King George Character Analysis

King George III, who ruled over the British Empire during and after the time of the American Revolution, is rendered in Hamilton as a spoiled, petulant brat. Throughout the musical, King George makes several brief cameo appearances, in which he treats the American colonies as a difficult lover. At first, as the war begins, he insists that “oceans rise, empires fall / we have seen each other through it all” (“You’ll Be Back”); later, after the Americans have won, he taunts them that they will never be able to form a real government (“What Comes Next?”). King George is largely a comic character, and his music, cheekily inspired by the “British [Musical] Invasion” of the 1960s, sounds poppy and retro.