Hamilton
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Act 1: Alexander HamiltonAct 1: Aaron Burr, SirAct 1: My ShotAct 1: The Story of TonightAct 1: The Schuyler SistersAct 1: Farmer RefutedAct 1: You’ll Be BackAct 1: Right Hand ManAct 1: A Winter’s BallAct 1: HelplessAct 1: SatisfiedAct 1: The Story of Tonight (Reprise)Act 1: Wait for ItAct 1: Stay AliveAct 1: Ten Duel CommandmentsAct 1: Meet Me InsideAct 1: That Would Be EnoughAct 1: Guns and ShipsAct 1: History Has Its Eyes On YouAct 1: Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)Act 1: What Comes NextAct 1: Dear TheodosiaAct 1: Tomorrow There’ll Be More of UsAct 1: Non-StopAct 2: What’d I MissAct 2: Cabinet Battle #1Act 2: Take a BreakAct 2: Say No to ThisAct 2: The Room Where it HappensAct 2: Schuyler DefeatedAct 2: Cabinet Battle #2Act 2: Washington On Your SideAct 2: One Last TimeAct 2: I Know HimAct 2: The Adams AdministrationAct 2: We KnowAct 2: HurricaneAct 2: The Reynolds PamphletAct 2: BurnAct 2: Blow Us All AwayAct 2: Stay Alive (Reprise)Act 2: It’s Quiet UptownAct 2: Election of 1800Act 2: Your Obedient ServantAct 2: Best of Wives and Best of WomenAct 2: The World Was Wide EnoughAct 2: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story
Themes
Characters
Symbols
Upgrade to LitCharts A+
Instant downloads of all 1953 LitChart PDFs(including Hamilton).
LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does.
Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.
The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play.
Already have an account?Sign in
Hamilton
byLin-Manuel Miranda
Teachers and parents!Our Teacher Edition on Hamilton makes teaching easy.
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Get instant explanations to your questions about anything we cover.
Powered by LitCharts content and AI.
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Ask LitCharts AI:
The answer to your questions
Themesand ColorsKey
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hamilton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration, Disagreement, and Democracy
Stories vs. History
Ambition and Mortality
Immigration and Diversity of Influence
Honor
Summary
Analysis
While Hamilton gets a degree from King’s College, the American colonists are getting angrier and angrier. British taxation is too high, and a revolution is brewing. Hamilton sees the revolution as a chance to make a name for himself: “hey yo, I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy, and hungry / and I’m not throwing away my shot.”
The chorus of “My Shot” sets up a central parallel between Hamilton—young and ambitious—and the burgeoning United States. But it also focuses the audience on the concept of a “shot” as a symbol for opportunity and ambition.
ActiveThemes
Quotes
Lafayette, who is French, expresses his hope that the American Revolution will inspire the French people to fight for their own independence. Laurens wants to end slavery. Mulligan, a tailor’s apprentice, just wants to “socially advance, instead of sewin’ some pants.”
Like Hamilton, Lafayette is an immigrant, and like Hamilton, he will prove essential to America’s very existence. The boisterous Mulligan also highlights that, unlike Burr (and later Jefferson and Madison), Hamilton’s group of friends is anything but elite.
ActiveThemes
Then the song quiets down, and Hamilton sings about his own fears of mortality: “I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.” By the end of the song, Hamilton is speaking to a crowd of people, and all the characters sing in counterpoint.
Hamilton’s ambition—his desire to take every “shot” he can get—is intimately linked to this obsession with death. “The ticking clock is loud in both our ears,” composer Miranda says of his protagonist, “and it sets us to work.” It’s also worth noting that the musical hubbub—in which something melodic comes from chaos—reflects the general process of democracy, in which messy collaboration ideally leads to a stronger, more unifying final product.
ActiveThemes
Quotes
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Save time. Stress less.
PDF downloads of all 1953 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish.- Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site.
- Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1953 titles we cover.
- PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem.
- Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Instant PDF downloads.
- Refine any search. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more.
- PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem.
- Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Instant PDF downloads.
- Refine any search. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more.
