#hamilton meta

[rosetta-draws]

hamilton hair redesigns/headcanons

theatre is a beautiful but limited medium. for all that differences in hair are important in hamilton, the actual changes are the equivalent of tiktokers putting a towel on their head.

so here are my ideas for how hamilton characters would style their hair (in a modern au I suppose).

lafayette: cornrows that go into long braids so he can tie his hair up. when it's too short for a ponytail he gets beads at the bottom and greatly enjoys clicking and clacking w every step.

mulligan: close cropped hair that he dyes into funky patterns. (examples)

peggy: microbraids‼️

eliza: a bob near the beginning of the story, grows it out during act 1, ties it up in act 2. then she cuts it again after burn

angelica: jumbo box braids, for when she lives in america/in act 1.

alexander: he tried curtain bangs before submitting to the receding hairline. lost a bet in uni and dyed his hair red; one of the worst decisions of his life (which is saying a lot!!)

bonus burr: Bald. can't change that sorry. it's professional and personality-less, yet common enough that he only stands out compared to the expressively styled revolutionaries. perfect, thematically.

if there's anyone i haven't mentioned its cuz i like their hair as it is in the play/don't have anything to add 😌

[crystalclocktower]

I’m sure this has been said before bc y’all have analyzed every inch of this show but I just realized in Take A Break Alexander compares his life to Macbeth, and later in the song Angelica says “screw your courage to the sticking place” which is a quote from Macbeth

[disregardcanon]

i actually really like how the kate/antony/edwina triangle in bridgerton feels like a response to “satisfied” and the angelica/hamilton/eliza triangle in hamilton. because in the musical hamilton, it always seems to portray angelica’s actions as heroic which. i don’t necessarily think they are, just because angelica is “sacrificing” something for her sister.

she “gives up” her opportunity to be with hamilton so that her sister can be with him. but she holds onto the idea, for all this time, that it could have been her. that if the option had been presented, she would have been the first choice. and she and hamilton are engaged in an emotional affair to the point where hamilton assumes that she’s there to comfort HIM through the fallout of the reynolds pamphlet.

yes, angelica does love her sister, but there’s always this undercurrent of “this is the thing that will make eliza happy, so i will not stand in the way of it. even though i COULD. even though it makes me miserable. and i will hold this inside and then one day i will die”. and she just spends all this time pining hamilton and thinking about how things could have been “different” if she’d just gone for it. and there’s this little bit of resentment for “having” to be the bigger person.

but angelica has decided that eliza wants hamilton, and she “deserves” him more than she does. but it makes angelica miserable and lets her play the martyr, and it makes eliza a hapless victim of the circumstance, and even if it’s not from an affair between hamilton and angelica, she STILL ends up heartbroken because of hamilton’s actions, because she never understood hamilton’s intentions and actions as well as she thought she did.

edwina, in bridgerton, is DEEPLY upset when she realizes what’s been happening around her. the ways that she’s been kept in the dark, the ways that she wasn’t right about the situation around her, the ways that kate is making herself miserable to try to give edwina a poisoned cup. and so edwina decided to set it aside and try to find something better, and give her sister the opportunity to work things out with the guy who actually wanted her, kate.

i don’t really think that eliza would have approved of angelica’s actions anymore than edwina did. while edwina felt betrayed and stupid and angry, afterwards she got herself out of a situation that was bound to make her unhappy and now she’s going to get to marry someone who ISN’T emotionally wedded to her sister. it’s all out in the open and they can work their lives around the ways that things actually are and around their actual needs and desires. and kate gets to be happy too, which edwina wants for kate as much as kate wanted it for edwina.

looking at edwina’s actions, i think that eliza hamilton (the fictional character) might have made different choices if they were presented to her instead of angelica just making everyone’s choices and deciding THIS IS FOR THE BEST ACTUALLY the way that kate tried and failed to. she is a very kind person, but she takes all of the responsibility onto herself and almost made everything worse.

[clarythericebot]

headcanon: “that would be enough” is when alexander actually falls in love with eliza

In a Winter’s Ball, it’s pretty clear that Alexander’s motivation for marrying a Schuyler is utilitarian.

If you can marry a sister, you’re rich, son.

Is it a matter of if, Burr, or which one?

Also, just LOOK at that face. :P

I think it’s understandable, the way he goes about finding his wife. 

I mean, it’s pretty sad, considering Angelica takes her attraction towards Alexander seriously [this is not a game]

and Eliza [I do I do I do I do!] is just so genuinely, earnestly in love with her husband. 

But from the beginning of the play, it’s clear that Alexander believes that he has to fend for himself and everything that he wants. And so he does with blood in his mouth and the skin of his teeth. He’s utilitarian with pretty much everything--his time, his effort, his life, his self. Everything for the cause of America and leaving a name. To an extent, I think he believes everyone acts the same way. 

Angelica does, though we hear her wish sometimes that she doesn’t. Her first question, after composing herself from the whirlwind shock of meeting Alexander, is where’s your family from? Her instinct is to size people up and take the best course of action with regard to her family name. 

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

(sidenote: my heart aches when I hear that the first and primary reason she takes this upon herself is because I’m the oldest)

He’s after me ‘cuz I’m a Schuyler sister

That elevates his status, I’d

have to be naive to set that aside

But Eliza doesn’t.

He seems to believe she does. After securing permission from her father to marry her, his first words are about everything he can’t/can offer her:

Eliza, I don’t have a dollar to my name

An acre of land, a troop to command,

A dollop of fame

All I have’s my honor,

A tolerance for pain

A couple of college credits and my top-notch

Brain

It’s clear from his wording, though, that he believes that last thing would be sufficient to secure the rest. He’s marrying her with the knowledge of the wealth she’s bringing, his status as Washington’s second-in-command, and the expectation that his actions during the war will bring him prestige.

At the beginning of That Would Be Enough, look how ashamed he is. He can barely meet her eyes.

He’s just been proven wrong. By being sent home in disgrace, he’s pretty much lost his honor and any chance of future promotion.  

Would you relish being a poor man’s wife, unable to provide for your life?

I relish being your wife.

The fact that he’s enough doesn’t sink in, even as she promises it over and over. Not until she takes his hand and says that she knows who she married does he even glance up. There’s an implication there, I think, that he believes she married him because of his potential, and not as he is. 

If he’d married Angelica, that would’ve been true--not because she’s shallower (Angelica outright says that knowing he’s penniless doesn’t affect how much she wants him), but because that’s how she believes she must act and move in the world. An Angelica that married Alexander probably wouldn’t have been less loving, but would have definitely been more conscious of their status, as she’d have probably seen her marriage as taking a chance on someone who had aptitude and potentiality but little to no security. In Eliza’s place, this would’ve been a blow for her.

Eliza just doesn’t care. On the bench in the garden, she cuts right to the heart of the matter: So long as you come home at the end of the day--that would be enough.

We don’t need a legacy.

We don’t need money. 

Watch how low-key flabbergasted he is when she says that. A legacy and money had been his primary goals in life. 

We could chalk it up to naivete, of course, considering that she was born privileged and rich. She’s been married to Alexander for months, though, in a war where her side was losing and in dire need of resources. Even before that, she wasn’t tucked away in a mansion--she was just as enthusiastic as Angelica about going downtown and slumming it with the poor in “The Schuyler Sisters”. She’d have been seeing everything through, again, a very privileged lens, but the emphasis here is that she wasn’t sheltered, or at least only as sheltered to the same extent as Angelica was.

 I’d err on the side that she knew exactly what she was getting into--even the part that Alexander didn’t love her to the same extent that she loved him. Why else would she ask him to let her inside his heart, if she knew that she wasn’t already there? Why else would her voice break, just a little, at the hope that maybe she, and they, could be enough for him?

Oh, let me be a part of the narrative!

In the story they will write someday

Let this moment be the first chapter

Where you decide to stay

That’s all Eliza wants: Not anything that Alexander promised her, but Alexander himself. This is the face of a man beginning to realize that.

(Bonus: The little swirling melody after where you decide to stay is when I believe he genuinely falls in love with her.)

We know how their story goes, of course. It takes years for Alexander to shake off temptation, to truly recognize how she is, in fact, the best of wives and best of women, and to understand that the best version of him is and will always be in the garden, Alexander by Eliza’s side, her taking his hand. I’m glad he eventually does.

[cinnamonheartburn]

‘Satisfied’, but give Angelica her damn husband

Because none of the historical timeline blending in Hamilton bugs me quite as much as Angelica’s, I just spent the evening on this thing.

I also wrote an entire post explaining my lyrical choices, but well. That’s not exactly useful. I will just say that I intentionally drew parallels between Church and Hamilton and I think I’m clever but I’m probably not.

Typical.

Contextual changes to adapt history to the musical!verse: - Angelica meets John Church (going by John Carter) around about at the time of The Schuyler Sisters: she’s looking for a mind at work, and she find this one. But she’s still smarter than him (and so she will never be satisfied, ha) and she’s just like “okay I might be settling but he’s fiiiine”. She elopes off-stage, but we’ll learn here that it didn’t go so smoothly with her family; - A few changes to Helpless: Eliza doesn’t fear that Angelica will steal Alexander (though she should) and Angelica convinces Philip Schuyler to let Eliza marry Hamilton; - She still has a crush on Alexander, because heh, I’m not opposed to that interpretation, and Satisfied is amazing.

From there, we get this new version of Satisfied: (Note: I removed the parts sung by the ensemble and the spoken parts between Alexander and Angelica so I could find my way through the lyrics. Those all remain unchanged anyway.)

A toast to the groom! To the bride!

From your sister Who is always by your side To your union And the hope that you provide

May you always... Be satisfied

I remember that night, I just might Regret that night for the rest of my days I remember those soldier boys Tripping over themselves to win our praise I remember that dreamlike candlelight Like a dream that you can’t quite place But Alexander, I’ll never forget the first Time I saw your face

I have never been the same Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame And when you said “Hi,” I forgot my dang name Set my heart aflame, ev’ry part aflame

(This is not a game…)

So, so, so So this is what it feels like to match wits With someone at your level while you can’t get attached? It's The feeling of freedom, of seein' the light It's Ben Franklin with a key and a kite You see it, right?

The conversation lasted two minutes, maybe three minutes Ev’rything we said in total agreement He's a dream and I let him lead me astray I shouldn’t, I’m married, I’m in disarray He’s a bit of a flirt, and I meet him halfway I asked about his fam’ly, did you see his answer? His hands started fidgeting; he's playin' pretend He’s nameless, penniless and I’m a means to an end

Handsome, boy, does he know it! Peach fuzz, and he can’t even grow it! I need to go before he hears my heart race Then I turn and see my sister’s face and she is… (Helpless…) And I know she is… (Helpless…) And her eyes are just… (Helpless…)

And I realize Three fundamental truths at the exact same time…

(Number one!)

I eloped, married down, so now My sisters have to marry rich Our brothers are too young so we’re the ones Who have to social climb for now So I’m the boldest and I’m infamous ‘cause the gossip in New York City is insidious And it’s my fault we’re in this mess Ha! That doesn’t mean I want him any less

(Number two!)

Alexander would go for either Schuyler sister, That elevates his status, I Know Eliza’s request would be denied So I’m not sure why I plead their case with my Father, Now she’s his bride Nice going, Angelica, he was right You will never be satisfied

(Number three!)

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 She’d decline She would say, "I'm fine" She'd be lying

But when I fantasize at night it's Alexander's eyes As I romanticize what might have been if I hadn’t dived in so recklessly At least my dear Eliza's his wife At least I keep his eyes in my life

To the groom! To the bride! From your sister Who is always by your side

To your union And the hope that you provide May you always... (Always) Be satisfied

And I know She'll be happy as his bride And I know

He will never be satisfied I will never be satisfied

[grishaverse-chaos]

Cabinet Battle #3

(Note: this analysis applies only to the MUSICAL. historical inaccuracies WILL be present.)

cabinet battle 3, if you don’t know, is a cut cabinet battle, later released on the hamilton mixtape. it is about slavery and whether or not to ban it. that is not what i will be addressing

what i WILL be talking about is a specific line.

in hamilton’s verse, he mentions that jefferson had an illicit relationship with one of his slaves, a woman named sally hemings.

later, madison and jefferson say “and as for slandering jefferson with talk of mistresses, do you really wanna, do you really wanna have that conversation?”

this is assumed to be a reference to hamilton’s affair with maria reynolds.

HOWEVER.

washington is chairing the debate.

so this song is set BEFORE “one last time”

LMM has said that it was intended to be right before “we know”

so the thing is, madison & jefferson DON’T YET KNOW about hamilton having an affair with maria reynolds

so what if hamilton was having an affair with JEFFERSON

that would explain it

wouldn’t it

idk, those are just my thoughts lol, feel free to ignore

[electroniccollectiondonut]

Thoughts on Angelica and Burr

I was watching Hamilton, as you do, and I noticed something about the role Angelica and Burr play in the story and how their last lines reflect this so well. Here are those last lines:

[Angelica:] Every other founding father's story gets told Every other founding father gets to grow old

[Burr:] But when you're gone, who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame?

[Burr and men (Angelica and women):] Who tells your story? (Who tells your story?)

Here’s the thing: the musical is definitely about the Hamiltons, it’s about Alexander and Eliza and a little bit about Phillip, but the narrative is framed and bookended by Angelica and Burr. It’s about Alexander and Eliza, and, accordingly, most of the songs are from their perspective, with dips into Madison and Jefferson’s scheming and occasionally we get other characters chiming in, but Angelica and Burr are really the ones who are telling the story.

Angelica and Burr have less songs than Alexander and Eliza, but they have a lot more than any other single character, and when they’re singing, they usually fill the role of speaking to the audience. Alexander and Eliza talk to each other and the other characters, but Angelica and Burr talk to the people who are actually listening to the song, the people in the theater or the people watching the film. Other characters sometimes speak to the audience, but for Burr and Angelica almost all their appearances have some measure of them narrating the story to us.

Burr usually does this at the beginning of the song, with his “How does a bastard, orphan, etc.” bit. He also announces Washington in Right Hand Man, and Wait For It and Room Where It Happens definitely read like soliloquy, information given for the sake of the audience, not the characters. In Say No To This, he goes “I’ll let him tell it,” effectively telling us that he’s yielding the stage to Alexander. And in The World Was Wide Enough he’s explaining his actions to us, starting with “There are ten things you need to know!” and ending with “The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me.” Lastly, he’s there in Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story. He’s the one in the background, prompting Madison and Jefferson to speak and getting his last solo line in.

Angelica doesn’t have a defined, repetitive line the way Burr does, but a lot of her parts are still aimed at the audience. She’s the leading voice in introducing the Schuyler sisters, and in Satisfied she’s telling us why she’s not with Alexander, she’s not saying this to the other characters. She’s not so much talking to the audience in Non-stop or Take A Break, but it still doesn’t feel like she’s fully on the same plane as Alexander and Eliza. She drops back into the narrator role in It’s Quiet Up Town, telling us about the immediate aftermath of Phillip’s death. Finally, in Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story, she gets her last solo line and then she’s acknowledged as being one of the ones who was most instrumental in telling Alexander’s story.

Alexander is always writing and Eliza jumps in and out of the narrative as she wishes, but Angelica and Burr are always there. Eliza tells Alexander’s story in the end, but Angelica and Burr are right there with her in Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells your Story, and their very last lines in the whole show are side by side telling Eliza’s story. Not their own like Madison and Jefferson, not the country’s like Washington, and not Alexander’s. Eliza’s. They’re the ones who introduce Eliza and Alexander, and they’re the ones who make sure Eliza doesn’t fall into the shadows in the face of keeping Alexander’s memory alive. Without them, there wouldn’t be a story.

[herald-divine-hell]

A Hamilton Meta

So, I’ve been really thinking about this, and extraordinarily impress about how Lin plays Hamilton in “Meet Me Inside”.

Throughout the first act, and even later on in the second, we often see Hamilton as charismatic, boastful, proud. He stands straight, he’s confident when he gets into a speech. He’s unafraid, he’s respectful to the authority that Washington posses and displays, but also is not unwilling to challenge Washington when he believes his skills can be put to better use.

But!

In “Meet Me Inside”, we see something that’s we only saw in “Aaron Burr, Sir”. In the beginning, he stands tall, he speaks confidently and surely, nearly reprehending Washington himself by defending his actions. Yet, when Washinigaton snaps and shouts “Or you could die, and we need you alive.” Hamilton closes in, his eyes goes down, he looks terrified, guilty, ashamed.

As he says “I am more willing to die”, he seems scared, ashamed, but nevertheless eager. I theorize that for a moment, Hamilton is no longer speaking to General Washington. He’s remembering his father, the destitution of his time in the Caribbean, and his desire for death. He doesn’t like to be yelled at, he is reminded of his time with his father, when he simply left. Washington is a kin to a father figure to Hamilton. He helps him prepare for his wedding, his give him a support that James Hamilton could never do. (Historically, Hamilton had a more symptomatic look onto his father) To have Washington disappointed in him raises a shame and depressive thoughts that clouded his mind when he was younger. He wants people to be proud of him, because he could never gotten that from his father. Yes, Hamilton seeks glory, but he also seeks a way to be rid of the pain of societal shame of his birth and the horrible life he lived and witness prior to arriving at the Thirteen Colonies. It wasn’t out of glory that he says that, but admission that he has reasons for death as a martyr. Lin highlights Hamilton’s depression and suicide in this song, with his face and the slight quiver and desperation in Hamilton’s voice. 

Hamilton is bent over, almost bowing to Washington, a sign of submission that we rarely see Hamilton preform. Even when meeting the General of the Continental army, Hamilton is straight-backed, his eyes confident. Here, Hamilton puts himself in an even smaller position, as if he is trying to close himself off from the world, a tatic used to those who had been abuse, as if trying to shield away from his ptsd and his growing anxiety, and to hide away from the verbal “abuse” that Washington delivers. You see it a lot with children, when they keep looking down, trembling, when they get yelled at. Hamilton here symbolizes that completely. He truly is terrified of getting yelled at by his boss, but also doesn’t loose his fire. He shoots back, his anger at being called son, his anger at his father, his worry of disappointing Washington, and that complexity of depression and anxiety that stems from his childhood fully blows through, and shows how much pent up aggression and frustration Hamilton held within him toward his family, toward his past. 

While Lin shows Hamilton as the brilliant tactician and statesmen he was, he also humanizes Hamilton and makes us relate to him, regardless if he has been dead for two hundred years. While we never had to life in the terrible cruelty that was the West Indies, nor most have to life through the abandonment of a parent and the death of another, not have to life the social stigma of being born outside marriage, we can relate and sympathize with someone who clearly hides most of his true feelings, his worries and stresses, behind arrogance and pride and a justified intellect, and a super-human level of work ethic. For a moment, we see a side of Hamilton that we only get to see at glimpses, especially during monologues, such as parts of “My Shot” and “Hurricane”. The only other person we see him show off this sense of vulnerability and torment is with Eliza, his wife, and whom the real Hamilton only shared such feelings toward and entrusted her with, besides perhaps John Laurens. But instead of being quietly confessed or announced strongly by Hamilton, this time it flashes out, like lightning.

 And that’s what makes Hamilton so great. Yes, he can be prideful to a fault, arrogant beyond all relief, inconsiderate at times. But Lin also took time to show that even the greatest men in American and world history had problems that stem away from politics. We tend to look at Hamilton from his political or legal accomplishments, yet we rarely ever look at the man, who was very much depress and haunted by his life in the Caribbean, who wanted love and admiration, but sought it took quickly and to uphold his personal honor, which he considered some of the few things ever owned, over all else. He was a great man, but he was just that: a man. A man who was tormented by his past, and blessed and cursed by his own brilliance. A man whom we should respect for his contributions to the United States, to sympathies for his mental health and insecurities, and to look down with disgust and disappointment of his actions with his personal life.