Choose ONE and only one of the following questions. Answer it in a complete and thoughtful essay. Your essay should be a well-developed, clear, logical and complete idea developed from a definite thesis statement. Use the texts when necessary to support your answer, but do not merely summarize plot. Your paper should be 5-7 pages in length; no fewer than 5 full pages will suffice, and more than that is probably necessary to completely answer these questions.

Essays must be either typed on a typewriter or printed from a computer–12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. This paper is due on Monday, April 5. Papers handed in late will receive a one grade deduction for each day/class late. I will be happy to look at drafts until 3pm on April 2. In fact, I encourage you to come in with a draft and/or send e-mail with questions.

You must, by noon of the day the paper is due, also upload a copy of your paper to turnitin.com following the process outlined in class.

Read the questions carefully. Support all answers with examples from the text, but do not merely summarize plot–analyze!

Several articles on The Lion King and its relationship to Hamlet are on reserve for our course in the library. It is strongly suggested that you consult (and perhaps cite) them for this paper if you are writing about The Lion King.

1) Compare or contrast Hamlet and Simba. Both are the heroes of their tales. Hamlet, however, is the tragic hero and dies at the end of the play. Simba triumphs and lives on. How are the characters similar or how are they different? Do they both have flaws? If so, what are they? You should choose one or the other on which to base your argument.

2) Mufasa tells 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" (5.2.10-11), he is preparing himself to accept his fate, to be the divine instrument who will usher in a new world order. Write an essay that discusses how both Hamlet and Simba see their place in the world as leaders. Although Hamlet never does become King, he seems to have the psyche of a leader, one who must, as he says, be the "scourge and minister" and ferret out justice in an unjust world.

3) Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead casts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a particularly modern light. The types of existential issues the characters tend to debate have only come to the forefront in the post-WWII era. Perhaps one of the most important issues with which they deal is the question of authority and, by extension, God. Do Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believe in God? Remember, just because they say things like "Oh God" does not mean they believe in God.

4) Write an essay in which you cast the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for new film or television versions of both Shakespeare’s and Stoppard’s plays. Would you cast the same actors in both plays? Your actors can be either living or dead. Be sure to support your argument well with the texts.

There are several places on the Internet where you can get the entire Lion King screenplay:

http://www.lionking.org/scripts/Script.html

http://www.angelfire.com/movies/disneybroadway/lionkingscript2.html

You will need to consult one of these in order to cite the text of the film (cited in proper MLA format for a website).

Remember: play and film titles are either underlined or italicized.