Dramatic Irony In The Lion King

There have been many stories, plays and movies throughout the centuries that have used the tool of dramatic irony to tell the story. Disney continues to use dramatic irony in many of their children’s movies to capture the audience and get them involved in the story. This paper will focus on one of those movies in particular, the 1994 hit movie The Lion King.

Before discussing how The Lion King used dramatic irony, it is important to define dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a situation in a story or a film where the audience knows something that either the main character or the majority of the characters do not. Shakespeare used a lot of dramatic irony in his plays. An example of this would be Hamlet. In the story of Hamlet, Hamlet is met by his father’s ghost that tells Hamlet his uncle had poisoned and killed him he did not die by a snake bite. It is at this moment now the audience and the main character know more then the other characters in the play.

The reason I use Hamlet as an example is because I will be talking about The Lion King. The story of The Lion King is somewhat based on the story of Hamlet.

I will summarize the movie for those who have not seen it.
The movie The Lion King is the story of a young cub named Simba who is suppose to rule the kingdom whenever his father passes away.

Simba has a greedy, power hungry uncle named Scar who wants to take over the kingdom. So Scar sets a trap for Simba’s dad using Simba as bait. Simba is caught in the middle of a stampede and his father helps to get him free. When Simba’s dad needs help and reaches for Scar to help him, Scar digs his claws into Simba’s father’s hand causing him to fall back down into the stampede where he is then killed. Scar convinces Simba that his father’s death was his fault. Simba then goes into exile bearing the guilt of his father’s death. After years have gone by and Simba is grown he is haunted by his past and learns of his uncle’s evil ways. He then returns and has to overthrow his uncle to take the throne that is rightfully

his.
So where is the dramatic irony? Why use dramatic irony? In the story the audience knows that Scar has had the evil desire to take over the kingdom. The audience then learns of the plot to kill Simba’s father. These are all points of dramatic irony. The biggest use of dramatic irony comes when the audience sees Scar knock Simba’s father off the cliff into the stampede, and Scar makes Simba feel as if it was his fault. So the audience knows of the treasonous plot and they know that Scar killed Simba’s father, but Simba does not know and goes off believing it is his fault that his father died.
There are a couple reasons that dramatic irony is used. First of all it allows your audience to be engaged and an active part of the story. Secondly it moves the story forward with the audience rooting and caring for Simba. If the audience did not know Scar killed Simba’s father or that he had then the audience would not have sympathies related to, or even care about Simba. This would then ruin the whole story. Most movie goers do not want to watch someone grow up and return to take over the throne if he is guilty of murder. However we do know that it was Scar that did kill his father so now we have someone to root for.
The use of dramatic irony has been seen throughout the centuries in literature, plays and movies. It is a great tool to get the audience engaged with the story and with the characters. It is clearly seen being used in the story of The Lion King. Without the use of dramatic irony in the movie, the audience participation and experience would have been completely different. .