The Lion King A seemingly innocent Disney movie that follows a lion cub through a journey of heartache, adventure, and acceptance of responsibility is actually a portrayal of the overcoming of Freud’s theoretical Oedipus Complex. Throughout the movie, The Lion King, the main character Simba has to deal with the guilt of thinking he killed his father. Simba’s uncle Scar encourages Simba to “run away and never return”(The Lion King). The finale is a fight between Scar and Simba to see who claims the title of king. Every main plot point has an Oedipal reasoning behind it.
The Lion King is an allegory for overcoming the Oedipus complex. The first scene is a march of the Pride Lands to watch the presentation of newly born Simba. Simba is to one day replace his father and become king. This is reinforced by the motif ‘Circle of Life’ sung by Elton John. “Till we find our place, on the path unwinding, in the circle of life”(The Lion King), foreshadowing that Simba will end his journey by taking Mufasa’s place in the ‘Circle of Life’. The …show more content…
In analysing Simba’s life and the events happening throughout, we start to see the connection that is made between the resolution of his Oedipus complex and returning to the ‘circle of life’ in the Pride Lands. The final scene of the film is almost an exact repeat of the opening scene where Simba and Nala’s child is being presented at the promontory of Pride Rock. This forms a cyclic storyline and the message here is that Simba had successfully ‘found his place in the path unwinding in the circle of life’ and so the circle continues, or in other words that he had successfully overcome his Oedipus complex. In light of this analysis we come to see that The Lion King delivers an encrypted message of the conquering of the Oedipus complex to its children audience who are most likely experiencing the complex
The Lion King is an allegory for overcoming the Oedipus complex. The first scene is a march of the Pride Lands to watch the presentation of newly born Simba. Simba is to one day replace his father and become king. This is reinforced by the motif ‘Circle of Life’ sung by Elton John. “Till we find our place, on the path unwinding, in the circle of life”(The Lion King), foreshadowing that Simba will end his journey by taking Mufasa’s place in the ‘Circle of Life’. The …show more content…
In analysing Simba’s life and the events happening throughout, we start to see the connection that is made between the resolution of his Oedipus complex and returning to the ‘circle of life’ in the Pride Lands. The final scene of the film is almost an exact repeat of the opening scene where Simba and Nala’s child is being presented at the promontory of Pride Rock. This forms a cyclic storyline and the message here is that Simba had successfully ‘found his place in the path unwinding in the circle of life’ and so the circle continues, or in other words that he had successfully overcome his Oedipus complex. In light of this analysis we come to see that The Lion King delivers an encrypted message of the conquering of the Oedipus complex to its children audience who are most likely experiencing the complex