that The Lion King has a storyline that is believed to be inspired by Hamlet since they have many similar details. However, Disney changes the it into a more delightful story for their young viewers. Hamlet is overall a tragedy but it somehow reflects the society regardless time. Same as the play, in today society, people would do anything to achieve their desire and their goals. They may try anything including illegal things or even murdering just to lead a better life and people set themselves above all of others. Since the play shows a dark side of the society, which is unsuitable for young children, Disney may change it so that they would have a more optimistic view about the society so as not imitate those wrong acts of Claudius as well as anything else.