In The Lion King, Minkoff and Allers present a clear difference between good and evil, whereas Shakespeare’s depiction of good and evil character in Hamlet is not so clear. The characters in The Lion King are categorised almost immediately in the orientation of the film, with the image of the characters giving the audience a clear picture of who the suspected betrayer is. However in the play Hamlet it’s a lot more difficult to label the characters as good or evil, the audience cannot be certain that Claudius is evil until the climax when he reacts to the play organised by Hamlet.
There is a clear distinction between good and bad in The Lion King, this makes the audience highly suspect scar’s future betrayal of Mufasa and Simba. While in Hamlet we can never be sure about which characters to trust, as it’s difficult to ascertain whether Claudius is guilty for Hamlet’s (King) death because of his overly normal personality and lack in signs of guilt and worriedness. This indicates to the audience that Claudius is a calm and logical person, while it is then young Hamlet that is viewed to be untrustworthy due to his constant displays of madness.
In The Lion King Scar is depleted as a skinny full grown adult male lion with a black mane, green eyes and a brown dark dirty fur complexion. Scars description connotes that he’s an unusual lion, most likely evil and unable to be trusted. Certain traits and events in The Lion King sets upon the audience that scar is evil, an example of this can be found in the orientation of the film when Mufasa stated “Don’t you turn your back on me scar” to which Scar replies “Oh no Mufasa, perhaps you shouldn’t turn your back on me.” The manner that Scar replies sounds devious and gives the impression that he has something planned, this quote also makes the audience believe that Scar is up to no good. However in Hamlet we only begin to suspect Claudius to be evil when he starts making secret comments to the Queen about Hamlet such as highly suggesting that hamlet go back to England, and reassuring the Queen that Hamlet truly has gone mad and should not be trusted.
It is clear that Minkoff and Allers, and Shakespeare, have presented their characters in difficult ways because of the vastly diverse audience of their younger viewers so that they can understand the differences of characters.
POINT2:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the idea of justice in a very different way to The Lion King. In Hamlet, justice is portrayed more similarly to revenge. In The Lion King justice refers to the punishment or defeat of the wrong doers, the people who do that wrong thing such as Scar must pay the price and in his case death was right just. In The Lion King Scar murders his older brother, attempts to kill his nephew Simba and displays himself to be shady and untrustworthy. Scar is the only wrongdoing individual that dies in the film; although the film portrays the hyenas to be evil they were merely used by scar. The hyenas can also be labelled as victims of Scar’s mistrust and evilness; this brings the conclusion that Scar was really the only evil character in the film. Throughout the film Simba is led to believe that he caused his father’s death, but luckily at the conclusion of the film Scar confesses that he killed Mufasa and Simba is rightfully made king. On the other hand, in Hamlet everyone that had done something bad was killed, but as a result of their action two innocent characters are also killed.
Hamlet dies at the conclusion of the play, as a result of his wrong doing for killing Polonius and being the major influence of Ophelia’s death. This is the use of fate in a tragedy because as a famous commonly used quote says: two wrongs don’t make a right. Justice may not always be served instantly but fate will eventually take its toll on whoever does something bad. An example of this is Claudius’s situation in the play, He murdered his brother before the play began but throughout the play everything led up to whether he was guilty or not.
It’s clear that Minkoff and Allers have presented justice in similar but different way, because while people who do the wrong thing are punished In Hamlet characters that had done nothing wrong still died. The situations in the Lion King and Hamlet are different, but the view of justice is very much the same.
POINT 3:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet structures justice in a similar way to The Lion King. In both Hamlet and The Lion King Justice is displayed at the resolution. Throughout the film and play everything builds up to the final moment of justice. There is a difference in the structure of both stories, however as in Hamlet the main character knows of the crime that’s been committed at the beginning of the play. Whereas in The Lion King, nobody finds out about the true crime committed until the climax when justice is served. The structure of Hamlet plays an important part in the way the audience views justice in comparison to The Lion King. Hamlet is structured so that the audience don’t have any knowledge of who is evil but more so a slight theory, in Hamlet’s eyes the evil person is Claudius but to the audience Claudius seems to be a normal person. While Hamlet’s behaviour makes him seem to be the evil one. In The Lion King only the audience have distinguished Scar to be evil, leaving the rest of the characters in the film to discover. It’s clear that Minkoff and Allers have presented the structure of justice in different ways. Although the structures are different the end product is still the same, the evil person is found and justice is served.