I saw a post the other day by someone feeling hopeless about their chances of ever doing anything great or being remembered, because Hamilton made them feel so unaccomplished. I wish I could share my experience of the show with that person. This musical cranks the spigot of my creative juices like nothing else I can remember. When I want to write and I’m just not in the right headspace for it, all I have to do is listen to “Non-Stop” and “Hurricane.” It makes me feel unaccomplished too, but it also makes me feel like I have all the tools I need to become accomplished. All I have to do is use them.
I’m not inspired by stories of tortured artists who drank their depression away. I’m not inspired by stories of well-bred, well-mannered historical figures with their hands neatly folded. I’m inspired by this story of a stubborn defensive loudmouth fucker with an often-misdirected knack for writing. That’s me. I’m self-centered. I talk too much. I don’t know when to let go. He looked at me like I was stupid–I’m not stupid. If this asshole can go down in history, so can I.
hamilton: instead of me, he promotes charles lee, makes him second-in-command
lee: i’m a general. whee!!!
hamilton:
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Yet Hamilton shows how historians’ reliance on documents can make telling history precarious. In a pivotal scene after Hamilton has betrayed his wife, Elizabeth (called by her nickname Eliza throughout the play), she burns the letters he has written to her over the years. It’s an imagined scene that nonetheless demonstrates powerfully how fragile the historical record can be. She sings, “Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart,” deliberately asserting her agency over what is remembered. Miranda ends the production with Eliza, too. The cast joins in song to explain that after Hamilton’s death it was Eliza who collected his papers for preservation. The lesson is clear: the sources historians rely on to craft historical narratives exist not by some consequence of nature, but because people like Eliza Hamilton worked to preserve them.
