Comparing Hamlet And The Lion King

Tanya Xu Jade Class!S14 essay 16 June 2024

Prompt: How does Disney’s The Lion King compare to Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

Envision the gory murder of family members for the insane desire for power and recognition but only to result in infamous and notorious. But one ends in death, while the other turns out to be honourable and joyous. This essay compares and contrasts the similarities and differences between Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and the popular Disney film The Lion King with regards to the Shakespearean archetypes, tropes, and allusions that are eminently shown in both works.

To begin with, Hamlet and The Lion King share some similarities in regards to their use of Shakespearean archetypes, but they’re not without their differences. Both

The two works are similar because they both contain the Shakespearean theme of Betrayal and Revenge and the motif, or reoccurrence of ghosts. In Hamlet, Hamlet’s father’s ghost declares that his own brother betrayed him in the lines “Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand/ Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched” (1:5:79-80). This quote shows that King Claudius betrayed Hamlet’s father and did treacherous deeds of stealing his crown while Hamlet’s father slept. This theme is similarly depicted in The Lion King as Scar betrays Mufasa and his family by killing the King to take the throne. Additionally, the motif of ghosts is also repeated in both works. In Hamlet, all of Act 1 Scene 5 is based on Hamlet and his father discussing the dark deeds of King Claudius, with Hamlet’s father literally explaining that he is the ghost of King Hamlet. Likewise in The Lion King, the grown SImba is taken to the lake by the monkey where he also sees Mufasa’s ghost speaking to him and telling him who SImba really was. Contrariwise, these works are different when their Shakespearean genre conventions are analyzed. Hamlet portrays the tragedy genre conventions of death and murder and the tragic hero, as Hamlet’s father, Laertes, and later Hamlet himself all end a tragic ending when they are all killed. But The Lion King has a different story as it includes the comedic genre convention because it ends in a wedding or celebration of Simba and Queen Nala’s newborn cub, which they have a tradition of gathering all animals and commemorating this moment. In essence, while these works share similar Shakespearean themes of Betrayal and Revenge and the motif of ghosts, they differ greatly in their use of Shakespearean genre