#hamilton analysis

When the Hamilfilm came out, Hamilton Prop Master Jay Duckwoth shared these facts on his Instagram!

I recently found these & they're super cool (and needs to be appreciated more) so I wanted to share them here too!

How Hamilton and Burr change roles

Alexander Hamilton starts his relationship with Aaron Burr, as an admirer, he admires him and looks up to him as a goal. And he is essentially so excited to talk to him.

I really strongly think that Lin Manuel Miranda had a Christian mindset while writing Hamilton. I think that Burr represents the devil, someone who can't refrain from sin, dragging the others down with him...

First of all, Burr is the first person in America that meets Hamilton and he immediately wants him to stop chasing his dreams. This is an anti-Catholic notion that is trying to prevent Hamilton from reaching salvation by giving charity and by improving the world, thus not allowing him to find the church to forgive his original sin.

Also, Burr embodies what God says should be avoided. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says: "For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power." Burr loves himself more than others, saying that he is the one thing he can control and not seeking to improve the lives of any others. He never donates to charity in the musical, but he is rich, hence loving of money. As a child he ran away from his uncle which is disobedient to his parents. He is arrogant and abusive when he believes he will win the presidency and then shoots hamilton. He is ungrateful to the people who brought him to the place he is in (his father who is a preacher and his mother who is a genius). He is a lover of pleasure when he goes to Europe. Burr is clearly the anti-christ. He was also never punished for his crimes.

Burr continuously tries to suppress Hamilton's Godly nature by discouraging him, up until the point that he tempts him to sin. He tempts Hamilton by provoking him with letters threatening him to a duel, which would have Hamilton commit a mortal sin: Murder. But then, if Hamilton were to go to the duel knowing that he would remain Godly, he would have to be throwing away his life -- thus committing another mortal sin of suicide. He would not have the chance to repent from that sin and would be brought to Hell by the temptation of Aaron Burr, the devil's agent.

We do not know if Hamilton goes to heaven. Lin Manuel Miranda would rather us interpret his writings in our own way. Perhaps he prayed beforehand or he prayed on his deathbed and was forgiven by God. It is my opinion that he went to heaven because he prayed on his deathbed. Also, because Elizabeth sees him at the very end of the musical. But maybe she went to Hell too, that is a post for another time.

disclaimer: this is my first hamilton analysis, pls give me grace as i figure out how this works. all of this is my own opinion, so if u disagree or don't understand smth PLS TELL ME!! id love to discuss or debate :∙D

1. "I'm a girl in a world in which my only job is to marry rich. my father has no sons, so I'm the one who has to social climb for one. so I'm the oldest and the wittiest, and the gossip in nyc is insidious. and alexander is penniless... that doesn't mean I want him any less."

angelica always has her weight of her family name hanging over her head (much like burr). it's not as if she can't handle this responsibility; she is a genius and has good control over herself.

alexander, however, almost makes her forget her duties and loosen her manner (I say almost cuz "what the hell is the catch" & "you forget yourself" show that it was still in the back of her mind). this isn't just because shes attracted to him; alexander is also a mirror for her, a what-if. angelica is a genius on par with hamilton, but is restricted by being a woman and by her status as a schuyler. alexander is hindered by neither of these (as much as he'd love to have the latter), so he functions as the idea of freedom for her. later on (in "take a break"), it seems as if she lives vicariously through him, cuz he's got everything she wants; to stay in new york, to stay with her sisters, to write for freedom and build the new country. i imagine that if she wasn't into hamilton, she'd be jealous of him instead.

2. "he's after me cuz I'm a schuyler sister, that elevates his status. I'd have to be naive to set that aside, maybe that is why I introduce him to eliza, now that's his bride. nice going, angelica, he was right: you will never be satisfied."

while being a schuyler opens many opportunities for angelica, it also means she has to be wary of her suitors' ulterior motives. more important in these lines is angelica's indirect description of eliza compared to herself. angelica knows that she herself is smart and quick witted, and that she fits the skills needed to be an heiress. eliza does not. angelica doesn't call her naive as an insult; it doesn't really seem to occur to her that it is an insult at all. she states it as fact that eliza won't care that alexander might be after her just for her wealth (and she is correct).

(also noteworthy is that angelica doesn't stop loving alex despite that possibility either. maybe the draw of meeting her equal is enough?? even tho she suspects him to be a cheater and gold digger??

...I don't know what they both see in him =_=)

3. "I know my sister like I know my own mind. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind. if I tell her that I love him, she'd be silently resigned. he'd be mine. she would say I'm fine; she'd be lying."

and finally the key difference between angelica and hamilton: family. more specifically, caring for someone else more than for yourself. angelica has her own aspirations and desires but they will always be secondary to her family, both abstractly, as she preserves her family's legacy, and practically, as she chooses eliza's happiness over her own.

hamilton does not have that kind of bond with anyone. for all that he can be caring and protective of his people and his nation, he will always put himself first. it's not surprising, considering how he grew up, but it still ends up being his undoing.

(also of note here is this description of eliza. specifically that she stays "silently resigned" & lies to cover her feelings when she's upset. perhaps this is what eliza usually does for angelica, but for hamilton she makes no secret of her feelings. to be fair, even eliza herself constantly understates her agency and willpower (see: the entirety of "helpless"). however, when eliza knows what she wants she does not hesitate to get it. I have a few more thoughts about her having an easier life because of angelica's sacrifices, as well as angelica misunderstanding her, but that's for a separate post.)

bonus: "but when I fantasize at night it's alexander's eyes, as I romanticise what might have been if I hadn't sized him up so quickly. At least my dear eliza's his wife... at least I keep his eyes in my life."

earlier angelica applauds her intelligence and perceptiveness, but here she curses it. ignorance is bliss, and if she wasn't so attentive to her family's needs, she could follow her own ventures. but!! don't forget that though she doesn't act on her ambitions, they are always there. she doesn't stop dreaming of alexander, or stop missing her sisters and her city.

He's standing there with one arm raised, pointing towards the sky

and at first look, it's a power stance, he's defiant, he's confident

but if you think about it just a little bit more than that

at the end of the musical, at the end of his life,

when he is dueling burr,

where did hamilton point his gun?

he pointed it at the sky.

https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11418672/hamilton-is-fanfic-not-historically-inaccurate

The musical is literally a fanfic. It is an artistic interpretation inspired by a biography of Alexander Hamilton. It is a grounded story with character arcs and an overarching plot. Literally no story based on someone's life will ever be accurate because real life isn't like a story - there are no character arcs or symbolism or themes. Stories are an art form used to teach us lessons, to engage us emotionally (laughter, sadness, etc.) and to just simply...entertain.

I have had this post in mind since I watched the Hamilton tour last year. Aaron Burr was my favorite character when I had only heard the Original Broadway Cast Album, and after I saw the show I had a billion more feelings about him.

Before I get into the wonderful complexities of Aaron Burr, I wanted to reaffirm that this is an opinion piece! Feel free to disagree or comment!

Also, I feel like I must address the disdain some people have for Hamilton fans before I write this. I am in no way a radical Hamilton fan, and I have been a musical theatre fan since I was six years old. I know musical theatre like the back of my hand, and my praise for Hamilton is not blind to its flaws or solely because of its popularity or anything like that. I feel like many people criticize shows like Hamilton and Wicked and Next to Normal because they were the break out shows of their time, but there is a reason they are loved—they are good shows! There is no need to hate Hamilton just because it's mainstream or because people dislike the fanbase.

Additionally, this is solely focusing on the character Aaron Burr! I am a history geek (been an American history nerd since 5th grade), but I don’t really care for the real life Aaron Burr (for many, many reasons).