Similarities Between Macbeth And The Lion King

Macbeth v Lion King

To whom is driven by ambition, could not escape from the guilt that haunted them. Every person grapels not only in everyday life but in literature and in animated movies. Two well known works such as Roger Allers The Lion King and Shakespeare’s Macbeth express this message that guilt will haunt who is driven by ambition through foreshadowing, motif and foil characters.

Shakespeare and Allers use foreshadowing throughout their work to illustrate the theme of guilt through their characters such as Macbeth and Simba. In Macbeth, the device of foreshadowing is used when Banquo begins to raise curiosity upon Macbeth as a suspect for the murders. Macbeth is noticing Banquo’s curiosity and decides to invite him over for “dinner” which so happens be the last time anyone would see Banquo. In The Lion King, foreshadowing is used when Scar sings his “Scary Song” about wanting to be king with the hyenas. Scar begins his mischievous plans which leads to the fall of king mufasa and the disappearance of Simba.

Following foreshadowing, Shakespeare and Allers use the motif of ghost in their work to show the theme of guilt once again.

During Macbeth, the motif of ghost is when the ghost of Banquo appears during the dinner. Only Macbeth is able to see him and everyone is beginning to believe that Macbeth is going crazy. In The Lion King, when Simba begins to face reality upon him needing to go back to Pride Land and be king, his father appears as a ghost figure in a cloud to begin to help guide him. Mufasa gives him a speech to tell his son that he need to reclaim his place in the “circle of life” and Simba must remember who he is although he might’ve changed over the

years.
Finally, Shakespeare and Allers uses foil characters to demonstrate that opposite characters can go through a similar journey in two separate works and still have a positive outcome. Macduff, from the play Macbeth is a foil character because he is opposite from Simba but seems to go through a similar journey in which leads to a death of somehow. Macduff left Scotland, leaving his wife and son behind so he could create a partnership with the son of Duncan, Malcolm. Come to find out his family is killed by Macbeth and now he needs to avenge the killer. Simba from The Lion King believes Scar is his protector like his dad and listens to his deceiving uncle who put him in the valley. There is where Simba was caught in the stampede and his father Mufasa attempted to save him. In the success, Mufasa goes to save himself and Scar purposely knocks him off the cliff to kill his brother and blames the murder on Simba leading to Simba’s disappearance.
In conclusion, being human or even having a sense of feelings will leave you with a sense of guilt when something wrong is done. The two works such as Macbeth and The Lion King are just two examples that demonstrate the guilt of ambitious characters. The average person can takeaway from this that everything has a consequence and you’ll be lucky if your consequence is a good one.