Miranda’s Positive Musical: “Hamilton”
Most individuals learned a few mundane facts about Alexander Hamilton’s life and his contributions to the American Revolution in an American history class. Now, thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, individuals have the ability to learn everything about Hamilton’s life in a fun, memorable way. Before Miranda’s rise to fame, he was an ordinary thirty-eight-year-old actor from New York City. Although Lin-Manuel Miranda is best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” he is also an American composer, lyricist, and playwright. Miranda was inspired to create a musical about Alexander Hamilton after reading the biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Miranda and Chernow both discuss
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Miranda does this by telling the story of Alexander Hamilton. Miranda shows his audience that Hamilton had a dysfunctional childhood, but he was still able to become an American hero. “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” (9;09). By revealing this information, Miranda alerts the audience to the circumstances of Hamilton’s birth into a family with unmarried parents. Just from the word bastard, the audience is able to understand the very judgmental life Hamilton faced since birth. His father’s rejection and abandonment left him with his dying mother, Rachel, which resulted in Hamilton becoming an orphan at the age of thirteen. Chernow also discusses how “Rachel, James Hamilton, and their children moved from Nevis to St. Croix, where Rachel had once been imprisoned for several months on charges of adultery, and how James Hamilton abandons Rachel and his natural children shortly after arrival, leaving young Alexander without a father figure” (Miltimore). After being left on his own, Hamilton faced many tragedies, but he was able to overcome them and accomplish many things. Since Hamilton 's mother had been charged with adultery, she was viewed as a whore. The judgmental world of the 18th …show more content…
Miranda proves this to be true by using dialogue throughout his entire musical. The dialogue allowed the audience to understand the dynamic role each character played in Hamilton’s life and how the life of each person in the audience is affected by the people around them. “We fought with him Me? I died for him Me? I trusted him Me? I loved him And me? I’m the damn fool that shot him” (12;42). Letting the audience know the role of each person in Hamilton’s life shows how these characters shaped Hamilton, and how the characters appeared to appreciate the man Hamilton came to be. Even Aaron Burr, the man who killed Hamilton, seemed to regret what he had done. This also gives a positive outlook on the man Hamilton was, convincing the audience to want to be like him. Miranda’s musical used dialogue and presented a positive outlook unlike the “Ten Little Indians” musical by Michael Friedman. The “Ten Little Indians” musical shows its audience the opposite of “Hamilton.” Friedman’s musical portrays a negative outlook of Andrew Jackson and his hatred for Indians. A musical like “Ten Little Indians” makes the audience dislike the character it is about, and without dialogue, the audience is not able to fully understand the life of that character. This type of musical risks disapproval, and that is why Miranda did the opposite by using dialogue and staying
Paragraph 3: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are similar people but both live different lives. They both became orphans at a very young age. Alex was born on January 11, 1755 in Nevis. He was always energetic. Early on when Alex was young, James Hamilton Sr. left them.
Fourth, Alexander Hamilton played a detrimental role as the first Secretary of the Treasury. After, George Washington became the first President of the United States he appointed Hamilton as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Being the first of this title he became the “architect of the structure of the department.” Single-handedly, he created the position and helped to decide how much power this new position was able to wield. By designing this position, he gave America a leader in financial and economic issues relating to the government.
• Both Hamilton and Jefferson saw our nation as having a future where America would be a great power; however, their plans to arrive there were very different. Federal Government- • When it came to federal government Hamilton favored a strong central authority. He believed that a strong central government was necessary to provide order. This order would make it so that the industrial world could grow in America.
Lectures Lecture 14 “Questions to Consider #1”: Why did the Anti Federalists object so strongly to the Preamble to the Constitution? The Anti-Federalists objected so strongly to Preamble to the Constitution due to the fact the Preamble establishes powers for the three branches of government, states’ relations, mode of amendment, debts, national supremacy, oath of office, and amendment ratification. This group felts as though when the federalists wanting to create a strong central government would not be strong enough if the Preamble was not put into place. Lecture 14 states, “Anti-federalists suspicious of central power fought the new Constitution tenaciously…..
Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of Treasury of the United States, had a lot going for himself being a man that came from poverty to success, and he was a man “all powerful and fails at nothing which he attempts” admitted a congressman in 1791 (Tindall and Shi). Born in the Caribbean in the West Indies, abandoned by his father and orphaned at the age of 13 by his late mother who had died. Later moved to New York, became a lawyer and transitioned to nationalism thus giving him the important role of handling the weight of the debt America had accumulated $54 million deep after the Revolutionary War (Digital History). Hamilton saw the need for some financial credit to be given to America and he had the right idea by proposing a National Bank to his first president George Washington. Word dispersed of that proposal leading a
Abstract This research is an exploration into how ‘Jukebox musicals’ have influenced modern day musicals and how they are written. This style of musical could be seen as the most recent form of musical and its increasing success in the West End looks appears like it’s going to stay. In this essay I will be investigating into whether jukebox musicals have affected future original musicals, the audiences that watch them and the rising musical theatre writers that make new original west end productions possible.
During the process of achieving the goal, he attended the Constitutional Convention. Here, Hamilton spoke out on behalf of his ideas and beliefs. Among many important people at the convention, Hamilton was later named the “Father of the Constitutional Convention”. Standing for New York, Hamilton thought that
How does a historical figure from the 1700’s have his name on biographies, hip hop tracks, and “The Federalist Papers”? Alexander Hamilton may not have written his own biography or hip hop/musical theatre albums about himself, but he will always be remembered as a phenomenal writer. He wrote his way out of poverty. He wrote down his oppositions of Britain’s governing of the colonies. He impressed George Washington so much with, not just his combat skills, but, his skills with the pen that he made Hamilton his writing correspondent during the American Revolution war.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda revolutionized American culture, but specifically theater, music, and entertainment. Lin-Manuel was born January 16th, 1980 in Manhattan, New York. In the 1980’s, musicals and theater were very popular, but the idea of hip-hop music in them was not even thought about. However, Lin-Manuel Miranda changed that dramatically, and as a result, we have some very great works like Hamilton, and In The Heights that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote. Some of the reasons Lin-Manuel Miranda revolutionized American Culture are because he was very brave, because he revolutionized the way Americans thought about American history with one of his most famous works Hamilton, and because he brought people closer together by combining
This is conveyed by Washington’s correspondence with Hamilton. Hamilton began his decline when Washington died. Freed of the tempered restraining influence of Washington, Hamilton’s judgment faltered. At this point, the book became almost unbearably sad. Hamilton engaged in a number of political feuds with Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others that clouded his perspective.
They were playing their parts as they were singing even if they were playing in the East Wing than on a stage. Through their performance they were enjoying singing and made the music more interesting than a boring history lesson. You could tell they were enthusiastic through the energy shown through their performance. The vocals were dynamic and when the cast was singing louder it was easier to identify the important messages. By rapping louder, Miranda says “ I’m not throwing away my shot” he uses hand gestures showing that he is taking a stand playing his part as Alexander Hamilton.
Miranda wrote this musical because he knew that there weren’t many roles for Latino/a actors that existed in musical theatre for him as an actor, and that scared him. Similarly, Miranda created roles for people of color in his musical Hamilton, which premiered on Broadway in 2015. This musical tells the story of founding father Alexander Hamilton. The characters that are portrayed in Hamilton, who were based off of real people, were all white in real life. Miranda chose to have them played by people of color, however, to make the story more relatable and accessible to a contemporary audience (Miranda).
Alexander Hamilton was a major part in the making of the United States of America. Firstly, He was George Washington’s protege during the Revolutionary War and and was part of the Continental Congress in 1782, 1783, and 1788 Secondly, He was the first Secretary of the Treasury in the United States. Lastly, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton got into a dispute from the election of 1801 and the standoff led to Alexander Hamilton killed on that day. In conclusion, Alexander Hamilton was a major part in the making of the United States of America.
Being a good leader does not necessarily mean shining in the spotlight. Some of the most revolutionary and successful leaders are the ones who worked the lights. Self-awareness, self-direction, vision, ability to motivate, and social awareness are the characteristics of a good leader according to SIY Leadership Institute (SIYLI). There have been many accomplished and renowned leaders in America since (and before) the 1770’s, ones whose names are universally known and others who are unfamiliar. Of the latter is Alexander Hamilton, who showed potential since the minute he was put on earth, for no matter what obstacles were thrown in his way he forged ahead and never threw away his shot.
Because of many of his radical views, he gained a lot of opposition in both the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties, and was forced to resign, yet still remained popular, with a greatly valued opinion (Brookhiser). Hamilton then lost his firstborn son (Phillip) in a duel when Phillip challenged George Eacker to uphold his father’s honor. And yet Hamilton refused to remain quiet and openly opposed Aaron Burr in the election of 1800, and worked against Burr again when the Vice President ran for New York governorship. In an attempt to heal his wounded pride, Aaron Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, and the discredited Alexander Hamilton died the day after. (Foner).