Tera Kraushaar April 5, 2024 Junior Honors Literature To Be Or Not To Be King Hamlet is one of the most fascinating pieces of English literature many schools teach thus far. Many children have never understood how many parallels there are within The Lion King that resemble significant events in the famous Shakespearean play, Hamlet. In High School, many begin to find parallels between not only The Lion King and Hamlet, but also parallels between several other Disney movies and Shakespearean writings as well. The premise of The Lion King and Hamlet is generally similar regarding the plot. They both follow the same story line, with the father dying initially and the uncle taking over the throne. Both Hamlet and Simba become consumed by grief, …show more content…
As the story of Hamlet begins, the death of the King is not shown. The first act begins with Claudius giving a speech to the kingdom about how horrible it is that they lost the king, but he is happy to assume the responsibility of being King. When Assuming the role of the king, Claudius gives a speech that begins by saying, “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we—as ’twere with a defeated joy, With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole—Taken to wife.” The King is essentially saying that he still feels the pain from his brother's death, but they must move forward. This furthers how fast they moved after the King’s death, and could potentially explain Hamlet’s actions and why he became so angry. Hamlet is a very complicated character and can be hard to follow throughout the …show more content…
Hamlet is struggling with the idea of his father's death and how his mother Gertrude and Uncle Claudius handled the current situation. He explains his feelings to his mother in one of his most famous soliloquies, “Frailty, Thy Name is Women!” He begins to explain his feelings to his mother by saying, “'Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature; possess it merely. That it should come to this. But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king, that was to this.Frailty, thy name is woman!—A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father’s body, Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer!” Hamlet explains how he feels as though his mother never actually loved his father because she went and remarried as soon as she did. He does begin to insult his mother by calling her weak, but in the end, he decides to no longer continue the speech. Hamlet ends by saying, “Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes, She married. O most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous
The featured protagonists in the Lion King, Scar, and in Shakespeare's Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, Claudius, are two comparable characters due to their envy of what has been denied to them by birth right — to be king. In the following you will read what separates the text from the 1994 film and what brings them together, with details of how they murdered their brother, whether they’re capable monarchs, and how their treason comes back to haunt them. By comparing the children's classic villain, Scar with the early modern english classic, Claudius, we can identify the subtle differences as well as the similarities between the characters from the film and the play.
No story is entirely original. Authors, playwrights, and songwriters all pick and choose elements from stories regardless of whether they intend to or not. Some stories mirror those of the past more similarly than others while adding a fresh, new twist. The Disney movie The Lion King contains many similarities to Shakespeare's play Hamlet, some of which are more obvious than others. Similarities in the character complexes of the three hyenas and Polonius's family, betrayal from Scar and Claudius, and the kingdoms deterioration and resolution are a few examples of the likenesses of the movie and play.
There is no doubt that today's entertainment has lost most of its touch with the more classical influences of its predecessors. However, in mid-1994, Walt Disney Pictures released what could arguably be the best animated feature of all time in The Lion King. With a moral base unlike most of the movies released at the time, TLK placed a children's facade on a very serious story of responsibility and revenge. However, this theme is one of the oldest in history, and it is not the least apparent in one of the oldest works of literature by The Bard himself, William Shakespeare. The work that Disney's TLK parallels is none other than Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, and the film shadows this work so closely, that parallels between the main characters themselves are wildly apparent. This very close comparison has led critics "to compare the movie to Hamlet in the importance of its themes" (Schwalm 1). But with a closer inspection of the characters themselves do we see just how apparent these similarities are.
Some stories that are considered ‘classics’ often get reiterated to offer a similar message to a younger generation. As Shakespeare was such a strong author and playwright, many of his pieces are retold. The story of Hamlet is often retold with different characters, however, perhaps the most popular adaptation is the Walt Disney film, The Lion King. As The Lion King and Hamlet were developed for different demographics, there are similarities and differences between the main characters, and the supporting characters, which also affect the overall theme and plot tone.
Hamlet and a popular amount of Disney movies share many parallels. The Lion King was actually based entirely off the play Hamlet. There are many themes in this play that are relevant in many other pieces, such as Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Hercules. Beauty and the Beast helps convey betrayal among people who care for each other, while Mulan allows people to see a deeper meaning in Hamlet’s own personal passion. Furthermore, Hercules allows one to connect the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia to a romance that is almost as complicated. While constructing this essay, I was able to discern a deeper meaning from the wise words of Shakespeare by taking the minute details, and linking them back to something similar and familiar.
Lion King vs Hamlet The movie, The Lion King, and the book, Hamlet, both have a similar story line. In both stories, the king is killed and revenge is sought by the king’s son. The murderers in the story are the king’s brothers who want the power of the throne. After the death of the Kings, both of the villains successfully took over the kingdoms. While these villains ruled, the kingdom slowly deteriorated.
The Lion King and Hamlet. In one film it is “to be or not to be” and the other is “to hunt or to be hunted”. At the surface these two seem to have nothing in common, but when one digs deep he/she can see how similar they are. Yet with all their similarities a few of their characters are written differently. Was it really bad for Claudius to be king? Was Hamlet’s Crusade as justifiable as Simba’s? Was Hamlets plot a reverse of The Lion King? Was their circle of life corrupt from the beginning and was Claudius Mufasa? Hamlet/Simba and Claudius/Scar may be similar in terms of ideology, but different from their results.
Shakespeare & Disney Characterization The Lion King and Hamlet both feature princes. Hamlet is the prince in the Shakespeare play named after him. Hamlet is very indecisive and this is shown throughout the play. Hamlet wants to avenge his father by killing his uncle but, when he is presented with an opportunity to do so while Claudius is confessing his sins.
In the beginning of Hamlet, the Prince behaves as any normal person would following the death of a loved one. Not only is this a loved one, but an extra special someone; it is his loving father whom he adored. Hamlet is grief stricken, depressed, and even angry that his mother remarried so soon after his father’s death. Having witnessed how his father had treated his mother with great love and respect, Hamlet cannot understand how his mother could shorten the grieving period so greatly to marry someone like Uncle Claudius. He is incapable of rationalizing her deeds and he is obsessed by her actions.
"I was raped," the girl said to me overtaken with tears. I was taken by surprise and was at a complete loss for words. She had just taken one of the darkest secrets of her life and brought it out to the splendid light for just me to gaze upon. A little apprehensive, I responded, "I'm sorry." What is one to say at the revelation of such a horrid thing? Anything else I thought of saying sounded stupid and insensitive, so I opted for silence and hugged her to comfort her to the best of my ability. A few months later the girl came to me and thanked me. She said that my gesture meant more to her than anything anyone else had said about the rape. I then realized that sometimes, if not most of the time, actions can speak louder than words. The parts of us that are less vocal, such as our clothing, gestures, facial expressions, etc. can be more impacting than words.
Hamlet has a strong love for his parents and is hurt to see them either die, or fall into the scheme of Old Hamlet’s brother-in-law. Without love in our lives, we would feel almost neglected by the world. After Hamlet’s father dies, he desires his father’s love and comfort that he is unable to get. He turns to his mother after his father’s death and is turned away by her because she has other things to focus on rather than the grieving of Hamlet. Hamlet feels hurt by his mother’s actions and is jealous that she appears to love Claudius and not her own son.
The Lion King is Disney's most successful movie to date. Many believe that the Lion King is Disney's only original movie; the only movie not previously a fairy tale from one country or another. In fact, The Lion King is in on based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Disney writers conceal the basic character archetypes and simplified storyline in a children's tale of cute lions in Africa. On the other hand William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was based on the Epic of Son-Jara or Sundiata. This lead to the debate is the Lion King based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet or the West African story, the Epic of Son Jara. Simba, Hamlet, and Son-Jara are all heroes in their own story. All of them must take on a villain that knew very well, but who does Simba’s journey resemble the most Does Simba represent Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, or Son-Jara, the lion king.
When a parent dies, you need someone to fall back on. This person helps you get through it and make you feel loved. If you do not have someone there to help you through this time, you often turn to other things like acting crazy and wanting to take your own life because you feel as if you are not loved and you want to get rid of the pain. Hamlet loved his father and his death took a big part of his life away from him. His mother, Gertrude, needed to spend time with him, to show him he was loved and someone cared about him. Gertrude was not there for Hamlet the way she should have been, and because of this he began to act like he was crazy. Instead of spending time with her son, Gertrude was busy getting married to the late Kings brother Claudius.
"But two months dead-- …my poor father’s body…why she married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father…Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears…But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue" Hamlet painfully moans to himself. It is clear at the beginning of the play that Hamlet was suffering—emotionally. It hurt him to see his mother marry so soon after his father’s death and Hamlet felt alone since no one else seemed to feel his pain and be mourning with him. It’s safe to conclude that Hamlet had a commendable and upright relationship with his father whom he admired. Unless one was not as courageous or as confident as Hamlet, we would’ve complained and tried to ruin the marriage. Prince Hamlet on the other hand, showed heroic skills by putting others first. He kept his pain to himself and didn’t want to cause any difficulties with the townspeople or family.
For this project I researched the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test, or the RPM, as well as the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices test, and a bit on the Colored Progressive Matrices test. The RPM was developed by John C. Raven in 1936 and it was first published in 1938. The Advanced Matrices was published in 1947 for the British War Office Selection Boards because they needed more advanced tests to be developed. Since then, various versions have been updated and published throughout the years. There are three versions of the test as stated before; there is the Standard Progressive Matrices, the Colored Progressive Matrices, and the Advanced Progressive Matrices. Currently the test is published by Pearson and the entire kit including all three versions of the test, is around $900 to purchase (Pearson). Answer sheets can cost anywhere from $30 to $53, depending on how many in a packet is offered and for which section of the test the answer sheet is for.