Hesitance- Hamlet's "Hakuna Matata?"

Disney's hit-film The Lion King undoubtedly got a lot of its original inspiration from Hamlet. Examining the comparisons between both, some people realize that a certain young lion was stuck in a situation much similar to the one Hamlet was stuck in.

To provide a brief synopsis, a young lion blames himself for the death of his father (who was actually killed by the young lion's uncle), flees from his home, and then adapts to a laid-back, carefree life with a self-absorbed meerkat and a flatulent warthog as his "adoptive parents." In the time spent in his days free from worry, the lion acts as if his troubles were nonexistent, that is, until the stars bring back some remembrance of his father to him. Then a primate witch-doctor comes to knock some sense into him (metaphorically and literally speaking), show him the continued existence of his father in his heart, then sends him running towards home (and most people know what happens after that).

Hamlet is trapped by the same fate as Simba was, however in a way that haunts him more than nags at his righteous conscience. Think his friends as the witch-doctor monkey, someone who knows that one way or the other, his father still lives. His friends take him to the apparition, who pleads with Hamlet to fulfill his revenge, as was the custom of the time, a task that leaves Hamlet pale with fright, although strengthened with resolve upon the revelation of his uncle's schemes. Hamlet, however, refused to kill Claudius in an immediate manner as most would expect of a noble hero, biding his time in his cowardice.

Here is the irony of Hamlet's comparison to Simba's story: Hamlet's "Hakuna Matata," or the ideal that is holding him back from rectifying the situation, is his conscience nagging at him, insistently dragging him away from murdering his uncle. His uncertainty about the apparition being a demon or his father's noble spirit further supports this, because somewhere in the back of his mind, he know that murder clashes with his moral truths, and yet he still wants to heed his father's wishes. If he chooses the path of vengeance, however, he risks losing himself and his belief in what is right. Simba, on the other hand, found himself when he decided to heed his father's wishes that continued to call out from the stars above.

Sad, is it not? Something that is meant to dispel a plague of injustice (Pride Land's famine and Denmark's hasty wedding) becomes something that a person either loses or gains from. In some ways, however, it is as if Hamlet is losing an innocence reminiscent to that of a child and walking towards his adulthood, similar to how Simba finally decides to grow up to be the king his father wants him to be.

As Simba leaves his "Hakuna Matata" behind, so does Hamlet when he leaves his "hesitance" behind.

And thus, two kings of injustice fall while two kings rise from children who decided to stop running away.