Hamilton: The Revolution

Hamilton is the protagonist and main character, a man who started out as an orphan and immigrated from the Caribbean for an education. The text draws a parallel between Hamilton’s life and Miranda’s trajectory of success, and Miranda even wrote the role to play it himself. As a young man, Hamilton is driven by his desire to prove himself and rise above his humble beginnings, standing for the quintessential seeker of the American Dream, and he is determined to help shape that idea of America. After coming to New York with nothing but his intelligence and exceptional writing ability, he quickly acquires a reputation for being outspoken, sometimes obnoxiously so, and stubborn. Hamilton establishes from the start of the play that his ambition is more important to him than his life. He dreams about becoming a martyr on the battlefield, even after he marries Eliza Schuyler, and only shifts away from that martyrdom fantasy after Eliza, pregnant, pleads with him to stay alive and meet their son. Although the nature of his ambition changes, his commitment and drive doesn’t. Hamilton follows the journey of the tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle in his Poetics.