In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton, death and ambition are intimately intertwined. Midway through the song “My Shot,” in which Alexander Hamilton raps about his big dreams and boundless ambition, he is struck by a darker thought: “I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.” And early on in the show, Hamilton sees war and the opportunity to die as a martyr for the new United States as a sure way to cement his legacy. Only George Washington, chastising him that “dying is easy, young man / living is harder,” can make him change his mind. Later, in the song “Non-Stop,” Hamilton’s arch-nemesis Aaron Burr asks him, “why do you write like you’re running out of time?” Even the symbol of a gunshot, which recurs throughout the show, illustrates this thematic link between ambition and a fear of death: a shot represents both Hamilton’s drive (“I am not throwing away my shot”) and the thing that ultimately kills him, as he is shot to death in a duel with Burr.
Tellingly, in the book that Miranda cowrote about Hamilton, he explains exactly why his protagonist’s work ethic stems from his sense of mortality—and reveals that he shares the same trait. “The ticking clock is loud in both our ears,” Miranda writes, “and it sets us to work.” Ultimately, then, Hamilton shows that a knowledge of life’s limits, while scary, can also motivate people to create powerful governments or amazing works of art. And when these institutions or art pieces are built to last, they can outlive their creators—allowing their creators to become, in a sense, immortal. [JEK1]
Related Themes from Other Texts
Ambition and Mortality ThemeTracker
Ambition and Mortality Quotes in Hamilton
BURR: There would have been nothing left to do for someone less astute,
He woulda been dead or destitute,
Without a cent of restitution,
Started workin’—clerkin’ for his late mother’s landlord,
Tradin’ sugar cane and rum and all the things he can’t afford
Scammin’ for every book he can get his hands on
Plannin’ for the future see him now as he stands on
The bow of a ship heading for a new land.
In New York you can be a new man.
BURR: Talk less.
HAMILTON: What?
BURR: Smile more.
HAMILTON: Ha.
BURR: Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.
HAMILTON: You can’t be serious.
BURR: You wanna get ahead?
HAMILTON: Yes.
BURR: Fools who run their mouths oft wind up dead.
HAMILTON: I am not throwing away my shot!
I am not throwing away my shot!
Hey yo, I’m just like my country,
I’m young, scrappy and hungry,
And I’m not throwing away my shot!
HAMILTON: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory
When’s it gonna get me?
In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?
If I see it comin’ do I run or do I let it be?
Is it like a beat without a melody?
See, I never thought I’d live past twenty
Where I come from some get half as many.
Ask anybody why we livin’ fast and we
Laugh, reach for a flask,
We have to make this moment last, that’s plenty.
ANGELICA: To the groom!
To the bride!
From your sister.
Who is always by your side.
To your union.
And the hope you provide.
May you always
Be satisfied.
And I know
She’ll be happy as his bride.
And I know
He will never be satisfied.
I will never be satisfied.
BURR: Death doesn’t discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints,
It takes, and it takes, and it takes
And we keep living anyway.
We rise and we fall
And we break,
And we make our mistakes.
And if there’s a reason I’m still alive
When ev’ryone who loves me has died
I’m willing to wait for it.
I’m willing to wait for it.
BURR: My father wasn’t around
HAMILTON: I swear that
BURR, HAMILTON: I’ll be around for you.
HAMILTON: I’ll do whatever it takes.
BURR: I’ll make a million mistakes.
BURR, HAMILTON: I’ll make the world safe and sound for you…
Will come of age with our young nation
We’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you.
If we lay a strong enough foundation
We’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you, and you’ll blow us all away….
Someday, someday
BURR: The Constitution’s a mess.
HAMILTON: So it needs amendments.
BURR: It’s full of contradictions.
HAMILTON: So is independence.
We have to start somewhere.
BURR: No. No way.
HAMILTON: You’re making a mistake.
BURR: Goodnight.
HAMILTON: Hey.
What are you waiting for?
What do you stall for?
BURR: What?
HAMILTON: We won the war.
What was it all for?
Do you support the Constitution?
BURR: Of course.
HAMILTON: Then defend it.
BURR: And what if you’re backing the wrong horse?
HAMILTON: Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I have committed many errors. I shall also carry with me
HAMILTON, WASHINGTON: The hope that my country will view them with indulgence
And that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be.
HAMILTON: 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.
ANGELICA: They are standing in the garden,
Alexander by Eliza’s side.
She takes his hand […]
ELIZA: It’s quiet uptown.
Hamilton shatters.
COMPANY: Forgiveness. Can you imagine?
Forgiveness. Can you imagine?
If you see him in the streets, walking by her side, talking by her side, have pity.
They are going through the unimaginable.
HAMILTON: If I throw away my shot, is this how you remember me?
What if this bullet is my legacy?
Legacy. What is a legacy?
It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.
I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me.
America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me.
You let me make a difference.
A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up.
I’m running out of time, I’m running and my time’s up. Wise up. Eyes up.
ELIZA: I see you every time
And when my time is up?
Will they tell my story?
Oh, I can’t wait to see you again.
It’s only a matter of—
ELIZA, COMPANY: Time.
COMPANY: Will they tell your story?
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
Will they tell your story?
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
