Often, people rise to power through selfish actions, like Claudius from the play Hamlet (Shakespeare). However, this was not the case for Hazel the Bunny. He lived in an environment that was probably intended to represent human society. In the novel Watership Down, the peaceful life of a wild rabbit was suddenly disrupted by the horrible dream of a humble Fiver rabbit. Hazel was concerned about this and took action by contacting the warren's head rabbit, Threarah. He first approached the authorities to resolve the problem. This was not the attitude one would expect from an independent thinker like Hazel. He was not hungry for leadership position like humans like Claudius who killed to become king. It was only when he realized that Threarah would not help him that Hazel initiated the mass exodus of the rabbits. Hazel had various reasons for taking charge of the bunnies. Some of these motivations might lead the reader to doubt that the rabbit's real intention was to save the warren instead of his own life when he took them away. It's clear that Hazel would have struggled to travel safely after leaving the warren with only Fiver and himself. These potentially selfish reasons may have been his initial motivation. But as the plot develops, it becomes clear that Hazel is willing to sacrifice herself if necessary so that they can continue living. He might also have wanted to establish a warren that treated all rabbits with respect. Earlier, two large owsla rabbits had stolen a choice morsel of food from him and his younger brother. Perhaps he was truly motivated by the vision of a fairer environment in which rabbits could live. He was later shown to respect the opinions of his followers in Watership Down and was middle of paper while the evil Claudius had very few qualities to begin with that could possibly improve his citizens. . When Hazel learned of the impending potential disaster, he was intelligent and able to think independently of others, including his leader. Watership Down would have been a story of massacre if its author, Richard Adams, had decided not to encourage Hazel to go alone against Thereah's advice. It was Hazel's balanced yet independent thinking that made him the ideal leader. Works Cited Adams, Richard. Watership Down: a novel. New York: Scribner, 1972. Gerth, Ben. 1998. www.graphics.stanford.edu. 10 3 2011 .ProQuest ASC. “A Sense of Community in Richard Adams’s Watership Down.” SIRS Renaissance (2008).Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.