As important generals and politicians during the years of the American Revolution, the main characters in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton are aware that their actions will be judged by the annals of history—indeed, George Washington sings an entire song called “History Has Its Eyes on You.” But even though the most dramatic battles and duels have been written about to no end, the musical still makes clear the gap between lived experience and the way it is recorded, examining how personal stories become the history that people read about in textbooks. Eliza begs her husband to “let me be a part of the narrative, of the stories they will write someday,” suggesting the persuasion and calculation that goes into creating even seemingly straightforward historical “narrative.” And in his climactic duel with Hamilton, Aaron Burr instructs the audience that “they won’t teach you this in your classes / but look it up, Hamilton was wearing his glasses / why, if not to take deadly aim?” In other words, Burr is trying to justify himself by highlighting different facts, changing the simplified lens history “classes” traditionally use.
In particular, the question of perspective is essential to the show. Burr, despite being the show’s narrator, spends the whole musical gradually realizing that he will be made the “villain in your history.” Even more directly, the final line of the show is about how stories get warped depending on who tells them: “who lives, who dies, who tells your story,” the characters sing in unison. In a way, then, Hamilton contradicts itself—it presents a thrilling history of America’s founding even as it reminds audiences that such a narrative is only one of many.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Stories vs. History ThemeTracker
Stories vs. History Quotes in Hamilton
LAURENS: Raise a glass to the four of us.
HAMILTON, LAURENS, MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Tomorrow there’ll be more of us.
HAMILTON, LAURENS: Telling the story of tonight.
MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE: Let’s have another round tonight.
ANGELICA: I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
So men say that I’m intense or I’m insane.
You want a revolution? I wanna revelation
So listen to my declaration:
ELIZA, ANGELICA, PEGGY: “We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men are created equal.”
ANGELICA: And when I meet Thomas Jefferson […]
I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel!
WOMEN: Work!
WASHINGTON: It’s alright, you wanna fight, you’ve got a hunger.
I was just like you when I was younger.
Head full of fantasies of dyin’ like a martyr?
HAMILTON: Yes.
WASHINGTON: Dyin’ is easy, young man.
Living is harder.
HAMILTON: I’ve been livin’ without a family since I was a child.
My father left, my mother died, I grew up buckwild.
But I’ll never forget my mother’s face, that was real
And long as I’m alive, Eliza, swear to God, you’ll never feel so…
WOMEN: Helpless
ELIZA: I do I do I do I dooo!
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.
ELIZA: I don’t pretend to know
The challenges you’re facing.
The worlds you keep erasing and creating in your mind.
But I’m not afraid.
I know who I married.
So long as you come home at the end of the day
That would be enough […]
Oh, let me be a part of the narrative
In the story they will write someday.
Let this moment be the first chapter
Where you decide to stay
And I could be enough
And we could be enough
That would be enough.
WASHINGTON: Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory.
You have no control
WASHINGTON, COMPANY: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.
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, JEFFERSON, MADISON, WASHINGTON: What do you want, Burr?
What do you want, Burr?
If you stand for nothing,
Burr, what do you fall for?
BURR: I
Wanna be in
The room where it happens.
The room where it happens.
I
Wanna be in
The room where it happens.
The room where it happens.
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.
ELIZA: You and your words, obsessed with your legacy
Your sentences border on senseless
And you are paranoid in every paragraph
How they perceive you?
You, you, you…
I’m erasing myself from the narrative.
Let future historians wonder
How Eliza reacted when you broke her heart.
You have torn it all apart […]
I’m burning the memories,
Burning the letters that might have redeemed you.
BURR: They won’t teach you this in your classes,
But look it up, Hamilton was wearing his glasses.
Why? If not to take deadly aim?
It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.
I had only one thought before the slaughter:
This man will not make an orphan of my daughter.
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?
