First Last Name
Professor Rita Wisdom
English 1302
December 18, 2008
Word Count: 1167
Hamlet vs. Simba While Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King was strongly influenced by William
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, they differ in many ways. The movie shadows Shakespeare’s work so closely that parallels between the main characters themselves are readi ly apparent. Simba, Mufasa, and Scar are direct representations of Young Hamlet, King
Hamlet, and Claudius, but there are some scenes that set the two apart. The renowned deaths of both Simba’s and Hamlet’s fathers (Mufasa and King Hamlet) are carried out in different manners; Mufasa is pushed off of a cliff into a stampede, and King Hamlet is poisoned. Another key difference is between Nala and Ophelia - the lovers of the main characters. Simba never stops loving Nala and ends up marrying her, but Hamlet claims to have lost interest in Ophelia and wants nothing to do with her. By far, the most crucial difference is the ending. At the end of The Lion King , Simba becomes kin g of The Pride
Lands, but Hamlet dies at the end of the play. Althou gh Young Hamlet in Hamlet and
Simba in The Lion King share some differences, they are alike in their loss of fathers, their uncles’ usurpation of the throne, and their revenge against the new ki ngs.
Comment: Thesis statement with three subpoints Comment: Wonderful introduction!
You’ve focused on the differences, and then you use that as a springboard to focus on the similarities. Your thesis provides the energy for the remainder of your essay.
Great!
YourLastName 2 The death of King Hamlet negatively affects young Hamlet, but a fter his death,
Hamlet Sr. becomes more than the king and father he once was. Not knowing exactly how his father died, Hamlet feels lost. He becomes a herald for his son. When h e approaches his son as a ghost, he explains that he wasn’t bit ten by a snake, like