Lion King and Hamlet

I have found that The Lion King and Hamlet have many parallels. This is very noticeable between the characters.

The fathers:  Mufassa  and Hamlet are the kings. The rule their kingdom in peace and prosperity. They motivate their son to take their rightful place as king.

Simba and Hamlet Jr. are the heroes of the stories. Both are next in line to the throne and father's are murdered. They run from there responsibility as ruler because they are emotionally wounded from their father's death. They return to avenge their fathers deaths and restore the kingdom back to peace and prosperity.

The devil figure: Scar and Claudius. They both murder the king so they could gain control of the throne.  Both exploit their power and send the kingdom into poverty.                         

There is a huge time difference between these two stories and yet there are both very popular. It is a plot that is repeated in literature. Why are certain themes and plot lines so effective and classic (they never get old)?

Source Code

I have chosen to examine the trailer Source Code and was surprised to see archetypes. The trailer starts off with Captain Stevens who plays the hero, he finds himself in a man named Sean’s body on a train next to a Sean’s girlfriend Christina. Shortly after the train explodes and Captain Stevens is extremely confused when wakes up in a dark room (which is symbolic for the unknown) and is told by a mysterious man and woman that he is inside “the Source Code” which is “a computer program” that “enables [Captain Stevens] to crossover into another man’s identity in the last eight minutes of his life”. He is also told that another attack is planned to occur in six hours but if he can identify the bomber the next attack can be prevented (this is his task). He goes on the common battle between good and evil. The evil force is the terrorist who bombed the train, he plays the devil figure that the hero works against and is his main obstacle in the way of his quest. The man and woman act as Captain Steven’s mentors because they give him instructions to “look for [a person] who seems nervous” to help him on his quest. They also provide Captain Stevens with supernatural aid, which is the Source Code, the extremely high technology that plays the major role in making it possible for Captain Stevens to find the terrorist. This is Captain Steven’s departure as well as his initiation. He is called to an adventure; his task is to find the person responsible for bombing the train which will complete his archetypal journey which is his quest to rid the land of danger (he would stop the next attack, saving hundreds of people). He is introduced to the Source Code which is a new and dangerous world and is reluctant to return but isn’t given the choice and is sent back onto the train. A flash of bright light is shown before he enters Sean’s identity. It symbolizes the hope of finding who the bomber is.
 It is obvious that Captain Stevens will also go through the road of trails stage. It will be a great struggle, testing his strength, resourcefulness and endurance, to find the bomber. We already know Captain Stevens faces limited time because he is only given eight minutes before the trail explodes and must try again, also only six hours before the next attack.  
On top of this great responsibility Captain Stevens falls for Christina which begins another quest, to rescue the damsel in distress. He begins to spend his precious time desperately trying to accomplish the seemingly hopeless task of saving Christina even though the man and woman speakers try to convince him not to waste his time because it is impossible to change the outcome while in the Source Code. The inner most cave will be when cave where Captain Stevens faces the great trail of completing his task before time runs out.
If Captain Stevens figures out who the bomber is, his return and reintegration with society with be exiting the Source Code and using his newfound information to prevent the bomber from his next attack which will restore order to the land. Also, as the hero usually accomplishes to rescue a damsel in distress it means that he might have completed his other quest to rescue Christina. This will mean that he has accomplished the impossible, altering the outcome of the train crash. This will develop many possibilities the Source Code has such as saving many people's lives from accidents which will also restoring order to the land.       

Captain Stevens is a complex hero who given many heroic archetypes; a hero as a warrior because he faces physical challenges and external challenges (the bomber), an apocalyptic hero because he faces the possible destruction of society (the many deaths of the people on the trains) and finally a hero as a lover (is motivated by his love for Christina which occurs later). And of course Captain Stevens will stop the bomber because good almost always triumphs over evil despite all odds!  

As you can see there are lots of archetypes that can already be found in the movie trailer. It also makes it easy to predict the next stages in the hero Captain Stevens’ journey and the other archetypes that will occur throughout the film. I think that the archetypes in this movie are essential to the suspense and plotline of this movie.

Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge similar to the Orphean myth.  Orpheus is man with the ability to charm all living things with his music. He began the archetype of the inspired singer. He attempts to retrieve his wife from the underworld. This is similar to Christian who is an inspired singer and appears to the other characters to be a brilliant musician and writer. He also tries to save his true love by keeping her from the evil Duke.

Christian, a young man moves to Paris to become a writer and take up bohemianism involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits who highly value love, beauty, freedom etc.  His heroic archetype is him being a hero as a lover. He falls in love for Satine who was already claimed by the Duke of Monroth a potential investor in the cabaret. He is purely motivated by his love for Satine to complete his quest to win Satine's love. He says that "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to lover and be loved in return". The Duke agrees to pay for the show but only if he could see Satine. The Duke is the devil figure. He offers his wealth to Satine if she give herself to him. Satine and Christian see each other secretly and explain to the Duke that they are just rehearsing. The Duke get extremely jealous of the time Christian was spending with Satine. Christian is determined to win Satine and strongly believes that love is the most important thing of all. He tries to convince Satine that she doesn’t need the Duke’s money to be happy and that love is more important. It is quest clear that his journey is the search for love and to rescue the damsel in distress. Battle between good and evil: Both the good and evil force have a great desire the Christian represent the good force because he is in love with Satine. The Duke is the evil force, he only desire’s Satine because of her beauty.

Characteristics of a Hero’s Journey: The Duke is a monstrous man that Christian meets. He is very greedy and violent because he threatens to kill Christian because he is jealous that Satine is in love with him. Satine is the beautiful lady who is Christian’s inspiration because he is in love with her. The origin of the hero is mysterious as there is no background information given about Christian. He struggles for something valuable and important which is love.

Departure: When a group of performers discover Christian talent they convince him to present his work to Satine a courtesan and the star of the Moulin Rouge. At first he is reluctant because he doubted that Satine would listen to a poor writer.

Initiation: This is when Christian enters the Moulin Rouge. A lot of the costumes and dresses are red (Rouge is also French for red) which represents violent passion, disorder, anger and physical stimulation. It is much more dangerous, greedy and deceitful environment.
The Road of Trials: Could be when Christian has to improvise a play when he is caught with Satine by the Duke.

The Innermost Cave: When Satine forces Christian to leave her because the Dukes threats and because of her sickness that she is dying of that she has kept a secret. This is a hard time for Christian and he becomes depressed and isolates himself from the rest of society in his house. He then realizes that he can’t give up on their lives and that Satine is still in love with him.

Return and Reintegration with Society: He sneaks back into the Moulin Rouge to win back Satine. He accidentally ends up on the stage but walks off with the audience very confused. Toulouse yells out “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” which inspires Christian to start singing a duet with Satine, their secret love song.  This confirms their love for each other before she collapsed and passed away. Later Christian writes a story about their love so that their love “will live forever”.    

The Mask of Zorro

The Mask of Zorro is classic struggle between good and evil. Don Diego de la Vega is a hero to the Mexican peasants and commoners who he defends against the Spanish government his real identity is unknown. The people know him only as Zorro (he is dressed in black which represents mystery and the unknown). He is a denied hero because his status is essential in making heroism possible. He goes on the common archetypal journeys, the warrior’s journey to save his people and to rid the land of danger and the quest for vengeance. He goes through many test of strength, he is a skilled swordsman. The devil figure is the cruel governor Don Rafael Montero. Zorro's secret identity is revealed and his home is attacked, leaving him imprisoned, his wife dead and his daughter seized to be raised as Montero’s child. His wife’s death is his unhealable wound. Twenty years go by before he finally escapes the prison. He vows revenge and become the mentor for Alejandro Murrieta to one day takes his place as Zorro. They discover that Montero has a secret gold where peasants and criminals are used for slave labor. His plan is to buy California from Santa Anna stealing gold from their land. Alejandro and Don Diego steal a map to the gold mine. This frightens Montero that Santa Anna would discover what he was doing so he decides to get rid of the evidence by blowing up the mine along with all the workers. Alejandro and Don Diego manage to rescue the workers and kill Montero and Don Diego convinces his daughter that he is her real father. Peace is restored to the land.

The Lion King

            The story takes place in Africa and begins with a huge gathering of animals to celebrate the birth of King Mufassa’s son Simba.

            Simba is the hero. He fulfills the necessary task of restoring harmony to the community. Characteristics: young person from the provinces (leaves the community in his youth and is raised by Timon and Pumbaa and later returns home to save the community), a pupil (receives leasons from Zazu) and a son. He is also special, representing a nation (he is future king of the Pride Lands). He is young, naive and inexperienced. He loses his parent at a young age. Scar is the devil figure. His black mane represents evil and his green eyes represent envy. The situation archetype is the battle between good and evil and death and rebirth as the cycle of life is a major theme within the movie.

           Mufassa’s evil brother Scar is displeased with Simba’s birth because he wants to be king. Simba became another obstacle in Scar way to the throne.

            Mufassa and Zazue act as Simba’s mentor. Stars represent guidance.

            As Simba grows up Mufassa prepares Simba for when he would become king. Mufassa tells Simba that the stars are Kings of the past and are there to guide him. The Pride Lands were safe but not the Outlands who belonged to the dangerous hyenas and are off limits to everyone. Zazu is a bird that is assigned to give lessons to Simba.

            The hyenas are the monsters that Simba (the hero) meets. They go to the elephant graveyard. The skeletons represent mortality; it is a graveyard and is a very dangerous place.

            Simba disobeys his father and enters the Outlands with his best friend Nala. Simba’s goal was to prove his bravery. Three hyenas chase Simba and Nala, they would have gotten killed if it wasn’t for Mufassa who came to their rescue

            Simba is a transcendent hero. His father’s death is the tragedy in his life and it is extremely hard on Simba because his uncle Scar fools Simba into believing that it was his own fault.   His father’s death could also be considered an unhealable wound, an emotional wound he never completely recovers from. Mufassa is the scapegoat because he sacrifices himself in order to save his son.

            Scar had plotted with hyenas to kill Simba and Mufassa. Scar traps Simba in a gorge and starts a stampede of water buffalo into it. Mufassa manages to rescue Simba but failed to get out gorge and was killed. Scar convinces Simba that his father death was his fault.

            Simba goes on a quest for his identity. -must go on a journey, learn a lesson, change and return home. He crosses a bridge that represents change, he becomes more mature. He’s new friends are his loyal retainers. They are like the hero’s sidekick and protect the hero. He is raised by strangers in a rural setting. This is where Simba recovers emotionally from his father’s death.

            After his father’s death Simba flees the Pride Lands distraught, narrowly escaping the hyenas and intending never to return. Timon a meerkat and Pumbaa and warthog find Simda collapsed in the wastelands. Together they nursed Simba back to health. The three become friends and stay together. Timon and Pumbaa teach Simba the motto “Hakuna Matata” meaning no worries. For many years Simba lives a care free life with his new friend, not worrying about the problems back home, and becomes an adult.

            One day he encounters Nala who is thrilled to see Simba and exclaims how everythone thought he was dead. Nala informs him that she left the Pride Lands looking for help because Scar was causing everyone to starve and begs Simba to go back and be king. Simba, still believing that he father’s death was his fault, was too ashamed and distressed to return.

            Rafiki a wise baboon tracks down Simba and conjuring Mufassa’s ghost. Mufassa ghost persuades Simba by telling him that he has “forgotten who [he is]” and he needs to remember that he is “the one true king”.

            Simba’s new journey is to rid the land of danger. It is also his return and reintegration with society, restoring order to the land.

            Simba races back to the Pride Land and confronts Scar and insists to take over his place as the rightful king. Scar refuses and they battle on Pride Rock. Simba falls but managed to hang on to the end of the rock.

            And another archetypal journey is added: Simba’s quest for vengeance. Scar is the outcast because he is banished from the Pride Lands for his crime.

            As Scar’s about to throw Simba to his death he whispers to Simba that he “killed Mufassa”.  This greatly angers Simba, then he pull himself back on to the rock and pin down Scar. He forces Scar to admit to his murder and then bands Scar from returning to the Pride Land.

            I noticed some archetypal symbolism: The rain and fire represent rebirth and starting over.

            During this there was a lighting storm that sets everything on fire but at the end rain puts it out. New plants are able to grow. With Simba as king the Pride Land is restored. The cycle of life continues with the movie ending with Simba and Nala newborn cub being.

The Karate Kid

   I have watched the movie the Karate Kid and noticed many archetypes of a hero’s journey.  The main character goes through all the stages of a hero’s journey: the departure, initiation, the road of trials, the innermost cave and the return and reintegration with society.
   In this classic movie Daniel LaRusso’s story is told. Daniel’s departure is when he reluctantly has to move to a California; he is constantly begging to go back to his old home in New Jersey. The initiation takes place at the beach party when he fist comes in contact with Johnny and his gang. Before this moment Daniel was naive and inexperienced and was not expecting to have such a difficult and violent life. Daniel is peer pressured to confront a girl he is attracted to named Ali who is Johnny's ex-girlfriend. Johny gets extremely jealous and angry because of this and him and his gang beat up Daniel. This is the start of constant harassment, making Daniels life miserable. The road of trials begins when Mr. Miyagy decided to help and mentor Daniel after witnessing Daniel getting beaten up. Mr. Miyagy is Daniel's apartment's maintenance man and is surprisingly is a karate expert. Mr. Miyagy trains Daniel by putting him through many series of test. He spends countless hours training but feels that he is accomplishing nothing, believing that all he is doing is chores for Mr. Miyagy. After a long time Mr. Miyagy decides that Daniels is ready and test his newly developed skilled. He tests his speed, strength and resourcefulness. Mr. Miyagy enters Daniel in the All Valley Karate Tournament making a deal with Johnny’s sensie to stop harassing Daniel if he beats Johnny who is the defending champion. However, if Daniel losses the harassment resume not only to Daniel but Mr. Miyagy as well. The tournament represents the innermost cave, it is a place of great trails. During the tournament Daniel is greatly wounded from Bobby's illegal attach to the knee. It seems unlikely that he would recover soon let alone finish his last match against Johnny but miraculously Daniel enters the ring balancing on one leg and defeats Daniel by using the crane stance that Mr. Miyagy had taught and defeats Johnny. Daniel grows through this experience, having more confidence in himself. Daniel’s return to society restores peace in his life, Daniel gets the girl and makes Johnny and his friends are bullying people much less.
There are many characteristics of a hero's journey within the Karate Kid such as:The hero is naive.  -Daniel does not expect his new life to be so difficult.
The hero meets monstrous men.  -Johnny and his gain at the beach. He decided that Daniels is there target because he saw Daniel with his ex-girlfriend. When Daniel goes to check out the local dojo he found Johnny and he friends in a lesson. Daniel could see where the hostility of Johnny had come from. The karate sensei was corrupt, he was teaching his class that the enemy diverse no mercy and "to strike first, strike hard, [show] no mercy".
The hero has a strange wise being as a mentor.  -Mr. Miyagi who has master the
The hero years for the beautiful lady who is sometime his inspiration. Ali
The hero was born and raised in a rural setting. -moves to a much bigger city
The hero engages in test or contest of strength and shows pride in his excellence.
The hero suffers a terrible wound. Knee injury from illegal kick in the match against Bobby.
Situation archetypes are:The Task (a superhuman feat that must be accomplished in order fulfill the ultimate goal.) -Winning the tournament which accomplish Daniels goal of putting an end to being harassed.  
Battle between Good and Evil -Daniel representing the good and Johnny representing the evil.

Character Archetypes:(Daniel) The Hero -Fulfills a necessary task and will restore justice to the community.  The initiate -Must endure training.
(Mr. Miyagy) Mentor -Serve as a teacher/counselor to the initiates.

(Johnny and his sensie) The Devil Figure -This character represents evil incarnate.
Heroic Archetypes:
The hero is a warrior. He faces physical challenges and external enemies. He also achieve almost supernatural power.

Archetypal Journey:A quest to rid the land of danger. (the danger being Johnny and his friends).



I love this movie, it is definitely one of my favorites. As you can see this movie is full of archetypes and connections to mythology. It has caused me to wounder why archetypes in Greek mythology are used in popular modern literature. Why are they so effective and common? As well as the reason for these patterns in literature. This is a classic movie and I think that the hero's journey makes it so enjoyable and memorable.


Please share your ideas!!! :)