Shakespeare and The Lion King

The Lion King was one of my favorite movies of all time growing up. As a kid nothing was more satisfying than, first of all, watching these two incredibly cute lions run around and get themselves into trouble, and ,second of all, going on the emotional journey of growing up and discovering the meaning of friendships, determination, and perseverance that became inevitable due to circumstances that many see simply as life.  However, just a few years ago in my high school English class, we had to read one of Shakespears classics, Hamlet, and it was later brought to my attention the correlation of events between the play and The Lion King.   After being nothing other than disturbed by the story of Hamlet, I was ultimately saddened by this revelation for now I can no longer watch the movie without the heinous events and characters of Hamlet creeping into my mind.

For those who are unfamiliar with Hamlet, it is, like most Shakespeare plays, a tragedy which involves betrayal, murder, depression, love, and many other nontraditional themes.

Here are the reasons The Lion King is observed to be based off of Hamlet:

1.     Scar Killed Mufasa

In Hamlet, King Hamlet is killed by unforeseen reasons and purposefully by Clausius, his own brother. In The Lion King, Mufasa is also cleverly killed by his brother Scar.        

2.     Simba Delays Vengeance  

After his fathers death, Hamlet becomes depressed, quite mentally unstable, and without a ruler or father figure. He waits around in sorrow as he tries to validate his suspitions of his death until he was finally persuaded by his friend Horatio and others.  After the death of Mufasa, Simba also became depressed and lost without his father and just ran away from his past leaving his loved ones and other to suffer until Nala finally persuades him to return.

3.     Mufasa Returned in Ghostly Form

In Act 1 scene 5 of Hamlet, his father King Hamlet comes to him as a ghost and tells him to seek revenge of his brother for he was responsible and leading to more horrible things.  Mufasa also visits Simba in a ghostly form and tells him to go back to Pride Rock and save the land of his loved ones from Scar and the hyenas.

4.  Serabi Has No Power as Queen

Gertrude, Queen of Denmark and wife of late King Hamlet,  has no part over Claudius’ new reign over Denmark. She is simply there for show and for Claudius’ personal use.  Serabi, Queen of Pride Rock also has no influence over scar, she is only used as abuse from Scar to get what he wants or else.

5.     Simba Gets Revenge 
                                                                                                      
Lastly, Hamlet finally gets revenge and kills Cladius.  Simba finally does as well and kills Scar.

Unlike Hamlet, however, Simba survived the whole battle where as literally everyone died in Hamlet, including Hamlet. Yet lets not forget that The Lion King is a Disney movie; its against their name to have a tragic ending.  And it is obvious that  the creators of The Lion King got their inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet,  however, I am not surprised for Shakespeare has created a baseline for many other movies and stories out there.  He is one of the most influential writers of all time and his stories will always continue to be told in one form or another.