Hamlet Blog Assignment #2: The King Has Returned

"The King has returned."

 

          I recently watched a movie called The Lion King and surprisingly drew many parallels from it to my own life at the moment. While the movie is a bit childish, it reflected many deep and relatable themes. In the movie, the main character, Simba’s, father is murdered by his Uncle Scar in an attempt to become King. Simba, completely astonished and mad with guilt, runs away and abandons his family and friends. He grows up living a life free of stress and responsibility until prompted to return after hearing news of the destruction that Scar is causing. On his journey back, he begins to doubt his purpose until approached by a vision of his father. His father revives his ambition and will to achieve justice and revenge. Simba creates a plan with his friends and returns to take back his rightful place as King. He fights Scar and when Scar tells him that he killed his father, he avenges his father’s death by killing Scar.

          Simba very much reminds me of my dear friend Hamlet that I mentioned earlier. His uncle murdered his father and like Simba, after finding out the truth, Hamlet mentally runs away through his “antic disposition” that he told me about. His plan is unfolding and folk in the castle have noticed. I heard the Polonius tell the King, "I will be brief, your noble son is mad: mad call it; for, to define true madness, what is’t but to be nothing else but mad?” (Shakespeare II.ii.92-94). Simba’s family and friends must have believed him mad when he ran away as well. Simba and Hamlet’s fathers must have been similar as well as they both came down in the spirit form to speak with their sons about their deaths and how to go about avenging them. Mufasa approached Simba and said, “You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life” (Allers, Minkoff). Mufasa is harsh with Simba but only subtly hints of his desire for vengeance by telling Simba to “take his place in the Circle of Life” meaning to kill Scar and become King. Hamlet’s father is more direct when asking Hamlet to avenge him by saying, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love… revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare I.iv.23-25). Both Mufasa and Hamlet Sr. uses the guilt tactic of challenging their love to convince their sons to do their will. Like Simba, when Hamlet had doubts about his father returning to him as an apparition. Hamlet must have been considering what I had told him the other night about the possibility of the ghost being the devil because I overheard him saying, “The spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape” (Shakespeare II.ii.526-528).

          Hamlet has been troubled by his inactivity on his father’s death. He accuses himself of cowardice and doubts that he is brave or manly enough to follow through on the task given to him by his father. After watching the player’s speech, he told me that he went into a room by himself and ranted about how a player could draw more emotion from a fictional story than he to his own life. He said, “But I am pigeoned-liver’d and lack gall to make oppression bitter or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave’s offal: bloody, bawdy villain!” (Shakespeare II.ii.504-507). Simba has similar doubts about whether or not he is fit enough to carry out his father’s will. He says, “She's wrong. I can't go back. What would it prove, anyway? You can't change the past” (Allers, Minkoff). Both Simba and Hamlet utter these words when they are at their peak of doubt after not acting upon the quest before them.

          As Hamlet’s best and most loyal friend, it is only my duty to understand his situation. I see that he is currently hatching a plan to move another step further to avenge his father. He said, “I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before mine uncle: I’ll observe his looks: I’ll tent him to the quick: if’a do blench, I know my course” (Shakespeare II.ii.522-526). This “play” may be similar to the plot that Simba devised to throw Scar out of power upon returning to Pride Rock. I am not particularly sure how to feel about Hamlet’s scheme but I will continue to support and advise him. If events unfold like they do in The Lion King, as I fear they might, then Hamlet might call upon me like Timon or Pumba to enlist my help in overthrowing his uncle. For now, I must prepare myself for what incredulous deeds that Hamlet may ask me to do.