Miranda's Influence On Alexander Hamilton

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

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

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