Theatre / Hamilton

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

"Alexander Hamilton
When America sings for you
Will they know what you overcame?
Will they know you rewrote the game?
The world will never be the same..."

— Full Company, "Alexander Hamilton"

Hamilton is a musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Opening in February 2015 at the Public Theater, the show moved to Broadway in the summer of 2015 before productions later opened in Chicago and London, after which three U.S. national tours were held.

The musical follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, the United States' first Secretary of the Treasury. Beginning with his arrival in the United States (after writing his way out of his miserable, impoverished situation in the Caribbean), it tracks his rise to power through The American Revolution and the early days of Antebellum America, as well as his inevitable fall.

A defining aspect of the musical is that this is all told through a blend of hip-hop, R&B, pop and contemporary show tunes which, like those of Miranda's previous Broadway excursion, will be hard-pressed to leave your head. From the musical's origins in the late 2000s, Miranda pitched Hamilton as "someone [that] embodies hip-hop", stating (among other points) that his story of rising from squalor through his writing is not dissimilar to the classic Rags to Riches tale integral to the genre.

Featuring a multi-racial cast^note to illustrate the point of non-white people reclaiming a history denied to them, in essence making the musical — in Miranda's words — "America then, as told by America now", the original Broadway production stars Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Phillipa Soo as Elizabeth Schuyler, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George III, and Daveed Diggs as Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de La Fayette.

Inspired by the play, a variety of pop, hip-hop and R&B artists collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda to create The Hamilton Mixtape, which was released December 2, 2016, and contains demos, remixes, and covers from Hamilton's soundtrack. One year later, Miranda announced The Hamildrops, a series of monthly-released Hamilton-related content born from a scrapped second mixtape; the "drops" occurred from December 2017 to December 2018.

Disney released a filmed performance of the original Broadway production on Disney+ on July 3, 2020.

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I am not throwing away my tropes:

A-G

• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder:
  • Theodosia starts her relationship with Burr while her first husband is in Georgia.
  • Likewise, Hamilton embarks on an affair with Maria Reynolds while Eliza is visiting her father, with their children in tow.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Burr mentions that Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after Hamilton because he was such a ladies' man. Hamilton acknowledges the anecdote with a gleeful smile and a "That's true" to the audience.
  • Jefferson can't help but clap during the First Cabinet debate when Hamilton does a dance about Jefferson doing "whatever the hell it is you do at Monticello". Then again, as he and a smug Madison put it, Hamilton's arguments for a bank is futile since he doesn't "have the votes".
  • When Burr tells Hamilton that his lover (Theodosia Prevost) is married to a British Officer, Hamilton replies with the flat-surprise “Oh, shit...” This line gets the audience laughing.
• Adapted Out: Given the sheer number of people and events involved in the American Revolution and subsequent early government, numerous people and events are left out of the play or only mentioned briefly:
  • Members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families who go unmentioned:
    • Hamilton's brother James Jr.; this is justified since the brothers were separated following their mother's death and cousin's suicide. James never came to the States and thus wasn't a huge part of Alex's life.
    • The Hamiltons' other children are only referenced in the play. He and Eliza historically had eight, but only Philip actually appears. Philip mentions having a little sister^note Who was named Angelica in real life in "Take a Break". He says he wants a little brother in the same line, but by the time the real-life Philip was nine he already had two, Alexander Jr. and James. However, there are references to the Hamiltons having other kids who are unseen, such as "We Know" where Burr mentions Hamilton's daughter and sons, which was accurate; his second daughter Eliza wasn't born until after the Reynolds Pamphlet was released; and "It's Quiet Uptown" where Hamilton talks about taking the children to church on Sunday.
    • Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy were not Philip and Catherine Schuylers' only children, just the three oldest. There were actually 15 kids in total, though seven died in infancy. The three surviving sons would have been children in the beginning of the play, and the youngest daughter would still have been an infant. Lin-Manuel Miranda had forgotten about the brothers' existence when he wrote Angelica's line "My father has no sons", but even after he realized his mistake, he kept it to enforce the theme of Angelica being the dutiful eldest daughter.
  • During the revolution:
    • In "Wait For It", Burr mentions his grandfather and parents before saying that "everyone who loves me has died", never once mentioning his older sister Sally, who all but raised him when their parents died while he was two^note If you're curious, she didn't die until 1794, meaning that she's still alive at the time of the song. While the two weren't close after he joined the Continental Army, it's rather odd for her to go unmentioned.
    • Cato, the slave of Hercules Mulligan who helped him spy on the British, is never mentioned, likely because it would make Hercules Mulligan quite unsympathetic (as part of the protagonists Adaptational Heroism, basically anyone who is depicted benevolently is portrayed as an abolitionist, regardless of whether they actually were in real life). Mulligan (along with Hamilton) did later help found a New York anti-slavery group, but it remains unknown if he ever actually freed Cato.
    • Though he never actually appeared in any draft of the play, Lin-Manuel Miranda has stated that the personage he most wishes he could have included was Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian officer whose training of the Continental Army transformed them from volunteers into a genuine fighting force. Hamilton in particular owed von Steuben a great debt for training them to use bayonets, since Hamilton's moment of military glory at Yorktown was primarily a bayonet charge. Hamilton and von Steuben (who settled in New York after the war) remained friends until the Baron's death in 1794.
  • Post-Revolution:
    • Aaron Burr had two other children (during the time of the musical) in addition to Theodosia: Louisa Charlotte and John Pierre, both conceived from a long-term affair he had with his maid before his wife's death.
    • Speaking of, Burr's wife Theodosia actually died in 1794, an event which goes unacknowledged besides the line "I had only one thought before the slaughter; this man will not make an orphan of my daughter" from "The World was Wide Enough". The original drafts of the show included a reprise of "Dear Theodosia" which would've had Burr singing to his daughter about her mother's death had the number not been scrapped.
    • The earliest drafts of the show featured George Clinton, the Governor of New York and eventually Vice President (after the events of the musical) and a rival of Hamilton and the Schuyler family, as a major character, with funk songs styled after the musician of the same name. Unfortunately, Miranda found it difficult to incorporate Clinton into the play without disrupting the narrative and his songs were cut.
    • In real life, it was future president James Monroe who led the investigation into the Reynolds affair against Hamilton, with Jefferson working on the matter behind the scenes. However, Monroe doesn't fit into the rest of the narrative, so the already-established James Madison joins Jefferson and Burr instead. As a side effect of this, the musical also skips over the almost-duel that occurred between Monroe and Hamilton — a duel that was only prevented due to the intervention of, of all people, Aaron Burr.
    • The Whiskey Rebellion is given only a single, indirect reference by Jefferson during the first Cabinet Battle. The tax was suggested and implemented at Hamilton's suggestion as a means of paying off the consolidated national debt. Hamilton and Washington very quickly put the rebellion down using the military, though they managed to do so without battle completely breaking out. Supposedly the original version of "One Last Time" was actually called "One Last Ride" and would've been about this very issue, but the number was reworked.
    • Hamilton becoming Commanding General of the U.S. Army during the Quasi-War with France (which occurred in the Adams Administration) is completely omitted, along with his dreams of military glory in a planned invasion of French and Spanish colonies in the Americas.
    • Maria Reynolds had a daughter named Susan (just shy of six when the affair started and approaching seven when it ended) when it ended, who goes unmentioned in the musical. In real life, Susan's life was ruined by the Reynolds Pamphlet, with everyone assuming she was a bastard child from Maria's affair with Hamilton and treating her accordingly, meaning there was no way to include her without further tanking Hamilton's sympathy. As extra salt to the wound, the Reynolds Pamphlet was published a week after her twelfth birthday.^note Hamilton almost certainly knew of her existence; their first meeting took place in the boarding house that the mother and daughter were both living in, and James Reynolds mentioned her in a letter to Hamilton.
• Adaptational Consent: In the musical, Maria Reynolds swears that she willingly entered into the affair with Hamilton without any knowledge of her husband's plans and that she genuinely cares for him (it's ultimately left ambiguous as to whether or not she's telling the truth). Modern historians tend to agree that James purposely prostituted his wife and that Maria had no say in the matter, to say nothing of the power that Alexander himself would have held over her.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In "Hurricane", Hamilton decides to write the Reynolds Pamphlet out of paranoia that his enemies would reveal his secret, but in real life it was for a far more sensible reason. By the time the pamphlet was published, the speculation charges mentioned in "We Know" had made their way to journalists and were publicly released, with said journalists openly accusing Hamilton of financial crimes. Thus, Hamilton released the pamphlet hoping that by admitting to the affair but denying the financial crimes he would be considered trustworthy and the charges would be forgotten (it actually worked too, but his reputation never fully recovered). In short, the historical corruption charges were already public, so his release of the pamphlet made more sense, while the theatrical corruption charges see Hamilton try to get out ahead of them and come out looking worse off for it.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Alexander and his friends are ardent abolitionists who treat ending slavery as one of the revolution's core goals, and Alexander even levels Thomas Jefferson's slave-holding against him in "Cabinet Battle #1". In real life, while Hamilton and his friends all expressed abolitionist viewpoints at various points in their lives, almost none of them followed through; Hamilton, despite being a founding member of the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society, had no issue at all with marrying into New York's largest slaveholding family and even purchasing several slaves from his father-in-law for his own use. Hercules Mulligan also owned a slave named Cato during his time with Hamilton, and Lafayette's proposed solution to slavery of legally making slaves on plantations into sharecroppers instead was not much better. Only John Laurens truly believed in racial equality and actually did significant work during the revolution to eliminate slavery, though even he still associated himself with slaveholders such as the aforementioned Hercules Mulligan.
  • Alexander’s warmongering during the Quasi-War, stemming largely from his dreams of military glory (which many contemporaries compared unfavorably to Napoleon Bonaparte), is omitted entirely.
  • Similarly, Alexander's support of the suppression of Shays' Rebellion and his use of it as a justification for numerous anti-democratic proposals is completely absent.
  • In the end, Aaron Burr is depicted as being deeply troubled by his killing Hamilton in their duel, but in real life this is far more ambiguous. Some reports indicate he was unfazed about having taken Hamilton's life, others even go so far as to suggest he had intended to kill Hamilton in the duel all along. On the other hand, later in life he really was quoted with the "world is wide enough" line, but there is even more confusion over whether he was being serious or sarcastic.
  • In the second cabinet battle, Jefferson argues that America needs to send troops and fight on behalf of the French revolutionaries and ends up disgusted when Hamilton argues that they should stay neutral despite how much help Lafayette gave them. Ironically, while Jefferson used his personal power to aid Lafayette and the revolutionaries as much as he could, the idea that America itself should stay neutral in the French Revolution was one of the few things the two men ever agreed on in their entire lives, albeit they went about it differently.^note Hamilton wanted Washington to declare neutrality, but Jefferson argued that the President, having the power to declare war, didn't have the power to "declare peace"; essentially, he wanted to stay neutral without outright saying it.
  • In the musical, Jefferson and the others promise to keep Hamilton's affair secret, and although Hamilton himself goes public with it shortly after, they do keep their promise. In real life, the reason why Hamilton released the pamphlet in the first place was because Jefferson started spreading the rumor around to his colleagues, which when combined with the recent arrest of James Reynolds threw Hamilton into a corner he had to try to write his way out of.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In "The Reynolds Pamphlet", Burr joins the crowd in celebrating the end of Hamilton's career, happily dancing and singing that he'll never be president now. In real life, Burr was actually one of the few people who sympathized with Hamilton following the pamphlet's release, and he later went on to serve as Maria Reynolds' divorce lawyer.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • No, Hamilton never punched the bursar for calling him stupid; Lin-Manuel Miranda simply couldn't resist the rhyme with "Burr, sir."
  • The conflict between George Eacker and Philip Hamilton is modified so that Eacker is more of a clear villain. George Eacker didn't actually cheat and shoot Philip early in real life; they both aimed at the ground without firing for a while, before both men raised their pistols and fired. Since Eacker fired first, it's unclear if Philip intended to fire or did so unintentionally.
  • It's worth noting that although the show features the idea of shooting into the air, (including, prominently, on the poster,) this was not a common way of "throwing away your shot", or "deloping". Usually, someone who intended not to fire would aim at the ground, as raising your pistol to fire in the air could very easily be misinterpreted as raising one's pistol to fire. Hamilton recorded before the duel that he had no intention of aiming to kill, but to Burr, Hamilton raising a pistol at all seemed to imply otherwise.
  • Thomas Jefferson is depicted as insulting Alexander Hamilton's immigrant background. In reality, it was Jefferson who wanted to allow immigrants citizenship, a position which was opposed by Hamilton. It was John Adams, of all Hamilton's rivals, who most often attacked Hamilton's background (which is acknowledged in "The Adams Administration").
• Adaptational Wimp: Aaron Burr is depicted as a quiet pushover who simply goes along with the winning side no matter what he personally believes (until he Takes a Level in Badass following "The Room Where it Happens"), and politically he refuses to take any hard stances in order to avoid burning bridges. In real life, Aaron Burr was incredibly ambitious and was absolutely not afraid to get into a fight; he was the first of the show's characters to join the Revolution, and politically he was a bonafide genius, inventing the form of electioneering that we still use today and pulling an incredibly cunning maneuver to con the Federalists out of their banking monopoly. In fact, his Character Catchphrase of "talk less, smile more" more accurately describes Jefferson than it does Burr.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Washington's first verse in "Right Hand Man" uses alliteration as part of a shout-out to The Pirates of Penzance.
    Now I'm the model of a modern major general
    The venerated Virginian veteran whose men are all
    Lining up to put me on a pedestal
    Writing letters to relatives
    Embellishing my elegance and eloquence
  • During Hamilton's section of "Cabinet Battle #2":
    Meddling in the middle of a military mess
  • One of Hamilton's verses in "We Know":
    I never spent a cent that wasn't mine
    You send the dogs after my scent - that's fine!
  • Burr's description of Lafayette in "Guns and Ships".
    He's constantly confusing, confounding the British henchmen
    Ev'ryone give it up for America's favorite fighting Frenchman!
  • Lafayette's third couplet in "Guns and Ships":
    Watch me engagin' em! Escapin' em! Enragin' em!
  • A brief but tongue-twisting example from "Helpless":
    We were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night.
  • Not just word-to-word, but syllable-to-syllable in Washington on Your Side:
    If Washington isn't gon' listen to disciplined dissidents this is the difference: This kid is out!
  • Also in the cut song "Congratulations".
    I languished in a loveless marriage in London, I lived only to read your letters.
  • In "The World Was Wide Enough":
    This man has poisoned my political pursuits!
• Adorably Precocious Child:
  • Peggy Schuyler in "The Schuyler Sisters" who manages to bring up that the upcoming war isn't going to be a bed of roses; that strife will come to American shores and their father may end up in danger by wanting to join the fight. Angelica and Eliza override her with optimism about how the revolution means new ideas and excitement, but Peggy makes quite a good point.
  • Philip Hamilton as well; he concocts a rather cute rhyme for his ninth birthday and is studying French and musical scales with his mother.
• Advertised Extra: The role of Peggy/Maria is counted among the show's principal roles, but the two characters only participate in one song each, putting them on the same level as characters such as Charles Lee or Maria's own husband James, who are counted as ensemble roles.
• Affair Letters: Alexander Hamilton's letter from James Reynolds, demanding payment in exchange for keeping Hamilton's affair with James Reynolds' wife Maria Reynolds secret. Though these aren't the usual affair letters in the sense of lovers exchanging letters, they're still proof of two Secret Relationships: an affair between Hamilton and Maria, and James blackmailing Hamilton into paying him, so they still count as this trope.
• Age Lift:
  • While Peggy Schuyler is played as much younger than her two older sisters, she was actually only 13 months younger than Eliza.
  • Hercules Mulligan was actually fifteen years older than Alexander; while the show doesn't specify an age, he's played as being a peer around the same age as him, Laurens, and Lafayette.^note  The age difference is indirectly referenced in "My Shot" when Mulligan says, "I got y'all knuckleheads in loco parentis", acting in the role of a parent.
• All There in the Manual: The names of the two women who flirt with Philip in "Blow Us All Away" are given as Martha and Dolly in the cast recording's booklet, undoubtedly after Martha Jefferson and Dolly Madison, wives of Those Two Guys Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
• Almost Kiss: At the end of "Stay Alive," when Laurens has decided to duel Lee, per genius, Hamilton places his hand on the back of Laurens' neck and they bring their faces in close, as though about to kiss.
• Ambiguous Ending: In the filmed version of "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story", Eliza comes out to deliver her closing lines, the song draws to a close... and out of nowhere Eliza gives a sudden gasp. There have been multiple speculations on what this gasp means, including that it symbolizes Eliza's final breath (and with it, the end of the last person involved with the play's events) or that Eliza sees through the audience and realizes that their story lives on.
  • Lin himself has said, when asked what Eliza's gasp means, that he doesn't know, that it's unique to each actress, and they're not talking either.
• Ambition Is Evil: Deconstructed, as the play depicts ambition in and of itself as neither good nor bad. While Hamilton is extremely ambitious, he devotes himself first to America's independence, then towards developing a stable, lasting form of government and finance to help the new country. Burr's ambition is played less positively, as he seems less interested in achieving anything tangible through his ambitions, beyond his own advancement and creating a personal legacy.
• And Then What?: "What Comes Next?" is essentially King George asking what the nascent United States plans to do now that it's independent and if it's really up to the task of governing itself:
  You're on your own, awesome, wow.
  Do you have a clue what happens now?
• Another Side, Another Story: "Helpless" is a sweet love song about how Eliza feels about meeting Alexander and how he proposes to her. "Satisfied," which is right after it, shows the conversation from Angelica's point of view and it suddenly becomes a tragic song of self-sacrifice.
  • Taken out of the final version, but the original "Ten Things You Need to Know" number featured Burr's malicious interpretations of Hamilton's actions on the dueling ground, followed by Hamilton recounting the innocent reasoning behind exactly the same actions. Still somewhat present in the final version, where Burr's perspectives remain and Hamilton's narration of the events is replaced with a monologue which does establish he means well.
• Arc Number:
  • 10. "Ten dollar Founding Father," "Ten Duel Commandments", et cetera.
  • 7. It's the number at which Philip changes the tune in "Take A Break", at which George Eacker shoots Philip, and at which Philip actually dies in "Stay Alive (Reprise)".
    Hamilton: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. When's it going to get me? In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?
  • Alexander was shot July 11th 1804. July is the 7th month
  • A more minor example, but 9. It's Philip's age in "Take a Break", the number he and Eliza count to in French, and the number counted to before ten in any on-screen dueling.
• Arc Words: Many. Parts of "Non-Stop" and most of Hamilton's part of "The World Was Wide Enough" are composed entirely of the many recurring words and phrases of the musical clashing.
  • The word "time" itself is uttered quite frequently. Specifically, "Why do you write like you're running out of time?" is used in reference to Hamilton's intense and inconvenient work ethic. The last time we hear it, Hamilton is literally running out of time; he's set to duel Burr in the morning and he knows Burr is likely to kill him, so he's writing to get his affairs in order. Pulls double duty with Dark Reprise.
  • "I am not throwing away my shot" and "Just you wait" for ambition.
  • "He/I will never be satisfied," for obsession of any kind. "Satisfied" and satisfaction in general are recurrent — duels are resolved when one party is satisfied, etc., but the word is used to refer first to Alexander and Angelica's shared restlessness. Later, Angelica sings, "God, I hope you're satisfied!" to call him out on publishing the Reynolds Pamphlet.
  • "Would that be enough?" for (usually fruitless) attempts to quell obsession.
  • "Talk less, smile more," Burr's advice to Hamilton.
  • "If you stand for nothing, Burr, what do you fall for?" Hamilton's response to Burr's advice.
  • "Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now" is repeated several times. At first, the first part of it is sung by Angelica, talking about how revolution is happening and they're lucky to be in New York to see it happen. Later it is sung by Eliza, regarding how they are at war and she and Hamilton are lucky to not be dead, and later it is sung by Hamilton, echoing the first meaning about how lucky they(he) are(is) to be involved in the birth of a new nation, and then it crops back up again in "It's Quiet Uptown" when Hamilton and Eliza are reconciling.
  • "Helpless", Eliza's adoration for Hamilton, but it later means her helplessness to keep her with him, Maria's helplessness against her husband, and Alexander's own helplessness to stop his affair.
  • "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..." Words that signify closure of one segment of a show and progression to another.
  • "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9..." references dueling...and to Hamilton's son.
  • "History has its eyes on you" references to the prospect of a legacy.
  • "Every action has its equal, opposite reaction" courtesy of Jefferson, pointing out unintended consequences and the many sides of history.
  • "The world will never be the same" for the excitement of the revolution.
  • "Wait for it" and "The room where it happens" referring to Burr's ambitions.
    • "The room where it happen(ed)" is also used to refer to the scene of Hamilton's infidelity.
  • "Wait" in general is used repeatedly. Hamilton's "just you wait" mantra contrasting with Burr's "wait for it". And at the end when they switch philosophies for the duel it ends tragically. Burr's final "WAIT" comes too late.
  • "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?", repeated throughout the show, is the central theme of the play.
  • A more minor example, but King George's "Oceans rise, empires fall", which is repeated at the same point and in the same tone in all three of his songs. This is apparently meant to represent the hardships of leadership.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • In "Aaron Burr, Sir", Hamilton asks, "If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?". It takes Burr half the play to find what he wants: he wants to be in the room where it happens.
  • To Hamilton, in "Non-Stop", Burr asks, "How do you write like you're running out of time? Are you running out of time?"
• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: In "The Room Where It Happens," Aaron Burr despite himself is impressed at the gambit that Alexander Hamilton implemented to get his votes. Hamilton asked to meet Jefferson and Madison for dinner, and offered for them to decide where the national capital would be located. Jefferson and Madison accepted that it would be in the south, between Virginia and Maryland, instead of a northern urban center like New York or Boston. In exchange, he gets his central bank plan through. Burr's horrified that Alexander sold the capital in exchange for that, but points out that while it was an uncool move, Alexander ended up getting more out of the deal. 
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sort of: From the opening lines of "Alexander Hamilton": "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman..."
• Artistic License – History: Even in a show as history-geeky as this one, a large number of things have inevitably been changed or compressed for dramatic effect.
  • One noticeable example is the historical rearrangment of Philip Hamilton's duel. In the musical, Philip's duel occurs before the Presidential Election of 1800. In real life, the duel actually happened in 1801, an entire year after the Election. While this change doesn't dramatically affect the plot, Hamilton is incorrectly depicted as mourning the death of his son during the song "The Election of 1800".
• Artistic License – Law: As mentioned on Genius, both Hamilton and Burr do this in "Non-Stop":
  • Hamilton mentions in his opening statement that he will "prove beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Levi Weeks is innocent. He's defense counsel; he only needs to introduce reasonable doubt against the prosecution's case, not prove his client's innocence to that impossible standard (remember, a defendant is innocent until proven guilty). Justified insofar as the concept of reasonable doubt was fairly new at the time. Indeed, as Hamilton notes, it was the first murder trial in the history of the nation. Not to mention that it's not exactly out of character for an overachiever like Hamilton to aim to prove their client innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt, even though he doesn't have to.
  • Burr's ideal opening statement is "Our client, Levi Weeks, is innocent. Call your first witness." While succinct, his version is too short: the opening statement is intended to give your theory of the case and give jurors a "roadmap" of what to expect, not just "yeah, he's innocent."
  • It is suggested that dueling was legal in New Jersey. This is false, although the penalties for dueling were lighter in New Jersey than they were in New York.
• As the Good Book Says...: Washington's line in "One Last Time":
  "Like the scripture says, 'Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.'" ^note  Micah 4:4
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: In the following line from "Say No to This", the word subject to a Curse Cut Short is a swear word that, when used as a verb, can be slang for having sex:
  James Reynolds' letter to Hamilton: See, that was my wife who you decided to-
  Hamilton: Fuuuu—
• Ass Shove: Implied by Hamilton in "Cabinet Battle #1", as a rebuttal to Jefferson saying, "If the shoe fits, wear it":
  Sitting there useless as two shits
  Hey, turn around, bend over, I'll show you
  Where my shoe fits
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Played with during the Battle of Monmouth. Washington keeps saying "attack!", while Charles Lee keeps saying "retreat!". This disorganized retreat and lack of order is what causes the Battle of Monmouth to be such a shit-show.
• Atomic F-Bomb:
  • Hamilton drops a bleeped one against John Adams in "The Adams Administration", accompanied by the sound of a falling bomb, no less! Why bleep this curse word out when there are many, many other swears throughout the show? Both for comedic effect and as a subtle reference to the sedition act made by Adams, forbidding "malicious writing" against the government. Miranda actually posted the uncensored line to his Twitter account, and the line itself is somewhat...unexpected when unbleeped, to say the least.
    Hamilton: Sit down, John, you fat motherfuckstick!
  • Jefferson, Madison, and Burr shout "SOUTHERN MOTHERFUCKIN' DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS!" in "Washington on Your Side".
• Audience Surrogate: Madison in "The Election of 1800," after the drama of "It's Quiet Uptown" when Philip dies.
  Jefferson: Can we get back to politics?
  Madison: [crying] Please?
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Used for the absolute heartbreaking scene of Phillip's death. Having not spoken since Alexander's affair with Reynolds, Eliza takes his hand after learning of their son's death. She resolved to preserve what remains of their story, having previously burned their letters.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning:
  • Not a literal crowning, but "History Has Its Eyes On You", when Hamilton is finally given command. The song is quiet and subdued, but downright epic.
  • As a meta example, when the show welcomes a new King George III, the entire cast is present for the coronation process, called the Order of the Garter, which tends to be extremely over-the-top. Invoked and subverted when Brian d'Arcy James, King George III the First, was crowned by Taran Killam, King George III the Fifth, received the most over-the-top coronation ceremony to date, while the video announcing James's return to the show was built up with much fanfare only to consist of Killam distractedly passing the crown to James as they passed each other backstage.
• Battle Rapping: "Cabinet Battle"s are framed as a rap battle between Hamilton and Jefferson.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Angelica is built up as Hamilton's... "love" interest right up until the start of "Helpless", when she steps aside and Eliza takes center stage.
  • At the beginning of "Guns and Ships" (which is in the same style as "Alexander Hamilton" before it), Burr talks about the American army's secret weapon, "an immigrant you know and love, who's unafraid to step in." At first it seems he's talking about Hamilton, like he's been doing for the whole of the musical thus far, but then it turns out he's referring to Lafayette.
  • During "Non-Stop", Aaron Burr narrates that, at the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton proposes his own form of government. We heard "government" rhymed with "lovin' it" before in "Yorktown", so the audience is led to believe that this will also be the case here too. Instead, his proposal makes the convention listless.
  • By the time of "Stay Alive", Hamilton has expressed repeatedly that he wants command. During the battle of Monmouth, Washington calls up Hamilton after Lee screws up (Hamilton: "Ready, Sir!")... and has him instead run and get Lafayette to lead the battle.
  • "Take a Break" really makes it seem as though Angelica and Hamilton are going to end up having an affair thanks to all of the flirting they share, but the two never end up doing anything to hurt Eliza. And then Maria Reynolds comes in...
• Batman Gambit: When Madison, Jefferson and Burr confront Hamilton, they're hoping that he will sabotage himself once they accuse him of speculating funds. Though they find out the truth is different, Hamilton ends up writing the death sentence to his political career as a result. Jefferson takes great pleasure in spreading the Reynolds Pamphlet.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Hamilton keeps goading Burr to take action and stand up for his beliefs. Burr then proceeds to run Hamilton's father-in-law out of a Senate seat and then becomes a potential presidential candidate.
  • Philip Hamilton sings that he wants a little brother. After he dies, his younger brother is named Philip.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • Sensual, vivacious Angelica (as Veronica) and her shy, sweet sister, Eliza (as Betty), with Hamilton as Archie. Hamilton marries Eliza, but his relationship with Angelica is still somewhat flirtatious. It is downplayed as Angelica is still a perfectly kind woman, and she immediately steps aside when she realizes her sister is in love with Hamilton, too.
  • The Vamp, Maria Reynolds, who's sent to seduce Hamilton so her husband can blackmail him, and his wife, Eliza. (Obviously, Maria is Veronica in this scenario.) While the affair nearly destroys their marriage, he ultimately ends up staying with Eliza, and genuinely regrets his affair.
• Beware the Quiet Ones:
  • Quiet, coughing James Madison is a lot stronger than he appears at first glance.
    • During both Cabinet battles, the main confrontation is between Hamilton and Jefferson. Right behind Jefferson, though, Madison is practically feeding him lines and points to hit Hamilton with. Even during the second Cabinet Battle, the flamboyant Jefferson asks, "Who provided those funds?" Madison answers quietly, "...France".
    • It's Madison who comes up with the idea to negotiate with Hamilton to give Virginia the nation's capital - without him, neither the capital moving nor the foundation of the National Bank would have happened.
    • He also serves as Jefferson's Number Two during the election of 1800, and it's his idea to get Hamilton on their side for the election. Indeed, Hamilton endorsing Jefferson to the delegates is what gives him the win.
    • In the deleted Cabinet Battle #3 (from the mix-tape), Madison is the one that stops the debate about slavery simply by quoting the Constitution's clause stating that it was already set for 1808, and that they won't debate it any more.^note On a historical note, who succeeded Jefferson as president? None other than James Madison himself.
  • Kind, gentle, supportive Eliza has a core of steel. While she spends most of the musical being supportive of Alexander and his ambitions (for the most part), she has no problem metaphorically cutting him by setting the love letters that he wrote to her on fire. One should not mess around with this woman.
• Big Applesauce: The musical takes place primarily in New York City. The Hamiltons live uptown at 139th St, Burr lived downtown near Wall Street, and you can still see Alexander, Eliza, and Angelica's graves at Trinity Church. Though all the songs drop references, "Alexander Hamilton", "The Schuyler Sisters", and "It's Quiet Uptown" most explicitly reference New York.
• Big Bad Slippage: Burr doesn't start off the musical as bad, or even much antagonistic towards Alexander, with their relationship being Vitriolic Best Buds at worst. Yes, they butt heads often but they remain amicable. It isn't until "The Election of 1800" where Hamilton endorses Jefferson over Burr that the latter completes his transformation into the main antagonist, triggering an increasing cold war of slights and backhanded deals that culminates in a duel.
• Big Finale Crowd Song: The play's final number "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" centers around Eliza, the title character's widow, working and publishing stories to ensure that her husband's legacy lives on; but it also explains what happened with the surviving characters after Hamilton's death: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Angelica, even Aaron Burr.
• Big "NO!":
  • A rare ENSEMBLE instance, as they all do this during his affair with Maria Reynolds in "Say No To This."
  • Burr gets one in "The Room Where It Happens."
  • Eliza gets an anguished, heartbreaking one when Philip dies and hugs his body. This is only in the stage version.
• Big Secret: Alexander Hamilton is accused of financial corruption for giving so much money to a Mr. James Reynolds secretly, which he can't refute since the real reason he was paying the money is so James wouldn't tell everyone about his affair with Reynolds' wife. Unfortunately for Hamilton, revealing his Big Secret to everyone in lurid detail just to get out of what he is being accused of only makes things worse.
• Big Sister Instinct: Do not hurt Eliza; Angelica will find out and she will let you have it.
• Bilingual Bonus: While audience members will understand Lafayette's Oui, oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Lafayette, they may not know Casse toi means "piss off".
• Bilingual Rhyme:
  • "Take a Break" gives us this rhyme using English and French:
    My daddy's trying to start America's bank,
    Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq!
  • Frenchman Lafayette rhymes English 'afar' with several French words in "Aaron Burr, Sir":
    I came from afar just to say "Bonsoir!"
    Tell the King "Casse toi!" Who's the best? C'est moi!
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: The birth of Philip (and, by extension, the nation) is juxtaposed one song later by the death of Laurens. To drive the point home, these two characters are played by the same actor.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • At the end of the play, Hamilton is dead at Burr's hand, but the systems he put in place helped America to prosper, still existing to this day, and Eliza lives on to carry out his legacy and accomplish so much in her own right.
  • The end of Angelica's story arc in the first act. She doesn't end up with Alexander whom she still holds a torch for, and the man she does marry doesn't mentally excite her as much, but he's still a good man who is financially well-off and ensures that she'll live in comfort for the rest of her life. And by historical accounts, she enjoyed her time in London and was well-regarded in the upper crust. Her storyline in second act deals with her getting over her feelings for Alexander due to his actions.
• Black Comedy: Despite being the start of Hamilton being at his lowest in the story, "The Reynolds Pamphlet" is darkly funny as it is largely the entire cast aside from those closest to Hamilton gloating about the fact he committed social suicide out of pointless pride. Most of the song is just Hamilton standing in the center of the stage dejected as everyone else around him is partying and throwing copies of his pamphlet in every direction. Even King George gets in on the action.
• Black Vikings: Interestingly, the play makes no effort at all to match the ethnicity of its actors and actresses to those of the historical figures they play, to the point that in the televised version, a trio of three sisters have at minimum two ethnicities between them.
• Blasphemous Boast: Hamilton delivers one in "Hurricane".
  Hamilton And when my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen! I wrote my own deliverance!
• Blessed with Suck: Jefferson, you've won — you're gonna be President! "Hurray!" And the guy you ran against is gonna be your Vice-President! "NOOOOO!"
• Boastful Rap:
  • Several of the characters like to preen about their own awesomeness, but Lafayette's part in "Guns and Ships" and Mulligan's part in "Yorktown" are of special mention.
    Mulligan: Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction! When you knock me down I get the FUCK BACK UP AGAIN!
  • Alexander has a brief one in "Hurricane" where he reflects on all the amazing things he's accomplished on the strength of his writing.
• Body Motifs: Eyes.
  • Angelica and Eliza sing about Alexander's beautiful eyes.
  • "History has its eyes on you."
  • Jefferson, Madison, and Burr point out Hamilton's deceptive eyes as one reason to suspect him in "Washington On Your Side".
  • In reference to dueling, "Look 'em in the eye, aim no higher."
  • Part of Alexander's final verse, "Eyes up!"
  • Alexander describes his situation in "Hurricane" as being in the eye of the storm. He also says that while writing to earn passage to the mainland, the people of his hometown had their eyes on him.
  • In the finale Eliza says she sees Alexander in the eyes of the orphans she helped raise after his passing.
  • In the early version of "Ten Things You Need to Know" alluded to above, Alexander remarks that he hopes to return to Eliza's side before she opens her eyes in the morning.
• Bonding over Missing Parents: Hamilton attempts this with Burr at their first meeting. Burr deflects this by buying Hamilton a drink.
• Bookends:
  • When Washington offers Hamilton the position as his aide-de-camp in "Right Hand Man", he holds out a quill, which Hamilton accepts along with the job. Later, in "One Last Time," Washington is stepping down after his second presidential term, and again offers Hamilton a quill with which to draft one last letter, this time a farewell address. Hamilton's work with Washington begins and ends with taking up the pen for his commanding officer.
    • And in both songs, Hamilton's first words to Washington are almost exactly the same: In "Right Hand Man", he says, "Your Excellency, you wanted to see me?" and in "One Last Time", it's "Mr. President, you asked to see me?"
  • In "The Room Where It Happens", Hamilton tells Burr that he's going to start to do things Burr's way ('talk less, smile more'); in "The Election of 1800", Burr tells Hamilton that his new practice of going for what he wants was learned from Hamilton.
  • King George's first and last songs bookend the first and last appearances of George Washington, outside of his appearance in the finale.
• Bowdlerize: The Disney+ release ditches all of the F-bombs but a plot-important Curse Cut Short one from Hamilton (which is permitted in a PG-13 film); overall, this trope is pretty downplayed in that none of the other profanity or suggestive content is censored.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Philip Hamilton reads the Reynolds Pamphlet and is horrified on learning what his father did.
  • "His poor wife" doesn't begin to describe Eliza's reaction to learning that her husband cheated on her and published a pamphlet about it.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • During "A Winter's Ball", Aaron Burr tells the audience that Martha Washington named her tomcat after Alexander; Hamilton (and at one point the playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda) turns to the audience and smirks, "that's true."^note Disappointingly, this fact is probably just a rumor spread by Hamilton's political rivals.
  • When Madison walks up to Jefferson during "What'd I Miss", Madison waves at the audience while Jefferson is introducing his character.
  • During "Cabinet Battle #1", Washington addresses both the chorus members on stage and the audience directly to introduce the battle scenario.
    Washington: Ladies and Gentlemen, you could have been anywhere in the world tonight, but you're here with us in New York City. Are you ready for a cabinet meeting?
  • Jefferson gives a copy of the Reynolds Pamphlet to the conductor during "The Reynolds Pamphlet".
  • At the beginning of "The Election of 1800" Jefferson says "Can we get back to politics?" to which Madison responds "Please," while crying over the last few, exceptionally serious, songs about Philip Hamilton's death and The Reynolds Pamphlet.
  • Much of "The World Was Wide Enough," is addressed toward the audience, but in particular, regarding his duel with Hamilton when Burr sings, "They won't teach you this in your classes, but look it up. Hamilton was wearing his glasses," as well as "now I'm the villain in your history."
  • At the end of "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story", the show's final number, there's a subtle break when Eliza looks out and sees the audience.
• Breakup Bonfire: Happens in "Burn," sort of. Eliza and Hamilton stay married, but she withdraws from him because of his slight against her and she burns a number of his letters.
• Break-Up Song:
  • King George's "You'll Be Back" is a passive-aggressive response to America's decision to break up with him.
  • Eliza ends her romantic relationship with Hamilton in "Burn" after he publicly reveals his affair with Maria Reynolds, breaking her heart and humiliating her. (She eventually reconciles with him in "It's Quiet Uptown".)
    You forfeit all rights to my heart
    You forfeit the place in our bed
    You'll sleep in your office instead
    With only the memories of when you were mine
• Brief Accent Imitation:
  • Jefferson and Madison drop into faux Jamaican accents for a single line of "We Know", mocking Hamilton's immigrant origins (as Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis).
  • Hamilton briefly adopts Lafayette's French accent during "Yorktown."
  • King George imitates a stereotypical American accent to say, "Awesome, wow," of "What Comes Next?"
  • Hamilton briefly takes on a British accent when mocking Samuel Seabury in "Farmer Refuted".
  • Lafayette imitates the American pronunciation of "anarchy" in his verse in "My Shot" as a subtle way to get it to rhyme with both "monarchy" and "panicky".
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Whatever feelings Angelica still had for Alexander by the time the Reynolds Pamphlet came out were instantly killed off once she learned he cheated on Eliza.
  • Averted when Philip Hamilton reads the Reynolds Pamphlet. In fact, he goes in the opposite direction, protecting his father against slanders that George Eacker makes.
• BSoD Song:
  • Both Hamilton and Burr in the final duel — Burr furiously protesting his sincere belief that Hamilton meant to kill him and to make an orphan of his daughter, Hamilton blanking out in the face of the knowledge he's about to die. Burr is so frantic that it verges on a Sanity Slippage Song.
  • Hamilton also has "It's Quiet Uptown," where he mourns Philip's death and Eliza's resignation from him.
• Bullet Time: Brilliantly employed in live action during the duels (and a few other key moments) with choreography from the actors, and movement effects on the sage.
• Burn Baby Burn: Eliza uses a candle to burn the letters she wrote to Alexander during their courtship (in the aptly-titled song, "Burn".)
• Bus Crash:
  • John Laurens dies offscreen in a post-war skirmish. Hamilton finds out about it from a letter.
  • Peggy is implied to have died between Acts One and Two; when her sisters reunite during "Take a Break" and say their names in order, they note her absence with silence where "and Peggy" was in "The Schuyler Sisters".
  • The earlier versions reveal that Burr's wife Theodosia passed away from sickness. He breaks down when breaking it down to Theodosia Jr.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Despite not actually appearing in the musical, John Adams is mocked whenever whenever he is mentioned. Alexander Hamilton says that he "doesn't have a real job" as vice-president, Thomas Jefferson says that he and his administration as president is "in traction", and King George eagerly anticipates the American public eating him alive for being so much smaller as a political figure than George Washington. The rap that Miranda wrote for Hamilton taking down Adams, which was cut for time, is available on YouTube.
• Call-and-Response Song: "Your Obedient Servant," which is comprised of Hamilton and Burr singing each other the passive-aggressive letters that lead up to their duel.
• Call-Back: Early on, Hamilton speculates that dying must be like "a beat without a melody". In the song where he duels Burr (The World Was Wide Enough), he begins rapping after the shot with no orchestral or choral backup.
• Calling the Young Man Out: In "Meet Me Inside", Washington, a father figure to Hamilton who is stern but fond of him, reprimands him for encouraging Laurens to duel Charles Lee over his slander against Washington, stoking infighting within the Continental Army. When Hamilton refuses to apologize, and even begs Washington for a command, Washington sends him home. Downplayed, since Washington was going to send him home anyway, without the Lee issue, to be with his newly-pregnant wife, on her request.
• The Chains of Commanding: When Washington retires, King George states that he "wasn't aware" that giving up power "was something a person could do." It's left ambiguous whether he means that he's flummoxed at Washington's willingness to surrender control, or whether he's jealous that Washington is able to put down the burden of command. In real life, when George III was informed that Washington planned to return to private life immediately following the war, not seizing or even pursuing any kind of political power, he reportedly responded, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

  King George the III: Oceans rise, empires fall; it's much harder when it's on your call.

• The Charmer: Both Hamilton and his son are very "reliable with the LADIES!"
• Chekhov's Gun: Literally. The dueling pistols used in Philip's duel and the ultimate Burr/Hamilton duel are hanging on the wall through the entire second act.
• Chekhov's Gunman: With Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette the focus leading up to Yorktown, it's not until "Yorktown" that we learn they had a spy on the inside:^note That's right, HERCULES MULLIGAN!!! This is actually mentioned first in "Right Hand Man," after Washington convinces Hamilton to join his staff and Hamilton starts listing what he can contribute.
  Hamilton: I've got some friends; Laurens, Mulligan, Marquis de Lafayette/We'll need some spies on the inside, some king's men who might let some things slide...
• Chess Motifs: References to the game feature a-plenty in the lyrics:
  • "Knight takes rook", from "Right-Hand Man" (meaning British soldiers—i.e. knights taking Brooklyn—i.e. a castle).
  • The outcome of the Battle of Monmouth is described as a "stalemate" in "Stay Alive".
  • Burr notes that no one knows "the pieces that are sacrifices in every game of chess" when talking about the Residence Act of 1790 in "The Room Where It Happens".
  • Hamilton calls the situation in France during the Revolution "a game of chess, where France is Queen and Kingless."
• Color Blind Casting:
  • The only set rule in the original casting call is that King George has to be the Token White. Other than that, performers of any race/ethnicity can play the other principals.
  • Actually, it would be more accurate to say Hamilton uses color-conscious casting—it is intentionally required that the principals be played by people of color. This is meant to be symbolical of patriotism than "Good People = Person, Bad People = White Person"; Burr, Jefferson, and Madison are all played by African-American actors in the Original Broadway Cast after all. Rather, when the character, specifically the central characters, are played by a person of color, it signifies their patriotism or support of America, while those unpatriotic and/or stand against America are played by Caucasian actors, such as Samuel Seabury and King George.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • Hamilton goes through a few color changes throughout the show. He is first seen as one of the ensemble members wearing white, switches to brown as a student, then joining Washington's army wearing regimental blue. Once he's a statesman he switches to green, and as he gets older, he wears black until the duel.
  • Burr dresses in dark clothes to signify his status as an antagonist - this is especially noticeable during the opening number, when the entire company bar Burr is dressed in off-white.
  • Maria Reynolds wears a blood-red gown and deep red lipstick to cement her as The Vamp.
  • The Schuyler sisters are chromatically arranged: Angelica, the most outspoken sister and the clear leader, wears red; most of Eliza's outfits are blue, a color often associated with innocence and honesty; and Peggy, the youngest and quietest, wears yellow.
• Come Back to Bed, Honey: Nearly word for word in "Best of Wives and Best of Women".
  Eliza: Come back to bed, that would be enough.
  Alexander: I'll be back before you know I'm gone.
  Eliza: Come back to sleep.
  Alexander: This meeting's at dawn.
  Eliza: Well, I'm going back to sleep.
• The Commandments: "Ten Duel Commandments" spells out the rules for having a duel. The song itself takes inspiration from The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ten Crack Commandments" as they are both rules for how to pursue an illegal action.
  1. Demand an apology from the other party for the grievances inflicted.
  2. Each side gets a close friend as your second.
  3. Have your seconds negotiate either a settlement or a time and place for a duel.
  4. Procure pistols and get a doctor on site, but make sure he doesn't actually witness the duel itself.
  5. Your duel should be in the early morning on high ground.
  6. Leave a note for loved ones before going.
  7. Confess your sins and prepare for the duel itself; leave no Unfinished Business.
  8. Seconds have one last chance to arrange a peaceful settlement.
  9. Prepare yourself with the necessary courage.
  10. Ten paces, fire.
• Concept Album: Hamilton began as "The Hamilton Mixtape" before Miranda adapted it into a fully-fledged hip-hop musical. In a way, the Original Broadway Cast recording still counts as a concept album due to it being a Sung-And-Rapped Through Musical, not much info is lost.
• Costume Evolution: Most of the costumes of the main characters underwent slight changes in between the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions. In general, the colors used became much more saturated, giving way to a more prominent color coding of the characters. In addition, the bodices of the Schuyler Sisters' dresses had a slightly different shape.
• Counterpoint Duet: "Farmer Refuted" skips the second step of this trope, but otherwise fits: first, we have Samuel Seabury singing about how the American people should not be tempted into revolution (with a couple of short interjections by the other characters), and then he sings the same verse again, but this time with Hamilton's much faster rapped response layered on top, written such that sometimes he says the same word or sound at the same time as Seabury. As an example, here are the first two lines, with the simultaneous common sounds bolded:
  Seabury: Heed not the rabble who scream, revolution! They have not your interests at heart.
  Hamilton: He'd have you all unravel at the sound of screams but the revolution is coming, the have-nots are gonna win this, it's hard to listen to you with a straight face!
• Credits Gag: In the recording for the cast album, Laurens, Lafayette and Mulligan's drumming on the table in "Aaron Burr, Sir" wasn't loud enough to be audible in the audio; to remedy this, producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson assisted by drumming on his desk. He was credited for this in the liner notes, with the note that "Questlove exclusively plays ModernCre8ve Table 001 April Writing Desk Series."
• Crossing the Burnt Bridge: Jefferson and Madison have spent much of their political career insulting Alexander and accusing him of various crimes. When Aaron Burr runs against Jefferson, Madison sheepishly suggests they ask Alexander for an endorsement since they know Hamilton hates Burr more than he hates Jefferson. Though in this case they have the sense to not ask Hamilton directly and instead use other politicians as middlemen.
• Crowd Song: "My Shot" starts off as a solo "I Want" Song from the titular character before his friends join in, and then all of colonial New York, showing the spread of Revolutionary fervor that Hamilton spearheaded.
• Crucial Cross: Hamilton prominently makes the sign of the Cross and sings about it in the song "It's Quiet Uptown," which sees the once brash Revolutionary come to terms with an unimaginable grief and pain through something impossible: the grace of forgiveness, what the Gospels say Christ offered to humanity through his death.
• Cultural Translation: For the British performances of the show (and presumably other non-American performances as well) a few lines were slightly changed to be clearer to non-Americans who might not catch what they are referring to.
  • During "Take a Break", the line "Angelica, tell my wife John Adams doesn't have a real job anyway" is changed to "Angelica, tell my wife Vice President isn't a real job anyway", as this is the first mention of John Adams during the show, and viewers might not be aware that at that point in the story he was George Washington's vice president.
  • In "The Room Where It Happens", Madison's line about proposing the Potomac as the location for the US capital in exchange for Hamilton being able to create the the US Treasury as he likes is changed to a more generic line about telling Hamilton about their compromise offer as a non-American audience might not know what the Potomac is.
  • In ''The World was Wide Enough", Burr's challenge to Hamilton changes from "Weehawken. Dawn. Guns drawn." to "Jersey. Dawn. Guns drawn." as apparently a lot of British listeners misheard Weehawken as "we hawkin", as though it was some sort of slang instead of a place in Jersey.
• Curse Cut Short:
  • From "The Adams Administration": "Sit down, John, you fat mother—(bleep)!"^note Behind the bleep, Miranda is saying, "You fat motherfuckstick!"
  • In "Say No To This", an F-bomb in Reynolds' blackmail letter is cut off by Hamilton's well-timed groan of horror and Reynolds' own cheerful "Uh-oh!" (However, in the workshop recording, it's an uninterrupted "FUCK!" on Ham's part, cementing the double meaning even more.) When Burr reads the same letter in "We Know", the curse is cut off in both versions by Jefferson's combination Flat "What"/Big "WHAT?!".
  • In the recording released on Disney+ and on the clean version of the cast album, all the F-bombs are censored.
• Dances and Balls: Hamilton and the Schuyler sisters meet at a ball during The American Revolution.
• Dark Reprise: Unsurprising, considering the heavy use of sung/rapped Arc Words.
  • The best example is probably "Ten Duel Commandments." The first duel has no real consequences for those involved, while the next two end much worse. The final section of "The World Was Wide Enough" reprises snippets of most of Hamilton's songs as he prepares himself for death.
  • "The Story of Tonight" also gets a bit of a Dark Reprise when Laurens dies.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed that there was a cut song that was a Dark Reprise of "Dear Theodosia," where Burr has to tell Theodosia the younger about her mother's death.
  • "Your Obedient Servant" is one for both the "how does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..." sequence and "The Room Where It Happens". Burr, angry that Hamilton has ruined his presidential bid, sings the entire thing with ill-contained rage.
  • The beginning of "Say No To This" features Burr singing a somber and quiet version of his second set of verses from "The Schuyler Sisters," starting with the line, "There's nothing like summer in the city." In "The Schuyler Sisters," Burr cheerfully sings it as he tries to court Angelica. Here, it's used as the foreboding introduction to Hamilton's downward spiral after meeting Maria.
  • "It's Quiet Uptown" is this for "That Would Be Enough." In the latter, Eliza and Alexander are Happily Married, expecting their first child, and Eliza is begging Alexander to stay with her and not worry so much for their legacy. In the former, Alexander cheating on Eliza has made them distant, they're grieving for Philip, and Alexander is begging Eliza to just stay with him.
  • The "Stay Alive" reprise is one for "Take a Break," namely when Philip and Eliza count the musical scales in French. Especially when Philip dies on the seventh note, the same note that he would keep changing as a nine-year old with his mother.
  • "Best of Wives, Best of Women" is one for "It's Quiet Uptown" as Hamilton prepares to die in the duel with Burr and sets his papers in order.
  • The first "look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now" in "The Schuyler Sisters" was pure joy, but then it gets turned into a motif for Eliza when she keeps trying to get her husband to stop ignoring his family starting in "That Would be Enough" where Hamilton learns of Philip being conceived. Hamilton himself desperately reprises the first part of the lines as he pleads with Eliza during "It's Quiet Uptown" soon after Philip's death.
  • Burr's section of "The World Was Wide Enough" after shooting Hamilton has him singing darker, remorseful versions of bars from "Wait for It". Miranda, the writer, also revealed it was originally an even Darker Reprise of an already-dark song depicting Washington's death, though the song was cut for redundancy.
  • Speaking of the aforementioned death song for Washington (which is a Dark Reprise of One Last Ride, the original version of One Last Time), that was released by Lin publicly in December 2018.
• Dashed Plotline: Given that this is a play covering three decades in the titular character's life in one play, there is heavy use of the Time Skip throughout both acts and one major Time Skip in between the two acts.
• Deal with the Devil: Aaron Burr views Hamilton "selling the capital" of our nation to Jefferson and Madison as this, in that Hamilton compromises to build the capital in Virginia in return for Congressional approval for the federal assumption of state debt from the war.
• Death Song:
  • "Tomorrow There'll Be More Of Us," in a Dark Reprise of "Story of Tonight," sees Hamilton receive a letter about the death of John Laurens.
  • "One Last Time" details President Washington's departure from office, but it emphasizes saying goodbye to Washington, and marks the last time the audience hears from Washington before his death. There was once a Grief Song for Washington but it was cut for redundancy with "One Last Time." However, Lin later released it.
  • "Stay Alive (Reprise)" is one for Philip, which is made clear when the Heartbeat Soundtrack cuts off as the character in question stops responding to others.
  • "The World Was Wide Enough" details the duel between Hamilton and Burr, with the latter striking the former right between his ribs. As the bullet hits him, Hamilton even gets to give a soliloquy on whether he's ready to die.
• Death Wail: Eliza gives a bloodcurdling one in the filmed version once Philip dies in "Stay Alive - Reprise". This is in strong contrast to the soundtrack version of the song, where the song ends with Philip's heartbeat ending and then ominous silence.
• Deliberately Jumping the Gun: A tragic variation late into the play ends up killing a main character in a duel gone wrong. In a duel where the competitors shoot on the count of ten, George Eacker shoots Alexander Hamilton's son at the number seven, even though Hamilton's son clearly motioned that he was going to shoot his gun into the air and forfeit the duel.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Slavery is still legal, and while some characters are abolitionists, some are slaveholders. Noteworthy is that Hamilton doesn't chew out Washington for owning slaves the way he chews out Jefferson, in part because Washington doesn't promote hypocritical values in the Cabinet Battles regarding the South but Jefferson does.
  • Duels may be "dumb and immature" but they're used to resolve matters of honor. The laws surrounding them keep changing; they're legal in New Jersey, or ubiquitous enough to escape the lawman's eyes, and the opponent who fires cannot approach his opponent, even to assist him.
  • Adultery carries a much larger social stigma during this time. When Hamilton cheats on Eliza and then decides to write about it in "The Reynolds Pamphlet," to prove himself innocent in another scandal, it completely destroys his political career.
• Dirty Coward:
  • George Eacker, who shoots Philip at the count of seven, not ten during their duel.
  • Charles Lee tries to retreat during the Battle of Monmouth, almost causing the Americans a major defeat. Then he had the nerve to be indignant about George Washington replacing him with Lafayette.
    Washington: Everyone attack!
    Lee: Retreat!
    Washington: Attack!
    Lee: Retreat!
    Washington: What are you doing, Lee?! Get back on your feet!
    Lee: But there's so many of them!
    Washington: I'm sorry, is this not your speed?! Hamilton!
    Hamilton: Ready, sir!
    Washington: Have Lafayette take the lead!
• Disappeared Dad: Both Hamilton and Burr's fathers weren't around for various reasons. In "Dear Theodosia", they both promise Philip and Theodosia, respectively, that they won't be this trope. In both the show and real life, they keep their promises.
• Disappointed in You: As everyone around him is joyfully saying how, now that Hamilton admitted the Reynolds affair, he ruined his chances to become President, Washington simply looks at it and gives him a look as if to say, "Didn't I warn you about history having its eye on you?"
• The Diss Track:
  • The Cut Song "Congratulations" consists of Angelica Schuyler tearing into Alexander Hamilton for not only cheating on his wife (her sister), but then publicly confessing to his infidelity in order to prove himself innocent in a separate scandal.
    Congratulations.
    You have invented a new kind of stupid,
    A damage-you-can-never-undo kind of stupid,
    An open-all-the-cages-at-the-zoo kind of stupid,
    You didn't think this through kind of stupid.
  • Another Cut Song, "An Open Letter," is one minute of Hamilton dragging John Adams for his perceived incompetence, arrogance, and irrelevance. It's a send-up of classic rap diss tracks, as well as a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Only one line made it to the show:
  Hamilton: SIT DOWN, JOHN, YOU FAT MOTHER***!
  • Both "Congratulations" and "An Open Letter" were recorded (by Dessa and Watsky, respectively) and released on The Hamilton Mixtape, a Concept Album featuring cut songs, remixes, and covers of songs from the show. Fans were very happy to get both of these diss tracks in their full glory.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The musical came about when Miranda realized that the life of Alexander Hamilton was similar in many ways to the classic hip-hop Anti-Hero narrative about a young man from an impoverished and socially disrespected background clawing himself to a position of power and influence in a revolutionary environment, only to meet a violent downfall following betrayal and conflict with those around him.
• Domestic Abuse: Maria Reynolds wasn't lying when she said that her husband was mistreating her. This is why Hamilton takes pity on her initially.
• Doting Parent: Both Hamilton and Burr adore their children Philip and Theodosia, respectively. They sing a song about it.
• Double Meaning: At the end of the opening song when all the major characters state their major connection to Hamilton, two of them say "Me? I fought with him." This is doubly appropriate as the actors play two roles: Lafayette and Mulligan who fought alongside Hamilton during the Revolutionary War and Jefferson and Madison, fellow Founding Fathers who Hamilton clashed with repeatedly during America's formative years as a free nation.
• Do Wrong, Right:
  • As Hamilton tells Jefferson, Madison and Burr, he did have an affair with a married woman and paid her husband Blackmail money but he wouldn't break the law to do so.
  • invoked Angelica in her Cut Song chews out Hamilton for writing the Reynolds Pamphlet about his affair with Maria Reynolds since Thomas Jefferson met similar accusations about Sally Hemings, but due to Jefferson not responding to the taunts, his reputation went unsullied.
• Drunken Song: "The Story Of Tonight (Reprise)," in which the main crew celebrate Hamilton's new marriage rather spiritedly. (In addition, Laurens is even drunk back when he introduces "Satisfied", possibly as a subtle Drowning My Sorrows over Hamilton's marriage, given that some performances have him and Angelica share a meaningful glance right before the event.)
  Lafayette: Raise a glass to freedom! (Hey!)
  Laurens and Mulligan: Something you will never see again!
  Mulligan: No matter what she tells you!
  Lafayette: Let's have another round tonight!
  Laurens: Raise a glass to the four of us! (Ho!)
  Mulligan: To the newly not poor of us! (Ahhh!)
  Lafayette: We'll tell the story of tonight!
  Mulligan: Let's have another round...
  • The original "The Story of Tonight" also counts as the crew are all drinking while introducing themselves.
• Duel to the Death: Three of them happen during the course of the play, including the final duel with Burr. The rules of such a duel are featured in a song, which has a reprise at each duel. No one dies in the first one, just injured.
• Emasculated Cuckold: A Rare Gender Inversion and Played for Drama. After Hamilton publicly admits to cheating on his wife Eliza by publishing the Reynolds Pamphlet, the latter becomes a target of immense ridicule.^note Jefferson, Madison, and Burr do say "His poor wife", but that doesn't outweigh the mockery she received. The humiliation and betrayal causes her to get so angry that she burns all of Alexander's love letters to her.
• Enemy Mine: As per history, Hamilton endorses Thomas Jefferson's presidential bid, mostly because he doesn't trust Burr's total lack of convictions. He may hate Jefferson's ideals, but at least Jefferson has ideals.
  Hamilton: I have never agreed with Jefferson once
  We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts
  but when all is said and all is done
  Jefferson has beliefs—Burr has none.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Thomas Jefferson has his reasons for opposing Hamilton (mostly political)—but even Jefferson is above trashing Hamilton for being an immigrant, his former lack of money or family name (unlike John Adams). However, Thomas readily and vehemently attacks Hamilton's fashion sense. Jefferson also cheerfully gloats over Hamilton being removed from the government when the Reynolds pamphlet scandal breaks.
    Chorus: Adams fires Hamilton
    privately calls him creole bastard in his taunts.
    Jefferson: ... say what.
  • Also Jefferson's main criticism of Hamilton refusing to give aid to France lie in the fact that Lafayette risked his life for the colonies to win their freedom, and that Hamilton is acting like an Ungrateful Bastard.
  • Eliza during "Burn" says that she's disgusted by how Alexander told the world about "bringing this girl into our bed". Note that she sees Maria as a relatively innocent party in the blackmail scheme and doesn't blame her. The whole blame lies with Alexander for breaking Eliza's heart and exposing her and the children to shame. What's more, "girl" denotes that she acknowledges that Maria was eleven years younger than Hamilton and thus she had less power in the relationship.
  • Madison cries when Philip dies and Jefferson expresses sympathy by saying "Poor Hamilton". They attack him on other fronts, but they are not going to kick down a man who has lost his son. A little history reveals that, by this point, Jefferson had already lost six children, so he knew the pain of losing a child more than anyone else.
  • In the workshop, Burr comes to warn Alexander about Philip's duel with George Eaker. He sincerely wants Alexander to talk sense into his son and call it off before someone gets hurt. It doesn't work.
• Exiled to the Couch: After learning about Hamilton's affair, Eliza sings "You'll sleep in your office instead".
• Fatal Flaw: Hamilton wearing his anger "on his sleeve" and refusing to apologize for any of his actions to others. It not only costs him a political career, but also his life when he refuses to apologize to Burr for costing him the presidential election.
  • Hamilton's obsession with his honor and legacy cause him to prioritize these things over his family and even his life.
  • "Hurricane" demonstrates how Hamilton's greatest strengths — his honesty and his writing ability — become his tragic weaknesses, when he concludes that he can write his way out of anything and decides to create the Reynolds Pamphlet to preemptively clear his name.
• Feghoot: The whole story about Hamilton punching the bursar was made up just to make a pun with "Burr, sir."
• Fighting Your Friend: The duel between Alexander and Aaron is this. While they weren't exactly best pals, they were allies in the war and personal friend for over 20 years before becoming enemies.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • Eliza's delighted "I do" she repeats at the beginning of "Helpless" foreshadows her marriage to Hamilton by the end of the song.
  • During "Meet Me Inside", Washington counsels Hamilton that he shouldn't be so eager to fight on the front lines because "your wife needs you alive". In the next song, "That Would Be Enough", Hamilton returns home to discover Eliza is pregnant with their first child and that Washington had known about this for a month.
  • When Hamilton feels forced to confess that he had an affair to Burr, Jefferson, and Madison, he then contemplates his life up to that point during "Hurricane" and decides that since he has written his way out of every previous situation in his life, he'll do the same here by revealing it to the public before they can. But as he comes to that conclusion, his words are met with a repeating chorus of "wait for it". It completely destroys his career and his relationship with his wife Eliza as we see over the course of the two immediately following songs.
• Flashback Echo: "Satisfied" is this in song form, with Angelica flashing back to the night Hamilton and Eliza met on the day of their wedding.
• Flat "What":
  • Hamilton's reaction to George Washington announcing that he's stepping down.
  • As noted above, Jefferson's reaction to Adams' slur against Hamilton.
• Foil:
  • Burr and Hamilton are both Child Prodigy orphans who worked hard to accomplish their goals, practiced law after the war. That said, Hamilton comes from absolutely nothing and is desperate to prove himself and make a name while Burr comes from a respected family and is concerned about protecting his legacy. As such, Hamilton is always pushing and pushing for what he wants even if it makes him enemies while Burr prefers to take a more wait and see approach without committing to any ideal, even though the former causes him to not achieve much success and the latter causes people to distrust him when he finally begins to take initiative to the point that Hamilton eventually supports Thomas Jefferson, a man he has never agreed with once, over Burr who he was generally friendly with, to be President as Jefferson has clear beliefs about the country while Burr has none. Also, while Hamilton dies and is generally viewed as a "hero," thanks to Eliza, Burr for the rest of his life carries the reputation of being Hamilton's murderer and the Vice President that tried to annex Mexico.
  • Lafayette sacrificed his comfortable life in France to help out the Americans, even insisting he would work for the army without pay. When Lafayette returns to France, Thomas Jefferson, who was "getting high with the French" and avoiding the war after writing the Declaration, takes his place on the stage as Hamilton's enemy. Jefferson is also a Karma Houdini in regards to being a slaveholder while Lafayette gets imprisoned during the French Revolution despite his hard work in bringing democracy to the country. It's no surprise that Daveed Diggs plays both of these characters, two sides of the same coin.
• The Four Chords of Pop: The verse and chorus of "Dear Theodosia" follows the I-V-VI-IV chord progression.
• Foregone Conclusion: The opening number reveals numerous characters and events from the rest of the musical, including Hamilton's friends, enemies, loved ones, his role as a founding father of the United States, the death of his son, his eventual disgrace, and being shot by Aaron Burr. A few songs in Act 2 casually remind you that Alexander is headed for a fall in the future without dancing around it.
• Foreign Cuss Word: In "Aaron Burr, Sir," Lafayette's section has him say "Tell the King, 'Casse toi!'" "Casse toi" is roughly equivalent to "fuck off." "Casse toi" also addresses the king as a peer, not as an authority figure.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Near the end of the opening number, "Alexander Hamilton," most of the cast explain their relationships to Hamilton in ways that foreshadow the rest of the play:
  Narrator: His enemies destroyed his rep; America forgot him.
  Two men: We fought with him.^note The "two men" are both in double-cast roles: Lafayette and Jefferson played by one man, Mulligan and Madison by the other. Each pair of men will "fight with" Hamilton in different ways.
  Young man: Me, I died for him.^note Double-cast: John Laurens and Philip Hamilton. Both will die for Alexander.
  Distinguished gentleman: Me, I trusted him.^note George Washington, who will trust Alexander enough to make him his right-hand man and treasurer.
  Three women: Me, I loved him. ^note Two of them are Eliza and Angelica Schuyler, who will become his wife and beloved sister-in-law. The third woman is double-cast as Peggy Schuyler (another beloved sister-in-law) and Maria Reynolds (who will have an affair with him).
  Narrator: And me? I'm the damn fool who shot him!^note Aaron Burr, who will fatally duel Hamilton and live to regret it.
  • The pose which Hamilton adopts at the end of "My Shot" (and on the poster) foreshadows his decision to shoot his pistol in the air during his duel with Burr.
    • Especially the line "I am not throwing away my shot", given he ends up throwing away his shot by firing into the air rather than at Burr.
  • During "A Winter's Ball", Angelica can be seen still watching Hamilton after he flirts with her. This is expanded upon in "Satisfied".
  • Philip Schuyler is pretty stone-faced when Hamilton asks for his blessing to marry Eliza, but when he acquiesces, he does so with the simple, "Be true". It's implied Philip already noticed Hamilton's hunger and wandering eye, which leads Hamilton to disastrous results in Act 2.
  • Hamilton assures Lafayette before the Battle of Yorktown that if they win the American Revolution, the Americans will come to the aid of the French in their own Revolution. Lafayette quickly changes the subject and tells Hamilton to go lead his men. It's implied Lafayette doesn't think America will be able to aid them, which comes to pass in the second Cabinet Battle.
  • Lots of foreshadowing from Burr and Hamilton on how their relationship is fated to sour, the first instance being "fools who run their mouths off wind up dead".
  • In "You'll Be Back", King George sings "When you're gone, I'll go mad..." By the end of his final number, "I Know Him", he is indeed Laughing Mad.
  • When the Americans win their independence, King George III asks if the Americans know what they're getting themselves into founding their own government that they have to run. Sure enough, Act 2 revolves largely around the chaotic political feuds between the parties in the new nation.
  • One of Burr's lines in "Non-Stop":
    Burr: Soon that attitude may be your doom.
  • A muttered line in "Aaron Burr, Sir" that becomes absolutely chilling once you know what happens to Laurens.
    Burr: Fools who run their mouths off wind up dead.
    Laurens: Yo yo yo yo yo! What time is it?
    Laurens, Lafayette, Mulligan: Show time!
    Burr: Like I said…
  • From "The Room Where It Happens":
    Burr: The Mercer legacy is secure
    Hamilton: Sure.
    Burr: And all he had to do was die.
    Hamilton: That's a lot less work.
    Burr: We oughta give it a try.
    Hamilton: Ha!
  • When John Laurens and Charles Lee have a duel, Hamilton acts as Laurens' second while Burr acts as Lee's. Them technically being on opposing sides of this duel parallels their later duel against each other.
  • During "Ten Duel Commandments", Hamilton and Burr speak to each other on the same rotating platform that Laurens and Lee stand on as they prepare to duel, no doubt hinting at their inevitable showdown.
  • In "Dear Theodosia", Burr promises that "he will make a million mistakes [for his daughter]". At the finale Burr mistakenly thinks that Hamilton is planning a kill-shot rather than Throwing Away His Shot, and his only thought before shooting and killing Hamilton is "That man will not make an orphan of my daughter!"
• For Want Of A Nail: There was a real chance of Burr winning the election against Thomas Jefferson. He only loses because of Hamilton endorsing the latter. Even in-universe, Madison notes that it was a close call.
• Friendship Song: "The Story of Tonight" for Hamilton, Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan, who toast to their friendship and experiences.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Burr isn't very popular with Hamilton's crew in Act 1. While Hamilton is delighted to see Burr made it to his wedding, his friends tease Burr and Lafayette drunkenly calls him "the worst". In Act 2, when Burr joins the Southern Democratic-Republicans, Jefferson and Madison barely pay him any mind and only accept him into their inner circle due to Burr's strong desire to end Hamilton's career. The moment Burr becomes a rival to Jefferson is the moment Burr loses any respect from the party.
• From Bad to Worse: The minute Hamilton says "Macbeth", all of his decisions have disastrous consequences. His refusal to take a break with his family and subsequent affair with Maria Reynolds starts a chain of events that leads to his career destroyed and Philip's death. Giving Jefferson the endorsement needed to win the presidential election and his refusal to apologize leads to his death.
• Fun with Homophones: In "We Know":
  Hamilton: I never spent a cent that wasn't mine/ you sent the dogs after my scent, that's fine.
• Funny Background Event: In "Satisfied", as Angelica is singing her solo, Lafayette is getting ready to talk to her before Alexander shoos him off.
• The Ghost:
  • John Adams is never seen in the musical, despite being much discussed (and much maligned). Other Founding Fathers not appearing in the musical are Ben Franklin and John Jay, though they are mentioned.
  • Franklin's absence is a deliberate one on the part of the author. An earlier draft included a solo for Ben as he charmed French ladies and drummed up support for the Revolution, but Miranda discovered that Franklin would take over any play he was in and decided it was better to leave him on the sidelines.
  • Theodosia Burr is never shown in the play, but is mentioned several times (as is her mother), and her father has an entire scene dedicated to doting on her. The workshop version even had a reprise of this song.
• Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!: The revolutionaries, as per history. Hamilton and Laurens in particular are ardent abolitionists and perfectly fine with dying in battle, which Laurens eventually does. Subverted with Burr, who wants freedom but does mind dying.
• Give My Regards in the Next World: The Tear Jerker version.
  Alexander: Eliza! My love, take your time. I'll see you on the other side.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Subverted. Angelica (fierce, witty Smart) and Eliza (sweet, demure Pretty) develop feelings for the same man, but they are the best of friends and always look out for each other.
• Gold Digger: The Schuyler sisters have to worry about this when they encounter men in the city, and Angelica mentions that as the oldest she has to marry upper class to keep her family name. Burr after making an ass of himself in front of Angelica tries to assure her that he has a trust fund so she can "trust" him. This is also why Angelica initially hesitates after meeting Hamilton, since he certainly has that motive as a poor college student.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery:
  • Hamilton's mother was called a "whore" and his father was already married to another woman, leaving Alexander's family when Alexander and his brother James were only children. Alexander takes his mother's side and doesn't like father figures as a result, though he promises to be a better one to Philip.
  • Ironically, it's Aaron Burr who is portrayed as the Sympathetic Adulterer in his pursuit of Theodosia Sr. Hamilton on hearing that Theodosia is married to a British officer encourages Burr to go get her.
  • Meanwhile, Angelica marries a man she doesn't love and flirts with Alexander using punctuation in their letters. With that said, she never does a thing with Hamilton because she loves her sister more than life itself and would never hurt Eliza.
  • When Hamilton actually cheats on Eliza, and then in a stupid move (as Angelica puts it), decides to write about it in "The Reynolds Pamphlet," it destroys his political career and his marriage because everyone is horrified at not only the adultery but also his cojones at putting it in print, destroying any Plausible Deniability.
• Good-Looking Privates: Mentioned, why else would Eliza consider a winter's ball with a bunch of soldiers a "hot night"? This is the same ball in which she falls in love with Alexander, who was then a rebel soldier.
• Government Procedural: The first half of Act II has the form of this, with Hamilton debating with Jefferson in the cabinet and maneuvering to get his financial plan passed.
• Graceful Loser: Despite Jefferson demeaning him, Burr remains civil about losing the election to him. He's a lot less graceful to Alexander, who believes is responsible for his loss.
• Grief Song: "It's Quiet Uptown," as Eliza and Alexander grieve for Philip.

H-M

• Hammy Villain, Serious Hero: Inverted with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Hamilton is a passionate Large Ham who gives his all at anything he tries and never backs down, while Burr is a reserved Deadpan Snarker who prefers to remain quiet and wait for his opportunity to advance in life without risk.
• Hate Sink: Most of the show's major antagonists aren't exactly easy targets for hate. Hamilton's political opponents (even Burr, the man who eventually shoots him) are flawed but well-meaning people with enough complexity and decency to avoid making them unsympathetic to the audience. Meanwhile, King George III may be a tyrant who makes plenty of death threats, but he's a lot of fun to watch and he has a few sympathetic moments that keep him from being too one-note antagonistic. On the other hand, there are a handful of characters who are downright despicable:
  • Charles Lee is a craven excuse for a commander who retreats without orders as soon as the Battle of Monmouth starts getting intense, putting his own troops and the entire Continental Army in unnecessary danger. When George Washington responds by reprimanding him, he tries to shift the blame for the casualties by saying they were Washington's fault.
  • James Reynolds is a dishonest sleazebag and a violent and uncaring husband whose abuses drive his wife Maria to seek help from Alexander Hamilton. When Hamilton has an affair with Maria, James tries to blackmail him with the knowledge of his infidelity, openly insulting his wife in a letter he writes to Alexander.
  • George Eacker is a rude, condescending jackass who slanders Hamilton after the release of the Reynolds Pamphlet, leading to a conflict with Hamilton's son Philip. When their dispute escalates into a duel, Eacker cheats and fires at the count of seven instead of waiting for the count to be finished, shooting Philip in the back and killing him.
• He Also Did: In-universe. Burr works a mention of how Hamilton founded the Coast Guard and the New York Post into "The Adams Administration".
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: At the end of "Stay Alive (Reprise)," as Philip dies. This also pops up in the later song "The World Was Wide Enough" when Hamilton dies.
• Heaven Above: Just before his death, Hamilton desperately cries "Rise up" as if to indicate what direction he will be going in if he dies. Shortly before that, time freezes as the bullet is about to strike Hamilton's ribs and he talks about seeing his dead friends and family "on the other side." As he says their names, his best friend, his son, his mother, and his father figure all walk across the balcony across the stage, implying this "other side" is above Hamilton.
• The Hecate Sisters: The Schuyler sisters: Firstborn Angelica is the intelligent, fierce crone, middle sister Eliza is sweet and motherly, while Peggy (in her only singing appearance) is the young, demure maid. Ironically, the actress playing Peggy also plays Maria, the resident seductress.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: In "The World Was Wide Enough", Burr states his reasons for shooting Hamilton between the ribs: Hamilton was wearing his glasses and, in Burr's mind, thus prepared to take deadly aim. While Hamilton has Eliza to watch their children, Burr's daughter Theodosia has no one else and would become an orphan. When he realizes that Hamilton is aiming his pistol at the sky, meaning he didn't want to kill Burr, Burr screams "Wait!" right before he shoots him, and tries to go help him but can't due to the dueling rules. As a result, Burr is vilified through history for killing Hamilton, and his subsequent decisions in life are less-than-savory, such as marrying a woman and running off with her money.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song:
  • "The Reynolds Pamphlet," in which several characters decry Alexander for publishing the titular pamphlet.
  • The beginning of "Your Obedient Servant," in which Burr seethes about Alexander preventing his presidency.
  • "Burn", revolving around Eliza putting her foot down over Alexander's affair and her public humiliation.
  • In the original off-Broadway version, "Congratulations" is essentially about how Hamilton publicizing the Reynolds Pamphlet was an incredibly stupid and short-sighted move, and how Hamilton is too rash in general.
• Heroic BSoD: Eliza undergoes this after Philip's death, spending the majority of "It's Quiet Uptown" with a blank expression, standing immobile and ignoring Hamilton's desperate attempts to talk to her and reach her.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Angelica calls Hamilton this in the cut song "Congratulations."
  Angelica: Always so scared of what your enemies will do to you, you’re the only enemy you ever seem to lose to.
• Historical Biography Song: The opening song "Alexander Hamilton" is one, appropriately for a musical Based on a True Story.
• Historical Domain Character: Every named character is a real historical figure who was involved in Hamilton's life somehow.
• Historical Fiction: This is a story of Alexander Hamilton from the beginnings of The American Revolution until the early 1800s, and takes artistic licence with some events, and plays some traits of the characters at the expense of other traits.
• Historical Hero Upgrade:
  • The show makes much of Alexander Hamilton's anti-slavery stance to make him sympathetic and likable. Historians note that the real Hamilton never made any significant remarks or proposed any real policies to clamp down on slavery, and that his abolitionism was more a token gesture than anything concrete. Even more damningly, more recent investigations have revealed that Hamilton seemingly purchased at least 3 slaves from Phillip Schuyler for his own personal use in rather blatant contradiction of abolitionist positions^note The Schuyler family was also one of the largest slaveholding families in New York at the time, which Hamilton might take issue with marrying into if he was truly committed to the aforementioned ideas. In addition, for all that the play emphasizes Hamilton's immigrant success story, in real-life he made it drastically harder for immigrants to find property and voting rights and staunchly campaigned against them. His support for the Alien and Sedition Acts is ignored, as is his support of the crackdown against Shays' Rebellion, while his feud with John Adams (which largely destroyed the Federalist Party) is only mentioned in passing. As Sean Willentz notes, Hamilton was a man of the "1%" and not at all a populist hero as the musical portrays him to be.
  • The more negative Questionable Consent connotations of Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds aren't really addressed either. He was an incredibly powerful figure as Treasury Secretary at that point and she was a desperate young mother eleven years his junior, in a time in which there was no social safety net and when women were still viewed as property. He also knowingly ruined her life several years later when he published the Reynolds Pamphlet without any thought about how it would affect her.
  • Hercules Mulligan was a spy, but so was his slave Cato, who was Adapted Out of the musical since it would be awkward to have John Laurens sing about abolition when one of his drinking buddies happens to own a slave. Also ironic is that the spy who was actually responsible for giving Washington the information necessary to win at Yorktown and thus end the war was not Mulligan but another slave named James Armistead.^note Doubly ironic is that Armistead later added "Lafayette" to his name because of the Frenchman's tireless efforts to secure his freedom after the war, while in the play Lafayette's abolitionism remains implied at best.
  • Washington is portrayed as arguably the most straightforwardly sympathetic character, despite the fact that he owned almost as many slaves as Thomas Jefferson (who is the only character Hamilton attacks for slaveholding) and supported numerous congressional measures passed to fundamentally enshrine slavery in the early republic. Although he began to question slavery somewhat towards the end of his life, he still owned at least 300 slaves at the time of his death. He was also infamous among many Native American tribes for his brutal treatment of them during both the Revolution and earlier conflicts, which earned him the nickname "Conotocaurius" or "Town Destroyer" from the Iroquois people. None of this is mentioned at all in the musical, and in all of his songs he comes off as a Reasonable Authority Figure who treats Hamilton with firm kindness and thinks of the country's good.
  • Possibly Angelica; some historians suggest that she didn't just fantasize about being with Hamilton and joke about sharing him with Eliza, but that the two actually had an affair. In the play, she has feelings for him but won't even consider betraying her sister. The play also suggests that she sacrificed herself in a "loveless" marriage, but in actuality, she and her husband eloped because her father didn't approve of him—she didn't marry from a sense of duty. As with the rest of the Schuylers, her family's slaveowning is glossed over.
• Historical Relationship Overhaul: The play presents Angelica Schuyler as only marrying her husband because she was expected to marry rich, while loving Alexander Hamilton instead, when in reality she ran away with him, suggesting she really did care for him at least at some point.
• Historical Villain Upgrade:
  • Burr in the play expects that, because he killed Hamilton, history's view of his life will be unfairly negative:
    Burr: History obliterates. In every picture it paints, it paints me in all my mistakes.
    When Alexander aimed at the sky, he may have been the first one to die. But I'm the one who paid for it.
    I survived, but I paid for it. Now I'm the villain in your history.
  • Despite Burr's Anti Villainous portrayal, historians such as Nancy Isenberg still criticize it for glossing over views and accomplishments that Hamilton protested but modern audiences would favor. Burr created institutions to provide loans for the poor, and he campaigned to expand voting rights to the poor, a point on which Hamilton loathed him for. As noted by Gore Vidal and several others, while Hamilton was an immigrant and Burr an aristocrat in background, the former defended property and elite rights, while the latter expanded rights for the common man. Likewise, Burr publicly expressed support for women's suffrage and also played a part in abolishing slavery in New York. The play stresses Hamilton's support for manumission of slaves, but does not mention Burr's more substantial involvement in anti-slavery organizations at the same time (he and Hamilton were both members of the New York Manumission Society in the 1780s during its efforts to emancipate slaves in New York).
  • George Eacker: See Adaptational Villainy above.
  • Jefferson comes off the worst, due to being a major opponent of Hamilton's and having several songs that highlight his hypocrisy over the issue of slavery. While the latter isn't unjustified from a modern perspective, by downplaying Washington's slave-owning and Hamilton's own involvement (however peripheral) in the slave trade, it makes Jefferson seem almost uniquely hypocritical rather than typical of his time and place in his ambivalence towards slavery.^note Actual defenses of slavery, at least by prominent Americans, didn't seriously begin until the 1830s, when Southern politicians like John Calhoun began arguing it was "a positive good" rather than a necessary evil for the Southern economy. In real-life as a President he did abolish America's participation in the international slave trade in 1807, but that comes after the timeline of the show. Likewise, no mention is made of his support for the rights of the poor and for religious freedom, both positions Hamilton opposed.
  • The real King George III was considered to be a fairly benevolent monarch for his time, and most of the repressive policies blamed on him were the doing of George's ministers and Parliament; in the play, however, he's a Card-Carrying Villain tyrant. Given his Large Ham tendencies, this was likely done for Rule of Funny. In addition, he's usually portrayed as a Psychopathic Manchild already in the throes of insanity; that didn't happen until after the War of Independence.
• Homoerotic Subtext: John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton are written as unusually attracted to each other, in reference to historical suspicion that they had some type of sexual relationship.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Lampshaded by Burr and Hamilton in "The Ten Duel Commandments."
    Burr: Can we agree that duels are dumb and immature?
    Hamilton: Sure, but your man has to answer for his words, Burr.
    Burr: With his life? We both know that's absurd, sir.
    Hamilton: Hang on; how many men died because Lee was inexperienced and ruinous?
    Burr: Okay, so we're doing this.
  • Hamilton would rather die than fire his gun at someone after the war, even in self-defense.
• Hypocrite: Burr pursues Theodosia, who was married to a British officer until said officer's death, but he helps spread the Reynolds Pamphlet with Jefferson and Madison when Alexander writes it, confessing to an extramarital affair. Zig-Zagged in that he's horrified along with Jefferson and Madison when first hearing about the affair from Alexander. Also, while he defeated Philip Schuyler, Sr. for a senatorial position and strained his friendship with Alexander, he has the gall to be offended when Alexander supports Jefferson instead of him, with Alexander pointing out that Burr has shown himself to be a man with no stances or loyalties.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Burr tells Hamilton to "talk less, smile more" but he does Open Mouth, Insert Foot when attempting to flirt with Angelica, saying that "your perfume smells like your daddy's got money". To no one's surprise, Angelica tells Burr he disgusts her and blows him off.
  • Jefferson often insults Hamilton for his sense of fashion, claiming he dresses like "fake royalty"- while he himself is the one in the bright purple coat.
• "I Am" Song:
  • "My Shot" combines this with "I Want" Song for Hamilton and his friends, because they use it to introduce themselves and what they want at the same time.
  • "The Schuyler Sisters" is one for the three sisters of the Schuyler family, because it is their introduction scene, and shows the audience how different they are. It's also a bit of an "I Want" Song for Angelica, and what she wants is a sequel to "all men are created equal".
  • "Wait For It" is a low key version of this for Burr. Though since he doesn't yet know what he wants he lacks motivation to action.
• Icarus Allusion: In "Burn", Eliza sings that Angelica had described Hamilton as "an Icarus; he has flown too close to the sun". This means that Hamilton's pride led him to try and maintain his reputation in the face of potential scandal, creating an even bigger scandal that humiliated his wife in the process.
• Inadequate Inheritor: George III points out that John Adams doesn't seem as capable of holding the young United States together as George Washington.
  George III: President John Adams... good luck!
• Incoming Ham:
  • "EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR AMERICA'S FAVORITE FIGHTIN' FRENCHMAN!" Enter Lafayette.
  • "SILENCE! A MESSAGE FROM THE KING!"
  • "HERE COMES THE GENERAL!"
  • "We had a spy on the inside!" "That's right: HERCULES MULLIGAN!"
  • "Thomas Jefferson's coming home! Thomas Jefferson's coming home!"
• Inconveniently Vanishing Exonerating Evidence: Eliza's response to the Reynolds Pamphlet is to burn the letters between herself and Alexander during their courtship.
  Eliza: I'm burning the memories, I'm burning the letters that might have redeemed you.
• Insult Backfire:
  Angelica: Burr, you disgust me.
  Burr: Ah, so you've discussed me!invoked
• Ironic Echo:
  • "I am not throwing away my shot" takes on a much different meaning at the end. Hamilton attempts to delope during his duel with Burr, the way he'd previously advised his son to do, and Burr shoots him anyway.
  • "Just you wait" is sung by Alexander in the opening number to show his ambition and drive. But later during "Non-Stop" the chorus repeats this phrase while Alexander is singing "I am not throwing away my shot" foreshadowing Alexander's decision at the end of the play to throw away his shot in the duel.
  • The first time Burr sings about "the room where it happens", he means the room where the meeting deciding the location of the nation's capital was held. The next time he sings about "the room where it happens", he's referring to something a little more ambitious... more like the Oval Office.
  • "You knock me out, I fall apart." First heard in "Dear Theodosia", where Burr and Hamilton are expressing their awestruck affection for their young children; next heard in "It's Quiet Uptown", when Hamilton is completely psychologically devastated by the death of his teenage son.
  • Also from "Dear Theodosia" the line "someday you'll blow us all away" is later the title and chorus of the song where Philip is shot (blown away) in a duel. And though it is not mentioned in the show there is an ironic meaning for Burr as well since his daughter, Theodosia, died when her ship was lost at sea (blown away by the wind), most likely in a storm.
  • Hamilton's line "I imagine death so much it feels like a memory" is first heard in "My Shot," then again in the opening line of "Yorktown", and finally in "The World Was Wide Enough" during the duel when Burr's bullet is headed towards him.
  • "Helpless" initially refers to Eliza's girlish love for Hamilton, but it's later used in a more unhappy context in "Non-Stop" when he chooses public service over her and their family, and then used again by Hamilton with regards to his affair and how he can't stop the snowballing consequences. "Burn" is all about her taking charge of herself and shedding the "helpless" mentality.
  • "Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now" in "The Schuyler Sisters" is initially sung joyfully to represent the excitement of the revolution. In "That Would Be Enough" it takes on new meaning that Eliza and Hamilton are lucky to be alive in the midst of deaths caused by the war. In "Non-Stop" Hamilton uses Eliza's line against her to justify leaving to joining Washington's cabinet. In "It's Quiet Uptown", Hamilton sings it in an attempt to console Eliza about their son's death.
  • "Wait For It" is echoed twice, tauntingly by Hamilton in "The Room Where It Happens" and, heartbreakingly Burr screams "Wait!" when Hamilton aims his pistol at the sky, after it's too late and he's already fired. The following conclusion of the song is a Dark Reprise of "Wait For It" detailing how his actions killed Hamilton and ruined his own career and reputation.
  • "See you on the other side." Hamilton first says to Lafayette during "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)". Just as Burr fires his gun in the duel, Hamilton imagines seeing Eliza one last time, and says to her, "Eliza, my love! Take your time! I'll see you on the other side!"
  • During the show's off-Broadway run at The Public, "One Last Time" was called "One Last Ride" and had verses about the Whiskey Rebellion with ironic echoes of "Right Hand Man."
    Washington: You are outgunned!
    Hamilton: What!
    Washington: Outmanned!
    Hamilton: What!
    Washington: Outnumbered, outplanned!
    Hamilton: Pay your fucking taxes!
    Washington: Put your guns down on my command!
• Hope Spot: In the workshop, Burr hopes that he can stop Philip Hamilton from dueling with George Eacker by warning his father. He warns Alexander and hints at him to call it off. Alexander instead advises his son to throw away his shot.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Angelica wishes for her beloved sister Eliza to be happy with her beloved Alexander.
• "I Want" Song:
  • "My Shot" shows Hamilton and his friends taking turns at what they want, such as Hamiliton's desire for glory or Lauren's desire to end slavery. Burr is asked what he wants, but he refuses to say anything.
  • In "The Room Where It Happens," Aaron Burr, who has spent the entire play up until this point playing his cards close to his chest, reveals what he actually wants: to have the political power to take part in important decisions and negotiations.
• Improv:
  • In "The Room Where it Happens", Burr's line "Congress is fighting over where to put the capital" is followed by incomprehensible shouting from the chorus who were told they could shout any location they wanted but preferably somewhere in the Thirteen Colonies. Lin-Manuel Miranda has noted that even he's not sure if the cast followed that instruction.
  • Choreography-wise, the reason why the last third of "The Reynolds Pamphlet" is such complete chaos because it's complete improvisation - in essence, as long as no one directly touches Hamilton or gets in King George's way while he's walking, everyone can do whatever they want.
• Irony:
  • Hamilton refuses to go with Eliza, Angelica, and his children on a holiday because he has too much work to do, even though Eliza's encouraging him to "Take a Break," with romantic implications. Come the next song, stressed in New York, he takes pity on a woman suffering Domestic Abuse and sleeps with her.
  • Likewise, Hamilton insists to Burr, Madison and Jefferson that he did not sully his reputation by speculating with government funds. Come the publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet, which Hamilton wrote, he just does that (albeit via admitting to a romantic affair) and ruins his marriage.
  • There's a case combined with a healthy dose of hypocrisy on Burr's part. When Burr and Hamilton are seconds for the Laurens-Lee duel, Burr says that while Lee's actions to undermine Washington's leadership were wrong, it is absurd for a man to have to pay for his words with his life. Years later Hamilton undermines Burr's Presidential aspirations with words, and as a result Burr will first challenge and then kill Hamilton in their duel.
  • "What'd I Miss?" is Jefferson singing about "there is no more status quo" and he "can't believe we are finally free"...at Monticello, his plantation, while the chorus all wear black ribbons around their necks to indicate they're his slaves.
• It Will Never Catch On: When Hamilton proposes writing the Federalist Papers, Burr dismisses them by saying that "no one will read it." In reality, of course, as a unique insight into the intentions of the founding fathers, the Federalist Papers went on to become the single document most frequently cited by the US Supreme Court.
• It's All About Me:
  • Hamilton believes that Burr has no principles and cares only about self-promotion and power. It's why he encourages the electors to vote for Jefferson since at least Jefferson has stances that are clear.
  • In "Burn", Eliza accuses Alexander of thinking only of himself by publishing the Reynolds papers, probably rightly so as he was only thinking of his career and clearing his name, rather than the impact it would have on her reputation and how much it would hurt her.
    Eliza: And you are paranoid in every paragraph
    How they perceive you... You, you, you!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In his Establishing Character Moment, Aaron Burr is about to blow off Alexander when the latter reveals he's an orphan like Burr and they both have to prove themselves to the world. Burr asks if he can buy the other young man a drink, and tries to give him advice. Later, despite Lafayette, Mulligan and Laurens roasting him, he buys them all a round, no strings attached.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Burr in "My Shot" tells Lafayette, Mulligan, Laurens, and Hamilton to keep their voices down because if they are speaking about rebelling against the British government, they may very well get "shot."
  • While Hamilton seems mercenary for not offering help to Lafayette during the French Revolution, especially since they were friends, he points out that the previous treaty with France was with a monarch that the people have overthrown, with their ally king's head in a basket; they would be offering aid to a Reign of Terror with no foreseeable benefits and at the cost of exhausting the States' scant resources.
  • "What Comes Next" is basically King George telling the Americans they've got to lead themselves now and that's a much harder task than it looks; General (and later President) Washington himself states this repeatedly. And they're right. The first American government, the Articles of Confederation, was replaced almost eight years to the day after they were finally ratified by all thirteen colonies, and before that, the fledgling American government would face rebellion against taxation in the Whiskey Rebellion.
• Jumped at the Call: After George Washington is named President, he comes to Alexander, needing help in forming a new government. Alexander doesn't even let George finish the asking when he asks back, "Treasury or State?" Eliza is not too happy that he has agreed to the task without even consulting her.
• Jump Scare: If you only listed to the soundtrack before watching the play, Eliza's scream at the end of "Stay Alive (Reprise)" is completely unexpected and makes it even more chilling and terrifying.
• Kick the Dog: In the workshop, the moment that Burr challenges Alexander to a duel is when Alexander tells him that just because Theodosia Sr. died is no reason for Burr to blame Hamilton for all of his problems. It's completely out of line and cruel, considering how Burr was mourning her.
• Kingmaker Scenario: Having ruined both John Adams' reputation and his own with the Adams and Reynolds pamphlets, Hamilton effectively screws his Federalist party out of a win in the election of 1800, but his opinion still carries enough weight to break the tie between Jefferson and Burr. He chooses Jefferson.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Eliza in the workshop version of the album tells Hamilton to stop seeking fights over various issues. He doesn't listen, because he's too hot-headed and "never satisfied".
• La Résistance: Of course, given that much of the first act is concerned with the American Revolution, the rebel army gets many songs.
• Large Ham:
  • Jefferson and Hamilton are certainly expressive, especially during their debates. The former figuratively stops the show so he can ask "what'd I miss?"
  • King George produces enough ham to feed a fully armed battalion!
    George: And no, don't change the subject! 'Cause you're my favorite subject! My sweet, submissive subject. My loyal, royal subject. Forever. And ever. And ever and ever and ever...
  • Subverted with George Washington: Every time he shows up, he's treated by everyone else as though he is a large ham and massively important figure, but he's always concerned with other people and downplays his own accomplishments, to the point that his farewell speech is about his failures rather than his successes, and how he hopes that the country can forgive him for them.
• Landslide Election: Jefferson wins the election of 1800 by a large margin after receiving Hamilton's endorsement. If your well-known enemy supports you, then that is something major.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Burr beats out Philip Schuyler Sr. for a governmental position, switching parties to do so. He tells Hamilton that it is Nothing Personal and that he merely sought opportunity when he saw it, while Hamilton seethes. Several years later, while Burr runs for president, Hamilton, similarly saying Nothing Personal, endorses Jefferson the bid, winning the latter a landslide.
• Laughably Evil: King George III is hilariously malevolent every single time he appears. His sole functions in the story are to provide commentary for ongoing events in America at three points, each time to the exact same British music hall-style tune; witness America's devolution into partisanship under President John Adams (good luck!), and help pass out copies of the Reynolds pamphlet.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Lafayette, Laurens, and Mulligan encourage Burr to join in in their rap circle by asking him to "give us a verse" (which could otherwise be interpreted as boisterous conversation), but he refuses, saying "you spit, I'm 'a sit".
  • Hamilton tells Seabury not to change the song's key while they're arguing.
  • After several songs dealing with Hamilton's personal life, "The Election of 1800" opens up with Jefferson saying, "Can we get back to politics?" and Madison adding "Please?"* Madison walks in dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief as if he had witnessed the preceding Tear Jerker song alongside the audience.
  • Washington opens the first Cabinet Battle with, "Ladies and gentlemen, you coulda been anywhere in the world tonight, but you're here with us in New York City. Are you ready for a cabinet meeting?" - addressing both the onstage and offstage audience, who are indeed seeing a cabinet battle on Broadway, New York City.
  • During "The Reynolds Pamphlet", the conductor reaches up out of the orchestra pit and is handed a copy from Jefferson.
• Learned from the News: Eliza only finds out about Hamilton cheating on her when he publishes the Reynolds Pamphlet.
• Leitmotif: Each of the characters get their own musical themes, sometimes just by singing their names:
  • "A-lex-an-der Ham-il-ton..." (First introduced in the song of the same name.)
  • "Angelicaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
  • "E-liiiiiii-za..."
  • Burr is often underscored by "Aaron Burr, Sir" or "Wait for It".
  • Washington has a pulsing beat behind him that is first heard in "Right Hand Man".
  • Jefferson has an eight-note ostinato, the last four notes are first heard during his introduction in "What'd I Miss?", but are more prominently heard during "Washington on Your Side".
  • The "count to ten" melody is first heard during "Ten Duel Commandments", and in the second act, becomes more associated with Philip.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Three important duels happen during the play; there's even a song outlining the rules of a civil argument.
  • Laurens and Lee get into one over Washington's honor. Both live through it, although Lee ends up shot in the side.
  • Philip calls out George Eacker for one after the latter insults his father. It ends in Philip's death.
  • In the musical's climax, Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel over their political rivalry, and shoots him. Burr regrets it right after he sees Hamilton fall.
• Like Father, Like Son: Philip is a lot like Hamilton — he's smart and he knows it, is a flirt, is a hothead who will do anything to defend the honor of people he cares about, and ultimately ends up being killed in a duel because one party refuses to apologize.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: A low-key case between Hamilton's dead mother and his mistress Maria Reynolds. Both of them weathered unhappy marriages, spousal abandonment, and dire financial straits; both are referred to by other characters as whores. Hamilton's genuine sympathy for Mrs. Reynolds and her situation gets him into some hot water.
• Literal Soapbox Speech: Samuel Seabury stands on a box in the middle of town square to read his list of grievances against the Revolution. Hamilton comes over and argues with him, leading to them getting in a fight over the box, shoving each other off of it while taking turns standing on it.
• Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: A few bars of "The Bridal Chorus" play at the end of "Helpless," at Alexander and Eliza's wedding.
• Long List: During "Your Obedient Servant" Hamilton sends an "itemized list of 30 years of disagreements." Burr's response? "Sweet Jesus."
• Loophole Abuse: Subverted. Since Hamilton was ordered not to challenge Lee for his insults about Washington, Laurens offers to instead since he didn't receive such orders, shooting Lee in a duel. Washington arrives in time to see the aftermath and sends Hamilton home, both as punishment and so Hamilton can learn his wife is pregnant.
• Love at First Sight: Both Eliza and Angelica are immediately charmed by Hamilton. He doesn't pick up on this, thinking that it was reading his witty letters that won them over.
• Marry for Love: Upperclass Eliza gets to marry her sweetheart, the penniless Alexander, which is an option not available to Angelica because she's the oldest sister and is thus obliged to marry well.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: "Alexander Hamilton", "Non-Stop", and "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" are sweeping ensemble numbers that highlight all the principals.
• Meal Ticket: Hamilton initially courts both Angelica and Eliza, shooting for a place in the upper-class Schuyler family. He comes to love both women fairly quickly, though.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • When Eliza is reading the letter from John Laurens's father, on the upper level, in shadow, you can see Lafayette and Mulligan are reading similar letters. All three friends received word of Laurens' meaningless death at the same time.
  • If you look closely in "The Reynolds Pamphlet", you can see someone give a pamphlet to a disappointed-looking Philip.
  • In some performances, after Angelica and Laurens finish walking down the aisle in "Helpless" and separate to make way for the bride and groom, the two share a significant look, referencing Angelica's soon to be overt and Laurens's subtextual feelings for Hamilton.
  • Angelica stays onstage after "The Schuyler Sisters", and watches the events of "Farmer Refuted" from the upper level.
• Meaningful Echo: "...But I'm not afraid. I know who I married." The first time, Eliza is reassuring Hamilton that whatever happens to them, they'll be fine, even without a legacy or a lot of money. The second time, Hamilton says it to Eliza, saying that he believes they can survive Phillip's death, even if it doesn't seem possible at that moment.
• Mic Drop: Jefferson does this in one of the cabinet battles. Madison catches it for him.
• Midword Rhyme:
  • From "My Shot":
    I am the A-L-E-X-A-N-D-
    E-R! We are! Meant to be
    A colony that runs independently!
  • From "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)":
    How did we know that this plan would work?
    We had a spy on the inside. That's right. Herc-
    ules Mulligan!
  • Used in "The Adams Administration" to pivot between rhyming patterns:
    How does Hamilton, the short tempered
    Protean creator of the Coast Guard
    Founder of the New York Post, Ard-
    ently abuse his cab'net post
    Destroy his reputation?
    Welcome, folks,
    to the Adams administration!
  • Used in "Your Obedient Servant" to pivot between rhyming patterns:
    I am not the reason no one trusts you
    No one knows what you believe
    I will not equivocate on my opinion
    I have always worn it on my sleeve
    Even if I said what you think I said
    You would need to cite a more specific griev-
    ance
    Here's an itemized list of thirty years of disagreements
• Missing Mom: Alexander and his mother both became dangerously ill when he was twelve.
  Company: And Alex got better, but his mother went quick.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • We get this back to back during the Reynolds scandal. First is "The Reynolds Pamphlet" where Hamilton admits his affair with Maria Reynolds to clear his name of legal wrongdoing. The song humorously features Jefferson, Madison, Burr, and even King George dancing and gloating that Hamilton will never be president. Then it's followed by "Burn", which is Eliza's heartbroken, furious reaction to the whole thing. And she is not laughing. "Burn" is directly followed by Philip's upbeat character song "Blow Us All Away" about him finding his place in the world as a young adult, which is then followed by the devastating "Stay Alive (Reprise)" and the equally-somber "It's Quiet Uptown." And after that is "The Election of 1800", which opens with Jefferson asking if they can get back to politics now.
  • King George's first song, "You'll Be Back", is a delightfully hammy Villain Love Song where he sings about his obsessive romance with America. Jonathan Groff plays it up by looking silly and walking silly and throwing in silly facial emotes. Then he announces that he's not letting America go, he's sending soldiers to make make sure he controls the country, and he tops it off by stating that he will remind America that he loves them by killing everyone that opposes him. It reeks of a horribly abusive relationship, and only gets worse when, at the end of the song, a soldier comes on stage and outright kills someone.
  • The only song not present in the official cast recording is a Dark Reprise of "The Story of Tonight," sung by John Laurens, as Hamilton learns in a letter that his best friend is dead. This happens immediately after "Dear Theodosia," a sweet and happy song about Hamilton's and Burr's firstborn children, and is directly followed by "Non-Stop," an energetic ensemble number.
  • A slightly strange example in "Your Obedient Servant" comes in the dramatic shift in tone between different parts of the song; the seemingly lighthearted teasing of the chorus (Burr and Hamilton singsonging their signatures, the latter's being shortened to "A. Ham" since his last name is too many syllables to fit the beat) is immediately followed by Burr's lines:
    Burr: Careful how you proceed, good man
    Intemperate indeed, good man
    Answer for the accusations I lay at your feet or
    Prepare to bleed, good man.
• Morality Pet: Eliza is a moral touchstone for most of the cast except for James and Maria Reynolds. George Washington explicitly keeps Hamilton out of danger after learning Eliza is pregnant, Angelica introduces her sister to the young Alexander on realizing Eliza loves him, and Jefferson, Madison, and Burr express sympathy for her after the Reynolds Pamphlet comes out. Burr in the Workshop version explicitly tells Hamilton to treat her well.
• Motor Mouth:
  • Angelica has one of the fastest, most difficult patter in the show with "Satisfied"—Lin-Manuel Miranda admits that he can't wrap his mouth around it. FiveThirtyEight.com clocked it at 5 words per second.
  • Lafayette spits some of the fastest verses in the show (and one of the fastest in Broadway history) in the first part of "Guns and Ships." Per FiveThirtyEight, Lafayette raps at 6.3 words per second. And in a fake French accent, to up the ante!
• Mundane Made Awesome: One of the main raisons d'être of the musical is to use modern pop music and dance music styles to bring alive the story of a political figure from your high school history class.
  • Cabinet debates? Have some Battle Rapping.
  • Angelica gets an achingly romantic interlude about Hamilton's choice of punctuation.
  • Writing over half of the Federalist Papers and becoming head of treasury? Have a Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number about what a Determinator our hero is.
  • All the drama over Alexander Hamilton's check stubs in "We Know". (Of course, these seemingly mundane details are key to a scandal with much juicier elements — on one hand, rampant financial corruption, on the other, a brazen extramarital affair.)
  • Three politicians griping about the opposition party results in a pretty badass declaration, "Let's show these Federalists what they're up against. Oh! Southern motherfucking Democratic-Republicans!" This is combined with a bombastic musical sting, some swaggering dance moves and the sudden appearance of the ensemble marching behind them.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • invoked In her Cut Song, Angelica mentions that she feels this way about introducing Alexander to her sister, not just because she loved Alexander but also because Eliza is in pain now due to Alexander's infidelity.
  • Alexander bears this horrified look while Angelica chews him out for writing "The Reynolds Pamphlet" and hurting Eliza.
  • Aaron Burr regrets fatally shooting Hamilton on realizing the latter didn't want to kill him.

N-R

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Hamilton writing out a condemnation of President John Adams after the latter fires him ends up alienating him from the rest of his political party and killing any chances that Hamilton may have of running for president.
  • Hamilton's affair with Maria Reynolds, where they are both married and Hamilton is a politician. Her husband blackmails Hamilton, and the latter reveals the affair publicly so as to avoid charges of corruption. Eliza on hearing what her husband did is so heartbroken and angry that he made her a laughingstock and cuckold that she ends their relationship and burns their letters.
  • Hamilton also told his son to throw away his shot in the duel with George Eacker, which leads to Philip's death. Lampshaded when Eliza asks Hamilton, "Alexander, did you know?"
• Nice to the Waiter: "The Ten Duel Commandments" mandates that duelists treat their doctor-on-site deferentially. He is to be paid in advance, in case of a double fatality. All interactions with him must be civil, because the duelists' lives are in his hands. Finally, his exposure to litigation as an accessory to the duel must be minimized by telling him to face away from the duel so he cannot be a witness to it.
• Noodle Incident: A few, as even a musical as long as this can't fit in everything. Notable examples include:
  • Madison's falling out with Hamilton - in Act One, they're co-writing The Federalist Papers; in Act Two, Jefferson notes that Madison hates Hamilton.
  • The entire Presidency of John Adams is noted to be "in traction" and that is all we hear of it.
  • From a historical (and Aaron Burr's) point of view, whatever happened in "The Room Where It Happens" - something the song underlines with its repeated "Thomas claims". Jefferson's writings are the only source we have for this meeting, and most historians regard them as... less than impartial. This is lampshaded when the show has him presenting Madison as Hamilton's enemy and himself as the reasonable middleman willing to give Hamilton an ear, when every other part of the show makes it clear that he's the one who's leading the charge against Hamilton and Madison is following.
• "No Talking or Phones" Warning: As with every Broadway show, this type of announcement is made before every performance. And it's done by King George, of all people!
  King George III: Thank you, and enjoy my show.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Hamilton breaks the fourth wall to assure the audience that Martha Washington really did name a (presumably especially randy) tomcat after him. ^note Made funnier by the fact that this "fact" might not be true, and is possibly just a rumor made up by his political rivals.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In a Cut Song, Angelica scathingly points out to Hamilton that his affair with Maria Reynolds is a lot like what Jefferson did, except Jefferson never responded to his accusations.
• Nothing Personal: Burr tells Hamilton that he has nothing against Philip Schuyler Sr. after beating him out for his Senate seat. In a cut segment Eliza picks up on this and prevents any huge fights from occurring.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: At the start of "Stay Alive (Reprise)", the doctor tending to Philip's gunshot notes that he has lost a of blood and the wound quickly got infected, but he was able to keep the boy alive long enough for Alexander and Eliza to arrive and comfort him in his last moments. This was not easy with the time period's medicine.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Hamilton's reaction to finding out that James Reynolds knows damn well what Hamilton's been getting up to with his wife, and intends to blackmail him with it.
  • Hamilton has one for Burr, upon finding out Burr's girlfriend is married. Or, more to the point, finding out who she's married to.
    Burr: She's married.
    Hamilton: I see.
    Burr: She's married to a British officer.
    Hamilton: ...Oh, shit.
  • Burr, and Hamilton have this reaction when Washington shows up after Laurens' duel with Charles Lee, mainly because Washington explicitly stated he didn't want anyone to confront Lee over his insults. Only Hamilton ends up in trouble, though.
  • When Angelica arrives after the publishing of the Reynolds Pamphlet, Alexander greets her with a "thank God, someone who is on my side!" but she rejects him, saying that she is there for her sister, not him. He looks betrayed, like he's saying, "But, I was honest about it. Isn't that what I was supposed to do?"
  • In "The World Was Wide Enough," Burr screams, "Wait!" when he shoots Hamilton fatally after he aims his pistol at the sky, meaning he never planned to kill and Burr just shot a man in cold blood.
• Once More, with Clarity:
  • The first meeting and courtship between Hamilton and Eliza is presented as am almost fairy-tale romance in "Helpless", as Eliza recounts her instant infatuation with Hamilton and his insistent courtship of her. Later, in "Satisfied", we see there's much more to the story. Angelica recalls her own first meeting with Alexander, revealing that she sacrificed her own feelings for Hamilton for Eliza's benefit. She also has a more accurate understanding of Alexander's character, realizing that Alexander will likely never be content with the life Eliza wants for them.
  • Within "Satisfied," we see Angelica deliver the same wedding toast to Alexander and Eliza twice. The first time it reads as a heartfelt wish for the couple's happiness. After the flashback, it becomes ironic and deeply bittersweet - Angelica is in love with Alexander, and can also see the cracks in his character that Eliza is too infatuated to recognize yet. While she meant every word of her toast, she will forever regret losing her chance with Alexander, and rightly suspects that his ambition and licentiousness will bring trouble to his and Eliza's marriage.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted.
  • Philip Hamilton and Philip Schuyler, who are grandson and grandfather. Fitting, as the younger was named for the elder.
  • James Madison and James Reynolds.
  • George Washington, King George III, and George Eacker.
  • John Laurens and John Adams (although the latter doesn't actually appear in the musical).
  • Theodosia Bartow Prevost and Theodosia Burr Alston, Aaron Burr's wife and daughter, respectively.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: This is Hamilton's excuse for choosing to back Jefferson in the presidential election instead of Burr when asked for his opinion, because for all he despises Jefferson and his politics, at least he has beliefs he actually cares about, unlike Burr.
• Only Sane Man: Hamilton, Burr and Jefferson all view themselves as the only one in the group talking sense, and that everyone else is blinded by ideals or personal ambition. They're not. Washington is the only one who actually is (sensible and reasonable). That is why he is able to wrangle them into one government.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In the companion book (affectionately called the "Hamiltome") it's noted that the fact that Alexander didn't write much about the death of John Laurens is an indication of how deeply he cared; he also says that this supports the theory that Laurens & Hamilton were lovers.
  • After Philip dies, "It's Quiet Uptown" has none of Hamilton's clever lines and rhythms. He cannot think of how to win his wife's trust back with words. The song itself repeats the same lines about facing the unimaginable and noting how it's "quiet uptown".
  • In "One Last Time", Hamilton's distressed over Washington not running for re-election, to the point where Washington has tell Hamilton to start writing.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: During 'You'll be Back' on the cast album, Jonathan Groff slips back into his American accent a few times ("You'll be the one complaining when I am gone...")
• Orphaned Punchline: Laurens's "Alright, alright, that's what I'm talking about!" at the start of "Satisfied" is "the punchline to a dirty joke you didn't hear".
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Hamilton and Eliza with regard to their oldest son, as Philip is killed in a duel at the age of 19.
  • Historically, Aaron Burr outlived his daughter Theodosia by more than two decades.
• Painting the Medium: With a touch of Leaning on the Fourth Wall. After America wins its freedom from England, when King George sings about it, he sings "I'm so blue" then stamps his foot, suddenly making all of the previously warm lights completely blue.
• Papa Wolf: Both Burr and Hamilton sing about fighting to make a better world for their children in "Dear Theodosia."
• Parental Love Song: "Dear Theodosia." Burr and Hamilton both sing to their respective children about how they hope to make the world a better place for them to live in.
• Pass the Popcorn: King George sits on a chair after saying, "PRESIDENT John Adams, good luck" and starts watching the fireworks that emerge, even swaying to the music as Burr sings. He also helps pass out the Reynolds Pamphlet.
• Passing the Torch: Washington steps down, defying everyone's expectations, and lets John Adams sit in the Oval Office. King George didn't realize that this was something someone could do.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Burr and Hamilton during "Your Obedient Servant", remaining polite even while speaking to each other with thinly-veiled contempt. To paraphrase: 'You'll have to be more specific about which disagreement of ours you're referring to. Here, have an annotated list of everything we've fought about over thirty years. Pick one and get back to me. Your Obedient Servant...'
• Period Piece, Modern Language: The show forgoes any attempt at properly capturing the language at the time of its American Revolutionary War setting by using modern rap, hip hop, R&B, and pop musical and sentence structure for its songs and script. The only character who speaks in period-appropriate language is Samuel Seabury in "Farmer Refuted", who is immediately owned by Hamilton's more complex verses in their Counterpoint Duet.
• Plausible Deniability: Discussed in "Ten Duel Commandments" in regards to doctors that are onsite during illegal duels.
  You pay 'em in advance
  You treat 'em with civility
  You have 'em turn around so they can have deniability.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Hamilton comes off as obnoxious to just about everyone around him, but he makes up for it with his strong beliefs and determination to better the country. Burr, on the other hand, is far more lowkey and approachable even if that is due to his "Talk less, smile more" philosophy.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Jefferson and Burr, particularly Jefferson, are Hamilton's foes and they are extremely classist and xenophobic, constantly looking down on Hamilton for his past as a poor immigrant. (Although in another instance, Jefferson expresses support for poor American farmers, saying the banks are harming them.) Jefferson's slave ownership is also mentioned a few times.
• Polyamory: In "Helpless," Angelica jokes about how Eliza should share Hamilton with her.
• The Power of Language: A motif throughout, closely tied to the concept of stories and who tells them. Hamilton's superpower is writing, and the play chronicles how he uses his persuasive words to help and harm himself throughout his life. "Hurricane" discusses this:
  I wrote my way out of hell
  I wrote my way to revolution
  I was louder than the crack in the bell
  I wrote Eliza love letters until she fell
  I wrote about the Constitution and defended it well
  And in the face of ignorance and resistance
  I wrote financial systems into existence
  And when my prayers to God were met with indifference
  I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance
• Precision F-Strike: The show in general doesn't use much in the way of strong language, but it does have its moments, and oftentimes when it does... BOOM! The Disney+ film release censored all of the show's F-bomb usages in order to secure a PG-13 rating (the highest film rating Disney allowed on the service at the time), while retaining the Curse Cut Short variants.
  • Hercules Mulligan during his Badass Boast in "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)".
    "When you knock me down, I get the fuck back up again!"
  • An earlier version of "One Last Time" had Hamilton and Washington confronting the Whiskey Rebellion:
    Washington: You are outgunned!
    Hamilton: What!
    Washington: Outmanned!
    Hamilton: What!
    Washington: Outnumbered, out—
    Hamilton: Pay your fucking taxes!
  • While not an F-bomb, Hamilton's response in "Cabinet Battle #2" still applies because of his intensity.
    Hamilton: You must be outta your goddamn mind!
• Pull The Trigger Provocation: Burr is enjoined in a duel with Hamilton, but is hesitant to shoot at his former friend-turned-rival, and is strongly considering wasting his shot in the air, confident that Hamilton will do likewise. But then he sees Hamilton putting on his glasses. Convinced that the only reason Hamilton would don glasses is to improve his aim, and refusing to let his children be orphans, Burr shoots Hamilton, killing him.
• Pun: In "Alexander Hamilton":
  James Madison: Then a hurricane came, and devastation (reigned/rained).
• Punctuation Changes the Meaning: In the "Take a Break" number, Angelica notices that in Alexander's last letter to her, she was addressed as "My Dearest, Angelica" rather than simply "My Dearest Angelica".
• Put on a Bus: Lafayette returns to France at the end of Act One, only to suffer the French Revolution. Angelica also travels to and from London to see Hamilton and Eliza.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Hamilton publishing the Reynolds Pamphlet clears his name of corruption charges, which saves him from jail time and blackmail, but ruins his marriage and later leads to his son's death.
• Quarreling Song:
  • "Farmer Refuted", in which Hamilton takes down Samuel Seabury.
  • The two Cabinet Battles, which are Hamilton and Jefferson's cabinet debates in rap battle form.
  • "Your Obedient Servant," which leads up to Burr and Hamilton's climactic duel with Passive-Aggressive Kombat.
• Race Lift: Invoked. The only white actor in a major role is King George. The other main characters are meant to be played by non-white actors (unlike their historical counterparts, who were white^note Hamilton himself was speculated to have African-American ancestry, however), while King George's casting call specifically called for a Caucasian male.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: According to "Guns and Ships," the Continental Army is a "ragtag volunteer army in need of a shower."
• "Rashomon"-Style: The creative team effectively utilizes this with Eliza and Angelica's respective back-to-back solos "Helpless" and "Satisfied." First, Eliza describes meeting Alexander and their entire courtship leading up to their wedding. As Eliza's sister Angelica provides a wedding toast, the stage "rewinds" and we witness the same time period from Angelica's point of view, giving new insight to nearly every moment in Eliza's song.
• Realpolitik: "The Room Where it Happens" is an ode to political scheming and backroom deals. And Burr wants in on it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Jefferson gives one to Hamilton during "Cabinet Battle #2", calling him a disloyal, amoral, power-grabbing, Nouveau Riche Social Climber who is nothing without Washington's support. Hamilton isn't at all fazed.
  • Hamilton gives just as good in the first debate, where he calls Jefferson a Hypocrite who wrote the Declaration of Independence while enjoying the profits of slave labor and living it up in France when others were fighting the war.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • The passionate, intelligent, fiery Angelica (red), and her sister, the demure, ladylike, kindhearted Eliza (blue).
  • The hotheaded, fast-talking, war-loving Hamilton (red), and the pragmatic, slow to anger, fence-sitting Burr (blue).
  • The somewhat insane, controlling, hammy King George III (red), and the calm, collected, Reasonable Authority Figure George Washington (blue).
  • The flashy, sarcastic, Smug Snake Jefferson (red), and the quiet, analytical, low-key Madison (blue).
• Rejected Apology: Inverted; it's discussed that if two parties disagree and one apologizes, then there is no need for a duel to settle honor. The three big duels that happen in the play occur because one party refuses to apologize, even when, as Hamilton admits to Burr about his complaints, the other has a legitimate grievance.
• Reprise Medley: "Non-Stop" reprises "Satisfied", "History Has Its Eyes On You", "Wait For It", and "That Would Be Enough", which is itself an altered reprise of a line from "The Schuyler Sisters". At one point, the characters converse entirely in borrowed lines and riffs: Hamilton borrows Eliza's line from "The Schuyler Sisters", and she replies with the titular line from "Helpless" and the line from "That Would Be Enough", and then Angelica voices her agreement with a line from "Satisfied".
• Restrained Resistance, Reckless Rebellion: While Alexander Hamilton and his associates are all for going out and kicking British ass, Aaron Burr advocates a slower, calmer, more thought-out approach, something the other revolutionaries want nothing to do with. This is representative of Burr's character throughout the play.
• The Reveal: "Alexander Hamilton" is introduced by a man asking how a "bastard orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman" can grow up and become a national hero, followed by the same man narrating Hamilton's early life with help from the rest of the cast. After Hamilton has introduced himself to the audience, the cast reveal their relationships with him, culminating with the narrator revealing his identity and Hamilton's ultimate fate in a single line:
  Aaron Burr: And me? I'm the damn fool that shot him!
• Rhyming with Itself: "Philip, you would like it uptown / It's quiet uptown..."
• Rule of Three:
  • A tragic one with "sept" or "seven"; when Philip Hamilton is singing in French with his mother, he changes the melody on "sept, huit, neuf". He gets shot by George Eacker on seven paces, not ten, and later dies while his mother sings the scales to him when they both sing "sept".
  • There are also three duels throughout the show: the first is between Charles Lee and John Laurens with John as victor (though Lee survives), a second between Phillip Hamilton and George Eacker (in which Phillip dies), and the third and final is also the last scene in the show: the famous duel between Hamilton and Burr that Hamilton does not survive.
  • King George makes three appearances.
• Running Gag: The many rhymes used alongside the phrase "Burr, sir."

S-Y

• Sanity Slippage Song:
  • "The World Was Wide Enough" by both Burr and Hamilton shows them losing their grip on reality due to despair and anger. This is not surprising, since it's the song where Burr shoots Hamilton.
  • "You'll Be Back" also counts, with the song's lyrics implying that King George is mentally unstable.
• Say My Name: "Aaron Burr, Sir" repeatedly, Alexander Hamilton and Lafayette in "Guns and Ships", and Hercules Mulligan in "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)".
• The Scottish Trope: After telling Angelica in a letter that he won't name a certain Scottish tragedy, he comes out and uses the word "Macbeth" anyway^note In reference to the character, not the play title — and from that point on, Hamilton begins his downward slide, losing his reputation, his influence and position, the trust of his wife, his son, his friendship with Burr, and eventually his life in a duel.
• Settle for Sibling: There are some suggestions Hamilton believes he's done this in choosing Eliza over Angelica due to Angelica stepping aside, such as describing her as his "dearest". However, he later comes to realize that Eliza is the "best" wife.
• Shipper on Deck: Burr attends Hamilton's wedding and congratulates him for marrying Eliza. When Alexander hears that Burr is dating the wife of a British officer, he sincerely tells the man, in turn, to "go get her" and he wants to meet Theodosia some day.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • Lafayette, Laurens, and Mulligan, who are responsible for many lighthearted moments in the show, are all gone by the end of Act I, right before Hamilton's life snowballs into a shitshow. Their actors are double-cast as Jefferson, Philip Hamilton and Madison respectively.
  • King George appears sporadically through the musical providing humorous/cynical commentary on events through reprises of his song. But his last appearance is in "The Reynolds Pamphlet" where he has no lines but is one of the politicians dancing and taunting Hamilton for blowing his chance at becoming president due to his affair. The rest of the musical is much more somber, as it covers the death of Hamilton's son Phillip and the events leading up to the famous duel and Hamilton's own death, and as a result, an appearance from George would have been inappropriate in tone.
• Shout-Out: Contains enough to fill a page, but the highlights include:
  • Obviously, the musical contains references to many hip-hop songs.
  • In terms of theatrical intertextuality, the musical contains nods to The Last Five Years, The Pirates of Penzance, South Pacific, and, naturally, 1776, as well as a Scottish tragedy that Hamilton would rather not name.
  • The show also includes numerous shout-outs to The West Wing, including Lin-Manuel Miranda tending to put on his coat Martin Sheen-style while performing as Hamilton.
  • Washington's goodbye song, "One Last Time", states that the ill Founding Father is going to Heaven and wishes him well. First, Washington himself ponders about wanting to "sit under [his] own vine and fig tree", which is a biblical metaphor for Heaven. Then, the whole ensemble sings that "George Washington is going home". This idea was taken from The Apotheosis of Washington.
• Shown Their Work: Two of the lines from "The Reynolds Pamphlet", "My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife" and "I had frequent meetings with her, most of them in my own house", are lifted verbatim from the real life document. A third, "the charge against me is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper (pecuniary) speculation", is only missing the one parenthetical word.
• Showstopper: During the cast's 2016 Grammys performance, they deliberately added in several extra lines of silence after Lin-Manuel Miranda first sings the line "Alexander Hamilton" to account for the applause, but the applause was so strong that the next line ("My name is Alexander Hamilton") was still drowned out anyway. Compare this to the first performance of the song, back in 2009 at the White House, where the same line also created a strong response from the audience — but of confused laughter. How things changed.
• Sibling Triangle: The sisters Angelica and Eliza are both in love with Hamilton. Angelica, who values her little sister's happiness above all else, steps aside so she can marry Hamilton and be happy. Despite this, her relationship with Hamilton still has romantic undertones.
• Significant Double Casting: Lafayette/Jefferson, Mulligan/Madison, Laurens/Philip, and Peggy/Maria are all done to make the ending of "Alexander Hamilton" work with both roles: Lafayette/Mulligan and Jefferson/Madison both fought with him (in both senses of the phrase - alongside and against), Laurens and Phillip both died for him (Laurens defending emancipation, a passion both men shared, and Philip defending his father's honor), and Peggy and Maria Reynolds both loved him (Peggy as a sister-in-law, and Maria as a way to help her husband blackmail Hamilton, although it's unclear if Maria had actual feelings for Hamilton or not).
• Silence of Sadness: The titular character is typically a Motor Mouth who never shuts up, but after his son's death, he changes completely, his grief song a very slow work entitled "It's Quiet Uptown".
  I spend hours in the garden
  I walk alone to the store
  And it's quiet uptown
  I never liked the quiet before
• Silly Love Songs:
  • "Helpless" is a cheery, upbeat number about Eliza and Alexander meeting and falling in love, told from her perspective.
  • "Satisfied" is Angelica's Love Hurts song. Played with, as sisterly love wins out over romantic love.
• Sleep Deprivation: Implied while Hamilton was writing the Federalist Papers. Outright admitted to in "Say No to This".
  Hamilton: I hadn't slept in a week, I was weak, I was awake...
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Relative to the other characters at least; Act One has Hercules Mulligan; Act Two has Philip.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Jefferson would like everyone to know it's all about him, even when it comes down to compromising his goals for realpolitik. The nicest thing he says in the aftermath of Hamilton's death is that his financial system was genius... and Jefferson smugly states he tried to remove it anyway.
• Smug Snake:
  • King George is characterized as an abusive boyfriend to the United States. He initially takes the tone of a scolding parent at the colonies' rebellion, characterizing the American Revolution as a child's tantrum with no credible chance at success. He gets a second number after the Revolution succeeds, this time characterizing the American leadership as wholly unprepared for actually ruling their new nation, and that he'll be ready to take them back once they inevitably fail.
  • Jefferson oh so much, especially in "The Reynolds Pamphlet" and after becoming president.
• Sophisticated as Hell: The entire musical, as a result of mixing late 18th/early 19th century speech patterns with modern hip-hop vernacular.
  • The song "Non-Stop" contains both the lines "Corruption's such an old song that we can sing along in harmony" and "Yo, who the eff is this?".
    Hamilton: Hang on, how many men died because Lee was inexperienced and ruinous?
    Burr: Okay, so we're doin' this.
  • One of the best examples unfortunately didn't make it into the finished product: a cut rap that would have appeared in "The Adams Administration" rhymed the phrase "vast international intrigue" with "Bitch, please!"
• Spelling for Emphasis: During the song about how great Hamilton is, his friends sing, "A-L-E-X-A-N-D/E-R, we are meant to be!"
• Sorry That I'm Dying: A delirious Philip apologizes to his mother and father that he got shot and that he forgot what his mother taught him.
• Stealth Insult:
  • Broken-hearted by his admission of his affair with Maria Reynolds, Eliza burns the letters he wrote her, saying at the end, "I hope you burn!" For someone like Eliza, that's as close as she will actually say to "You can go to Hell!"
  • As Hamilton is sending off his itemized list of thirty years of grievances, the final ensemble cast member ballet-dances the last two pages over, then pulls back the last page until the music catches up, as if to say "you're not worth much of my time."
• Stealth Pun: Miranda has said in interviews that he wanted King George's numbers to mimic the music popularized during The British Invasion. Come to think of it, a British invasion of the Colonies is exactly what King George wants.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: In "Non-Stop", Angelica's verse sets up the rhymes "pays", "days", and "phrase". The last line, however, doesn't follow this rhyming convention, representing how Angelica can't express her true feelings for Alexander.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • In "Guns and Ships".
    He's constantly confusing, confounding the British henchmen:
    EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR AMERICA'S FAVORITE FIGHTING FRENCHMAN!
  • One section of “Right Hand Man” might also qualify:
    This close to givin’ up
    Facin’ mad scrutiny
    I scream in the face OF THIS MASS MUTINY!
• Sung-Through Musical: In this case, a sung- and rapped-through musical, save for a brief portion of dialogue not included on the cast album, listed in the Playbill as "Tomorrow There'll Be More of Us", the sequence in which Eliza reveals to Hamilton that Laurens had died.
• Survivor Guilt:
  • In "Hurricane", Hamilton expresses this with regard to surviving both the hurricane that destroyed his town and the illness that killed his mother, bitterly remarking that he "couldn't seem to die".
  • In "It's Quiet Uptown", Hamilton expresses this with regard to his son Philip, who died young in a duel over his father's honor.
  • Burr laments in "The World Was Wide Enough" that Hamilton didn't have to die and killing him was the worst mistake of his life.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Maria Reynolds says she doesn't "know about any letter" - before Hamilton mentions he received one. It's not made explicit, but it tips the scales in favor of her knowing something about her husband's plans.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Madison cries onstage after Hamilton's son Philip dies after a duel.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Hamilton sings an entire song in the time it takes for the bullet to travel from Burr's gun.
• Tempting Fate: Hamilton laughs when Washington tells him that Jefferson resigned to run for president since no one can beat Washington in the campaign. Washington tells him, "I'm stepping down, I'm not running for President."
• Ten Paces and Turn: Three times! It is part of the three formal duels, and each time accompanied by a whole-song Shout-Out to The Notorious B.I.G..
• This Is Gonna Suck: Burr has a dismayed reaction when Washington shows up after Burr, Hamilton, Lee and Laurens are all involved in a duel (which Washington explicitly stated he didn't want to happen). All in all, Burr gets off easy, as does Laurens. (Lee got shot in the side, but he survived, which is getting off easy in a duel.) Hamilton? Not so much.
• The Theme Park Version: Hamilton has been criticized in more than a few quarters for trafficking in Founders' Chic"; merely repackaging familiar stereotypes about the founders (George Washington the Humble Hero^note He was considerably ambitious personally and well aware of how famous he was but it was mainly decorum at the time that compelled him to put on a humble personality and airs of non-partisanship when he was in fact a major wheeler-dealer property owner, Thomas Jefferson the Hypocrite^note Which is accurate but it's an accusation that few held against him at the time, and one which many others of his era were equally guilty of, Aaron Burr, an usurping and ambitious man without loyalty^note A portrayal that owes itself to slander printed against Burr by Hamilton and Jefferson, eliminating the fact that he played a key role in abolishing slavery in New York State, was the most pro-women's rights among the founders and founded a bank to help the immigrant and new settler cheap loans to get a start) that was criticized by historians Nancy Isenberg, Sean Willentz among others. Most notably, the show cultivates sympathy for its protagonist, Alexander Hamilton, by arguing that he was an abolitionist based on highly selective interpretation of loose facts, and prominently ignoring parts of history that belie that claim.
• The Three Faces of Adam: Hamilton is The Hunter, Burr is The Lord, and Washington is The Prophet.
• The Three Faces of Eve: Eliza is The Wife, Angelica is The Seductress, and Peggy is The Child.
• Threesome Subtext: Two of the Schuyler sisters are in love with Alexander, and while he ultimately chooses Eliza, his relationship with Angelica still has romantic undertones.
  Eliza: Laughing at my sister, 'cause she wants to form a harem.
  Angelica: I'm just saying, if you really loved me, you would share him.
• Tick Tock Tune: In "Ten Duel Commandments", where the count to ten is accompanied by the sound of a clock. The tune can be heard when Burr and Hamilton speak near the end of the song. The same ticking can be heard in "The World Was Wide Enough", since it's a Dark Reprise.
• Together in Death: In the moments before he's shot, Hamilton sees his lost loved ones "on the other side," then an image of Eliza, whom he promises he'll see again when the times comes. It's mutual, as her last line in the musical expresses a desire for the same thing. And sure enough, he's right there waiting for her.
• Tragic Bromance: That of Hamilton and Laurens. Laurens was Hamilton's closest friend, and his death in a meaningless post-war skirmish motivates Hamilton to work to the near-superhuman levels he's shown to do in "Non-Stop." Some historians actually believe that Hamilton and Laurens may have had a bit of a relationship, given some of their writings to each other.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • How Hamilton's life started. He's the "bastard son of a whore" and a Scotsman; his father abandons him, and a few years later his mother dies of sickness; when he's sent to live with the relative, the latter is Driven to Suicide. This makes Hamilton very driven to succeed, to not die in poverty as his mother did, and to be a better father to his children.
  • Poor Eliza by the end of the musical. First her husband publishes "the Reynolds pamphlet" which lays out in detail an affair he had with another married woman. Then her son dies in a Duel to the Death because of the advice her husband gave the former and then Hamilton also dies in a duel, without telling her about the "meeting" he had with Burr. Despite all this, she carries on Hamilton's legacy, saving many orphans like him, and making sure the world doesn't forget him.
• True Companions: Although they're separated by war, Hamilton, Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan remain great friends throughout the first act, particularly Hamilton and Laurens.
• Uncommon Time: "Meet Me Inside" is in 7/8 time up to when Washington commands Hamilton to meet him inside, which according to Lin is "[his] secret love letter to Andrew Lloyd Webber".
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The musical is very historically accurate and contains many surprising details about the characters that are actually true if you look them up, but enough artistic license is still taken throughout for pacing and story reasons that you wouldn't cite it in a history paper.
• Vice President Who?: Hamilton would like to remind Eliza that John Adams doesn't have a real job, anyway.
• Villain Has a Point: King George III predicts that America is going to have difficulty adjusting to independence, pointing out that running a country is not easy (presumably speaking from personal experience), especially when said country is trying to do something entirely new. Indeed, the struggles the Founders have with running their own country are difficult and unpleasant, and the various issues they face are a running theme throughout the second act.
  King George: It's much harder when it's all your call.
• Villain Song:
  • King George gets "You'll Be Back", in which he says to the colonies that he'll win the Revolution even if he has to kill many people to get them back.
  • In "Wait For It", Burr compares Hamilton to unstoppable forces such as love and death and it shows Burr's barely suppressed envy of Hamilton.
  • "What'd I Miss?" introduces Jefferson and Madison and sets them up as the political enemies of Hamilton.
  • Ironically, "The Room Where It Happens" counts as this for Hamilton, due to being from Burr's perspective and featuring the skulduggery necessary to get Hamilton's ambitious debt plan through Congress.
  • "Washington On Your Side" has the Southern motherfuckin' Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson, Madison, and Burr) envying Washington's favoritism with Hamilton and plotting to destroy Hamilton's reputation and career.
  • "The Adams Administration", though short, is mostly about the Southern Democratic-Republicans gloating that now that Adams is president, Hamilton has lost his political power for the time being.
  • "The Reynolds Pamphlet" has Hamilton's enemies gloating that his career and presidential hopes have been ruined by his own pamphlet, though it's also a massive "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Angelica and America as a whole to Hamilton for his infidelity. Even King George returns to help pass out the pamphlet.
• Villainous Lament: Certainly the end of "The World Was Wide Enough."
  Burr: I was too young and blind to see [...] the world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me.
• Visual Pun: Early in "Say No to This", Maria Reynolds briefly checks out and leans against a lamppost, heavily implying that she already knew she was being prostituted by her husband the whole time.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Burr and Hamilton, despite their extreme differences, do genuinely consider themselves friends for most of the show, and are relatively friendly (if sarcastic) towards each other for the most part. It makes what ultimately happens all the more tragic.
• Voice of the Legion: Used in the songs "The Adams Administration" and "The Reynolds Pamphlet" to represent the public in the face of Hamilton's audacity, voiced by the Lin-Man himself.
• Voiceover Letter: "One Last Time" - Hamilton writing the Farewell Address and Washington almost in parallel delivering it.
• Wait, What?: Combined with Flat "What", Hamilton's response to Washington saying he's stepping down and not running for reelection.
• War Is Glorious: Hamilton really wants a command during the Revolutionary War so he can rack up heroic deeds and build a legacy worth protecting. He is not throwing away his shot at being a war hero.
• War Is Hell: Washington believes the war is a tragic affair from start to finish, especially when you mess up as a general. You don't know who is going to die, but you know it is going to be your fault. Especially if you send some expectant father to the field, knowing that you might have just condemned a child to growing up without knowing him.
• Wartime Wedding: Alexander and Eliza's, right in the thick of the revolution after a brief courtship. Not that this was unusual for this time period, of course. He spends the early days of it in the field.
• We Used to Be Friends: Hamilton and Burr, though their friendship was troubled from the beginning. Hamilton expressly calls him "my first friend".
  • Lampshaded in "Schuyler Defeated":
    Hamilton: I've always considered you a friend.
    Burr: I don't see why that has to end.
    Hamilton: You changed parties to run against my father-in-law!
• Welcoming Song:
  • The first number, "Alexander Hamilton," where the company welcomes the titular character to America.
  • "What'd I Miss" has the company and most of the characters welcoming Jefferson back from his time in France.
• Wham Line:
  • At the end of Act One, Alexander is watching his newborn son and tells Eliza the letter in her hand is from John Laurens and he'll read it later. She says, "No, it's from his father." Alexander stops smiling and asks her to read it. Mr. Laurens writes that John was killed in a post-war skirmish with the first all-black battalion, made of former slaves. The survivors were returned to their owners, killing John's dream with him. A distraught Alexander says he has so much work to do, so that John's death isn't in vain.
  • In-universe: "Jefferson has my vote!" Especially wham-y since Hamilton rather openly despises Jefferson and is friends with Burr (sort of), and perhaps not so much a "wham" for the audience, if only because most people know Aaron Burr was never president.
  • From James Reynolds to Hamilton: "See, that was my wife you decided to-" "FUUU-"
  • A wham sound during Philip's duel: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven—" BOOM!
  • Burr provides a line in "The World Was Wide Enough" which shifts the audience's perspective on his duel with Hamilton: "This man will not make an orphan of my daughter."
  • Another in-universe, courtesy of George Washington: "I'm not running for President."
  • When Angelica returns during “The Reynolds Pamphlet”, Alexander assumes she has come to help and support him. To this, she bluntly responds “I’m not here for you” and proceeds to chew him out.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: In keeping with the Love at First Sight tropes mentioned above, both Schuyler sisters are struck by Hamilton's piercing eyes. (In real life, Hamilton seems to have particularly striking eyes, described as light blue or even violet. Of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda's own eyes are nothing to sneeze at.)
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of Laurens and Lafayette are mentioned in the story, but Hercules Mulligan just disappears after Act I. And then there is Peggy in Act 2, where she gets treated with Chuck Cunningham Syndrome (with her death being cut from the musical entirely, despite it coinciding around Phillip's death).
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Washington chews out Hamilton for allowing infighting to happen during the war, right when Washington ordered him not to respond to taunts that Lee made against the General. Hamilton's response that Lee should have been shot in the mouth is clearly Not Helping Your Case.
  • The workshop version of Act Two has everyone calling out Hamilton for his flaws and impulsive behavior. Eliza tells him to stop picking fights with everyone and to "let it go"; Burr tells Hamilton to focus on treating Eliza well rather than settling grudges, and Angelica has a whole song calling him several different "kinds of stupid".
  • After Hamilton candidly admits his infidelity in the Reynolds Pamphlet, he knows his political career will never recover. Angelica's arrival in New York seems like an opportunity for some sympathy, but she delivers a stinging rebuke instead—she's not there to soothe Alex, she's there to comfort her devastated younger sister, whom Hamilton has just publicly humiliated.
    Angelica: I love my sister more than anything in this life
    I will choose her happiness over mine, every time
    Put what we had aside
    I'm standing at her side
    You could never be satisfied
    God, I hope you're satisfied
  • Eliza herself has a whole song, "Burn", where she calls Hamilton out (albeit in absence) for not only humiliating her but straight up breaking her heart. She burns their correspondence, including the letters he wrote when courting her, and declares "You forfeit all rights to my heart/You forfeit the place in our bed/You'll sleep in your office instead," effectively ending their relationship and cutting him out of her life.
  • Jefferson during "Cabinet Battle #2", when Hamilton convinces Washington to keep America neutral and not aid France in their war with England: "Did you forget Lafayette?"
  • Aaron Burr irritates Alexander Hamilton in "The Election of 1800", when Hamilton observes that Burr's open campaigning is novel, Burr says, "I'm chasing what I wanted. You know what? I learned that from you." In real life Hamilton's endorsement of Jefferson happened for different reasons, but in the musical, that jibe from Burr is directly related to Hamilton's endorsement, which happens immediately after in the song.
  • While the conversation is incorporated into "The Reynolds Pamphlet," the Cut Song "Congratulations" consists of Angelica calling Hamilton out on his "stupid" actions of publishing his affair.
  • Also Jefferson in "We Know". Although he came to Hamilton in hopes of unveiling Hamilton's "crimes", he was still shocked to find out about what Hamilton had actually done, i.e. his affair with Maria Reynolds.
  Hamilton: She courted me
  Escorted me to bed and when she had me in a corner
  That's when Reynolds extorted me
  For a sordid fee [...]
  I have not committed treason and sullied my good name
  As you can see I have done nothing to provoke legal action
  Are my answers to your satisfaction?
  Jefferson: My god...
• What You Are in the Dark: Discussed by Burr in "The Room Where It Happens" as from his perspective he witnessed Hamilton sell America's soul to Jefferson for financial power.
  Chorus: We dream of a brand new start,
  Burr: But we dream in the dark for the most part.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story," where the other characters recount what happened to them after Hamilton's death.
• White-and-Grey Morality: No one's completely bad in this story (except for maybe King George III, and historically, he was more crazy than anything). The antagonists sincerely believe they're doing the right thing. Even Aaron Burr, who ends up killing the title character, is portrayed as being a conflicted, complicated man, but ultimately a good one who genuinely regrets what he did. Everyone's just doing the best they can under the circumstances, with mixed results.
• Windbag Politician: Hamilton develops into this and the play repeatedly mock him for it. Arguably, Hamilton's sheer inability to shut up eventually causes his downfall.
  Burr: [Hamilton] talks for six hours! The convention is listless!
• Women Are Wiser: In the workshop version of "Schuyler Defeated," Burr explicitly praises Eliza for being this when she refuses to let Hamilton get in a fight with him. She asks about his wife and daughter, and he appreciates the sentiment. Eliza tells Hamilton, who is offended about the slight to Philip Schuyler Senior, that it's not worth getting into a fight over honor.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: King George predicts this will happen to the United States, and it's the goal of the rest of the characters to prevent this from happening. Of course, they succeed.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: At the end of Act I:
  Washington: I'm asking you to be my right-hand man.
  Hamilton: Treasury or state?
  Washington: I know it's a lot to ask—
  Hamilton: Treasury or state?
  Washington: To leave behind the world you know—
  Hamilton: Sir, do you want me to run the treasury or the state department?
  Washington: ...Treasury.
  Hamilton: [gleefully] Let's go.
• Workaholic: Alexander becomes this after he learns about John Laurens' death.
  "I have so much work to do."
• Worthy Opponent:
  • King George III apparently has a great enough respect for George Washington to believe that no one else could lead the young United States as effectively as he did, least of all John Adams ("I Know Him").
  • Downplayed, but Hamilton begs Washington for command for a greater part of the Revolution. When Charles Lee basically bails on the army during the Battle of Monmouth, Washington calls for Hamilton, who seems ready to finally take command of the troops, only for Washington to tell him to put Lafayette in charge. Hamilton is disappointed, but his later remarks and attitude by the time of Yorktown imply he at least had no problem with his whip-sharp friend taking command over him.
  • Jefferson is impressed with Hamilton's rapping during the first cabinet battle and even claps a little in a "alright, you got me there" way during their debate. Later when Hamilton effectively destroys the Federalist Party by slamming new president John Adams after he is fired, Madison is gleeful that Hamilton is apparently cooked, but Jefferson refutes him, saying that Hamilton is a threat as long as he can hold a pen.
  • At the end of the play, Hamilton's opponents all admit that he was a genius who did a lot of good for the country.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Maria Reynolds pulls one on Hamilton by asking for help with her abusive husband; they subsequently have an affair over which her husband blackmails Hamilton. Hamilton accuses Maria of baiting him after receiving the Blackmail letter.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: In "The Room Where It Happens", Madison and Jefferson are so focused on winning 'a victory for the Southerners' that they completely miss the importance of what they're trading for it. Burr and Hamilton, on the other hand, know exactly what's going on. ^note Later in life, Jefferson did figure it out - he regarded the Compromise of 1790 as one of his greatest political failures.
• X Meets Y: Invoked in the show's casting calls. Each character is described as "X meets Y", X being a rapper or pop star and Y being a Broadway role. For instance, Alexander Hamilton is "Eminem meets Sweeney Todd".
• Yandere: King George is a little ... forceful about winning back the colonies' loyalty.
  When you're gone, I'll go mad
  So don't throw away this thing we had
  'Cause when push comes to shove
  I will kill your friends and family to remind you of my love!
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Laurens eventually assembles the first all-black battalion composed of former slaves, as he promised to do in "My Shot"... and then in a post-war skirmish he's wiped out with most of his soldiers, and the survivors are returned to their owners. And the play ends well before the eradication of slavery in America.
• You Are Fat: In "The Adams Administration," Alexander Hamilton insults John Adams with "Sit down, John, you fat mother[bleep]."
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: After the first Cabinet Battle:
  Hamilton: I'm sorry, these Virginians are birds of a feather!
  Washington: Young man, I'm from Virginia, so watch your mouth.
• You Fool!:
  • Angelica tells Hamilton this in her invoked Cut Song after he writes the Reynolds pamphlet. She even compares him to his rival, Thomas Jefferson, and makes a they're "Not So Different" Remark.
    • Worse than that, she says that Jefferson is better than Hamilton, because at least Jefferson has the common sense to keep his mouth shut.
  • Eliza in "Burn". She talks about the Reynolds Pamphlet, saying that Hamilton's words "border on senseless" and that he is "paranoid in every paragraph." Basically, she's saying that he betrayed her, then publicly shamed and humiliated her in order to save his political reputation, and didn't even submit his best writing in doing so.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Burr's reaction in "Your Obedient Servant," when Hamilton's response to Burr angrily confronting him over Hamilton destroying his bid for president is to say that Burr isn't being specific enough about what exactly Hamilton's done that he's pissed off about, and proceeds to send him an itemized list of every single disagreement that they've had over the past thirty years.
  Burr: Sweet Jesus.
• You're Not My Father: Washington repeatedly calls Hamilton "son" while admonishing him for his role in the duel between Laurens and Lee and trying to explain why he's not giving him an independent command. Hamilton interrupts twice with "I'm not your son", and when Washington says it a third time, he finally shouts, "CALL ME 'SON' ONE MORE TIME—!"
• You Taught Me That: Early in the play, Hamilton repeatedly criticizes Burr for his passivity and equivocation. Once Burr becomes more proactive (though no less equivocating), we get this exchange from "The Election of 1800":
  Hamilton: Burr, is there anything you wouldn't do?
  Burr: No. I'm going after what I want, and you know what?
  Hamilton: What?
  Burr: I learned that from you.

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"I am NOT throwin' away my shot!"