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Gavin found that linking Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" to the popular children's movie "The Lion King" helped students to read and understand. Through examining the heroic characters of the works, students realize that they too are unique individuals on heroic journeys.

Hamlet has always been a problem play for me and my students. Many of my students and my colleagues cannot find much that is heroic in the Danish prince. After all, Hamlet kills Polonius and his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He doesn't even assume the throne but leaves it to a foreign prince before he, himself, dies. Why is it, then, that I have always felt that Hamlet is right, just, moral, and heroic? Aren't they the feelings that Shakespeare wanted me to have about Hamlet? I needed an explanation. Hamlet has been touching the hearts of playgoers and readers for centuries. Hamlet, the man, can strike a responsive chord in all of us, a chord that is primal, archetypal. But how do I convey such a complex concept to my students of many nationalities and religions? We lack a common cultural base.

My solution to this dilemma came fortuitously after reading John Bradshaw's Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child (1990, New York: Bantam) and viewing Walt Disney's The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, dirs., 1994, Buena Vista). Bradshaw synthesizes the works of Otto Rank and Edith Sullwold and creates descriptions of the mythical child in exile. This pattern is followed in the stories of Jesus, Moses, Buddha, and Perseus as well as Hamlet and Simba, the lion king. Using these two works, I felt I could use popular culture to help my students understand archetypes.

By pairing the play Hamlet with the Disney movie, The Lion King, students discover that both Hamlet and Simba represent the mythical archetype of the exiled child whose role is to restore world order and who has an heroic task. Students also realize that they too are unique individuals on heroic journeys.

THE HERO

The first concept I ask students to think about is that of the hero. What is a hero? How can we recognize one? Students free write on this idea and then the class discusses their ideas while a list of qualities is written on the board. From this list a class definition of a hero is compiled.

In Shakespeare's time people told stories about heroes, sang ballads about them, and sometimes went to plays. Films are our culture's version of story telling. In this next section of hero exploration the class views The Lion King and examines the values and beliefs about the hero that we get from this children's story.

Before showing the film, the students are told to look for similarities between Hamlet and The Lion King, specifically in four areas: characters, conflicts, themes, and ending scenes.

After the viewing, I put students into groups of four or five and ask one student to act as a scribe and one to act as a spokesperson. Each group has one topic to explore: characters, conflicts, themes, or ending scenes. Students list and describe all the similarities they can find between Hamlet and The Lion King in their area. They write their findings on an overhead transparency or a large sheet of chart paper. Each group shares its findings with the class, and additions are made by other class members. Findings include the following.

CHARACTERS

Hamlet and Simba, the lion cub, are banished from their homes, face life threatening dangers, survive, and come back home to revenge the death of their fathers. The ghost of Hamlet's father and Mufasa, Simba's father, invite comparison because they appear as ghosts to direct their sons to do their duty for their countries and to "remember me" (I.v.92). Gertrude and Sarabi, Simba's mother, are both used by their husband's brother for the brother's own purposes. Timon and Pumbaa are as faithful as Horatio. And Scar, Simba's uncle, is as villainous as Claudius.

CONFLICT

Both Hamlet and Simba are victims of circumstances and seem incapable of taking action against their evil uncles. Hamlet, wanting to do the moral and just thing, cannot commit cold-blooded murder. Simba feels guilty and responsible for the death of his father and so leaves his homeland. Younger brothers, Claudius and Scar, are jealous enough of their older brothers to kill them and take over their thrones. Finally, a life-or-death showdown occurs between the rightful kings, Hamlet and Simba, and the usurpers, Claudius and Scar.

THEMES

The themes of revenge, absolute power as a corrupting force, and innocence versus experience appear in the stories. Hamlet and Simba both get revenge for their fathers' deaths by killing, respectively, Claudius and Scar. The power-mad uncles create chaos and disorder in their countries by preying on the youth, moral goodness, and inexperience of their nephews and others.

ENDING SCENES

Shakespeare ended Hamlet with the probable election of Fortinbras as king of Denmark. The directors chose to end The Lion King with an almost identical presentation scene on Pride Rock. There is a pattern; in both endings peace is restored, and a new world order is established.

ARCHETYPAL PATTERNS

After we discuss those four aspects of the stories, a look at the plot is in order. Both Disney and Shakespeare used archetypal patterns to shape their heroes. I put a sample definition of archetype on the overhead: An archetype is a pattern of human experience that becomes part of our "collective unconscious" minds. It is an image that already exists in us such as the one of deathrebirth (Campbell 1971, 60). I then ask the students to relate other archetypes-images and symbols of things, experiences, and myths that are common to everyone. They can include: death-rebirth; the journey; the battle for good over evil; heaven-hell; God and the Devil; the seasons; the tree of life; the snake. I ask students how the story of Jesus shows the pattern of death and rebirth, how Moses shows the pattern of the journey, and how Perseus shows the pattern of good versus evil.

The Lion King revolves around the archetypal pattern of the "exiled child." Students brainstorm the patterns from the story line while they are listed on the board. A summary of these patterns taken from Bradshaw's book is, in part, below:

The child to be exiled is the child of distinguished parents, the son of a king, or one who should legitimately inherit the throne. The child is often saved by lowly people (shepherds), a humble woman, or suckled by a female animal. Basically the myth suggests that the child is thrown onto the mercy of elemental forces. The old order attempts to kill the child.... But the abandoned child is strong and able to survive. Slowly the child begins to recognize his own extraordinariness... The child's strength comes from the gradual recognition of who he is.

The new self-recognition lets the divine child (hero) know that there is something he has to teach the old order. He understands that at this precise moment in time, the old order can hear him and be regenerated. Now, not only has a new child been born, but a new world order has been born. The child may have to find his distinguished parents. He may have to take revenge; sometimes he may have to kill them.

Finally the child achieves the rank and honor that is his due. He accepts his divinity or his kingship or his leadership role. (266-67) Students, after discovering the patterns of the "exiled child" in Simba, apply the same patterns to Hamlet.

The class then turns to whether Simba and Hamlet are heroes. Students often see that when Mufasa says to Simba that it is important to be a good king, one who understands that every creature has a place in the circle of life, he is preparing his son to be a leader who will change and regenerate the Pride Lands. Simba has to risk his life and destroy his evil uncle in order to do that. When Hamlet says, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends,/ Rough hew them how we will" (Vii.10-11), he is preparing himself to accept his fate, to be the divine instrument who will usher in a new world order. Both Hamlet and Simba have come home to take their rightful places as kings.

In the context of the archetypal myth of the exiled child, the problem questions about Hamlet can then be answered. During his exile, Hamlet has discovered his purpose in life. He realizes that his rightful place is in Denmark as its heir apparent. In self-defense he has dispatched the corrupt messengers of his destruction, Rosencrantz and Guildenstem. There remains only Claudius. In the end Hamlet gets his revenge-but only after the world sees Claudius for what he really is, a deceitful, treacherous villain. That Hamlet doesn't become king doesn't matter to him. He has accepted his responsibility and done his duty to his father, his country, and himself. He has restored world order and taken his place in the circle of life.

CONCLUSION

My students spend a great deal of time looking at Hamlet and Simba and their heroic journeys. As a culminating activity, they apply this knowledge to themselves. We all, in some ways, are exiled children. All of us make personal journeys and find our ways home. Some of us have fought battles between good and evil in order to discover who we really are and to restore order in our worlds. I ask students to tell me their stories. They write a response in the form of a narrative, poem, letter, or essay about a personal journey they have taken or an experience that has transformed them. The students explore the mythical patterns in their own lives that lead them to discover their own life purposes. Through their study of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Disney's The Lion King, students can discover some of the secrets of living a meaningful life.