Comparing Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Movie, The Lion King
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.
In The Lion King, the role of the young prince whose father is murdered is played by a cub named Simba, whose naivete procures him more than his fair share of hardships and troubles. By the acts in the story alone, one can see that Simba is a direct representation of Shakespeare's Hamlet Jr., but not only that, each of them shares similar actions in the play. Interpretations if Simba's actions are as profound as Hamlet's, particularly of why Hamlet delayed in exacting vengeance for his father's death (Harrison 236). Both Simba and Hamlet Jr. "delay" their action of retribution for their respective father's deaths. The loss of their paternal companion leaves Hamlet incre...
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...and antagonist, but of secondary characters as well. Modern entertainment may have lost much of its roots, but comparisons such as these may well prove the old axiom: "There is no new literature being written, only old literature, redone."
Works Cited
Schwalm, Karen. "Patriarchy in the Pride Lands." 26 Apr. 1995. Online posting. Web Site. http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/~schwalm/lionking.html. World Wide Web. 2 Apr. 1998.
Harrison, G. B, ed. "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." Major British Writers. Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc.: New York, 1959.
Eliot, T.S. "Hamlet." Elizabethan Essays. Haskell House: New York, 1964.
Brandes, Georg. "The Classic Tendency of the Tragedy." William Shakespeare, A Critical Study. 1898. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co: 1963.
Taymor, Julie. The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway. Hyperion: New York, 1997.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
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 stories 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 kingdoms slowly deteriorated. Neither of the sons liked the villains, but they did not know at first that they had anything to do with their father’s death. It took an outside force to convince them that they must vow revenge for their father’s death. Both sons had the wit to approach revenge strategically. They wanted the villains to know that they knew about how their fathers were murdered.
The 15th Amendment states that “The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. This gave African Americans the right to vote. The amendment seemed to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. The 15th Amendment is also categorized as one of the three constitutional amendments. In the beginning thirty-seven states ratified the 15th Amendment. The first of these states to ratify the 15th Amendment was Nevada. To disenfranchise African Americans, devices were written into the constitutions of former confederate states. In 1869, when the New Year began, the republicans were anxious to introduce a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the black man’s right to vote. Congress considered the amendment that was proposed for two months. When congress approved a compromise, the amendment did not specifically mention the black man. The struggle for and against ratification hung on what blacks and other political interests would do. The Republican-dominated Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act. This act divided the South into five military districts and outlining how ...
Simba is younger than Hamlet. The Lion King movie is a happy movie unlike in Hamlet where they pretty much all die. In Hamlet his mother married his uncle unlike in the Lion King you never see Simba’s mother ever with scar. Simba lives happily ever after. Simba gets married to Nala and have a baby unlike Hamlet and Ophelia because they both die. In Hamlet his “friends” help tried to kill him unlike in Lion King where they never did. In shakespeare Hamlet’s last words were “Of that I shall have also cause to speak, and from his mouth whose voice will draw on more. But let this same be presently performed, even while men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance on plots and errors happen.” (shakespeare ph.
“Cloning represents a very clear, powerful, and immediate example in which we are in danger of turning procreation into manufacture.” (Kass) The concept of cloning continues to evoke debate, raising extensive ethical and moral controversy. As humans delve into the fields of science and technology, cloning, although once considered infeasible, could now become a reality. Although many see this advancement as the perfect solution to our modern dilemmas, from offering a potential cure for cancer, AIDS, and other irremediable diseases, its effects are easily forgotten. Cloning, especially when concerning humans, is not the direction we must pursue in enhancing our lives. It is impossible for us to predict its effects, it exhausts monetary funds, and it harshly abases humanity.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
After the American Civil War (1861-1865), the United States entered a stage of reconstruction where many southern states passed poll taxes that appeared to be merely another source of revenue, when in actuality, its purpose was to prevent African Americans from voting (Carson & Bonk, 15). In attempts of solving this issue, the fifteenth amendment was passed, which declared the right to vote to male citizens of any color. The fifteenth amendment, however, did not stop southern state legislators to find other ways to prevent African Americans as well as other minorities from voting. In addition to making citizens have to pay in order to vote, southern states also adapted literacy tests (Carson & Bonk, 15). In order to vote, citizens had to take literacy tests and obtain the results that identified them as “literate” enough to vote. Although the literacy tests gravely affected African Americans, it also affected woman and people of other ethnicities with poor education denying them the right to vote (Carson & Bonk, 15). By oppressing minorities and denying them the right to vote, the obvious outcome was that wealthy candidates who ran for
In conclusion, it is clear to see that cloning is not the taboo it has been made out to be. It is a new boundary that humanity has never encountered before and so it is understandable that people have qualms about ‘playing God’ by shaping a life. Although some might argue that it is immoral to clone human beings, the truth is that it is unethical not to. Given that such technology has the potential to save millions upon millions of lives, not tapping into that industry would have dire consequences on the future. In this case, the ends more certainly justify the means.
Works Cited Shakespeare, William. The. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy, Dana. Gioia.
Imagine a world where everyone looked like you and was related to you as a sibling, cousin, or any form of relation, wouldn’t that be freaky? Although cloning is not an important issue presently, it could potentially replace sexual reproduction as our method of producing children. Cloning is a dangerous possibility because it could lead to an over-emphasis on the importance of the genotype, no guaranteed live births, and present risks to both the cloned child and surrogate mother. It also violates the biological parent-child relationship and can cause the destruction of the normal structure of a family. The cloning of the deceased is another problem with cloning because it displays the inability of the parents to accept the child’s death and does not ensure a successful procedure. Along with the risks, there are benefits to Human Reproductive Cloning. It allows couples who cannot have a baby otherwise to enjoy parenthood and have a child who is directly related to them. It also limits the risk of transmitting genetic diseases to the cloned child and the risk of genetic defects in the cloned child. Although the government has banned Human Reproductive Cloning, the issue will eventually come to the surface and force us to consider the 1st commandment of God, all men are equal in the eyes of god, but does this also include clones? That is the question that we must answer in the near future in order to resolve a controversy that has plagued us for many years.
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
The PAH gene provides instructions to create phenylalanine hydroxylase. Phenylalanine hydroxylase is responsible for breaking down phenylalanine. If the body lacks phenylalanine hydroxylase, it leaves a dangerous buildup of phenylalanine. This can affect a person who eats meat and eggs and foods high in protein, because they will have excess phenylalanine stored in their body. The parents must pass a defective version of the PAH gene for the child to inherit the disorder (Cederbaum S. 2012). In other words, both parents have to carry the altered PAH gene for the child to have Phenylketonuria. If one parent has the gene, the child would carry the defective PAH gene but wouldn’t show any
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1992. Print.
Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print
The most popular objection to human cloning is the assumption that science would be playing God if it was to create human clones. Reverend Albert Moraczewski states that cloning is intrinsically morally wrong, is an attempt to play God, and exceeds the limits of the delegated dominion given to the human race. (Madigan, 8) To say that this argument is unclear and unsupported is generous. It refuses to differentiate between cloning and the interruptions of biological processes which are viewed as commonplace in today's society. Religious objections were once raised at the prospects of autopsies , anesthesia, artificial insemination, organ transplants, and other acts which were seen to be tampering with divine will. (Madigan, 3) Yet enormous benefits have been reaped by each of these...