“Mine honor is my life; both grow in one. Take honor from me, and my life is done” (William Shakespeare). Hamlet is a Shakespearean tragedy set in Denmark that follows the story of a young prince, Hamlet, who seeks revenge on his uncle for murdering his father, the previous king of Denmark. Throughout the play, Hamlet is recognized as a madman after he harasses his old flame Ophelia and hints at his uncle, King Claudius, that he was aware of the dreadful murder of Old Hamlet. Similarly, The Lion King tells the tale of a cub, Simba, who sets on an adventure to reclaim his rightful throne from his uncle, Scar, who had killed his father, Mufasa. Simba, too, is framed as a rogue and forced to leave the house. Hamlet and The Lion King do share many similarities when it …show more content…
After Old Hamlet’s ghost orders Hamlet to seek direct revenge on King Claudius, the first person to suffer at the hands of Hamlet was Polonius, Ophelia’s father and King Claudius’ right hand man, who schemed against Hamlet multiple times to prove that his madness was due to Ophelia’s rejection. He ultimately dies amidst carrying out one of his plans, as Hamlet blindly stabs him through the curtain that hid him while he eavesdropped on Hamlet and Queen Gertrude’s private conversation. Following Polonius’ death, Ophelia is seen to go mad and drown herself, causing Laertes to form an alliance with King Claudius and plan to kill Hamlet shortly after they received news that he had returned from England. Plan A was for Laertes to stab Hamlet with the contaminated tip of his rapier and kill him in a duel; Plan B was King Claudius offering Hamlet a poison-infused drink during his break. However, after Hamlet is wounded by Laertes, they accidentally switch rapiers, and Laertes is then injured by Hamlet. At the same time, Queen Gertrude dies after unknowingly drinking from the cup prepared for
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.
They decided to invite some of his college friends to watch over him. The Queen offered many thanks for their decision to watch him. “For the supply and profit of our hope, / Your visitation shall receive such thanks / As fits a king’s remembrance.” (2.2.24-26). Claudius asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get answers out of him, making them seem more like spies than helpful friends. When Hamlet shows up to Ophelia’s house, seemingly mentally disturbed, Ophelia tells her father. Polonius decides to tell the King of Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship that he thinks that may be the source of his problems. The King and Polonius set up a meeting between the two. Seeming to know he is being watched, Hamlet acts very wildly, leading them to believe Ophelia was not the cause of his insanity. The King is not impressed at Polonius. “Love! His affections do not that way tend, / Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, / Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul” (3.1.170-72). At this point, Hamlet has started his drastic decline in his mental stability. When he is called by the Queen for a talk, he over hears something behind the draped curtains and stabs through it, killing Polonius. His reaction is not what one would expect, as he does not feel any remorse. Hamlet simply states it was for the best and his bad luck. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. / I took thee for thy
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet strikes many literary chords and themes. It primarily chronicles a quest for revenge, political intrigue and a slow descent into madness. Throughout the play, two men of different rank and intellect; Hamlet and Laertes are portrayed in this play as each other’s foils. Hamlet who has lost his father in the hands of his uncle and Laertes who has lost his father in the hands of Hamlet, seek out similar goals but in very distinct ways. Hamlet and Laertes both go through stages of their carving vengeance to finally fulfill their goals of killing their fathers’ murderers. The readers detect that Hamlet goes in the path of plotting and deceiving to kill Claudius whereas Laertes goes in a more haste and reckless path
This, of course, causes a landslide of tragedy in the play. Claudius exiles Hamlet to England and sends sealed letters to the King of England telling him to kill Hamlet upon his arrival. Ophelia goes insane. Laertes, Hamlet's brother, returns from France with an army, demanding to know why Polonius was killed. Claudius enlists Laertes to kill Hamlet. Ophelia commits suicide. Hamlet and Laertes duel at her funeral; both of them are mortally wounded, Gertrude kills herself and Hamlet kills Claudius.
Troubled by royal treason, ruthless scheming, and a ghost, Denmark is on the verge of destruction. Directly following King Hamlet's death, the widowed Queen Gertrude remarried Claudius, the King's brother. Prince Hamlet sees the union of his mother and uncle as a "hasty and incestuous" act (Charles Boyce, 232). He then finds out that Claudius is responsible for his father's treacherous murder. His father's ghost asks Hamlet to avenge his death and Hamlet agrees. He plans very carefully, making sure that he doesn't kill Claudius when in he has already been forgiven for his sins. Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, the King's advisor, thinking that it was Claudius hiding behind a curtain spying on Hamlet and his mother. This drives Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's love interest, insane. She then drowns in a suspected suicide when she falls from a tree into a river. Laertes, Ophelia's brother, teams up with Claudius and plot revenge on the strained prince.
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.
The king forbade Fortinbras to wage an attack against Denmark, and instead suggested he attack the Poles to vent his anger. Fortinbras agreed to the plan, but had no intentions of following it. Polonius was King Hamlet’s advisor and the father of Ophelia and Laertes, both of whom respected and loved him, despite his arrogant demeanour. Young Hamlet murdered Polonius accidentally, thinking him to be the king eves dropping on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother. "How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" Laertes returned home immediately after hearing of his father's death and confronted the King, accusing him of the murder of his father. Once Claudius told Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father's death, he and Claudius concoct a scheme to kill Hamlet using a poison tipped sword. "…Hamlet, thou art slain…The treacherous instrument is in thy, unbated and envenom'd…" Hamlet does indeed die as a result of wounds inflicted by Laertes, but it is the poisoned tipped sword that causes the demise of Laertes as well.
Volcanoes are formed when magma is expelled from the Earth’s surface, resulting in volcanic eruptions consisting of ash and lava. Over time, the lava cools and forms into rock on the Earth’s surface. Whenever an eruption occurs, the newly-formed rock from the lava layers continuously until the volcano takes its shape. Volcanic eruptions have taken place for thousands of years, and even today, according to the U.S Geological Survey (2010), there are approximately 1500 active volcanoes located throughout the world.