I know, I know, I’m late to join the Hamilton train. Thanks to Disney plus, I’m finally on board. I’ve heard about the Hamilton hype for years, but it always seemed out of my reach. Paying hundreds of dollars for a seat with my teacher’s salary never seemed worth it, but after watching the Broadway production in the comfort of my own home, I totally understand why people would spend that kind of money to watch a 2 ½ hour play.
After watching the play at least 5 times through and spending countless hours listening to the soundtrack, I’ve started to think about the way Hamilton was portrayed in the musical. As an aspiring author, I’ve learned the importance of nailing a character’s misbelief thanks to the book, Story Genius by Lisa Cron. I couldn’t help but wonder about Hamilton’s misbelief and was it important to the musical?
Making a Story Matter
To backtrack to the writing strategies of Story Genius, Lisa Cron explains the way to make a story matter is to take some time to think and write about a character’s back story to develop his or her misbelief about the world. This misbelief is something your character will eventually overcome once she steps into her hero shoes to fulfill her role as the protagonist in the story. This misbelief, however, will continuously get in her way and will cause lots of problems in the plot until finally, the character sees it for what it is, a lie she believed about herself and the world. Authors who truly nail this, write the kind of stories that readers literally can’t put down. I love it when I come across a story like this, and while I consider myself an avid reader, I can’t say this happens often.
The strategies that I’ve learned in Story Genius are the kind of strategies I want to apply to not only my own writing, but I also want to bring these strategies into my classroom. As a teacher, I’ve had my fair share of writing lessons, and as much as I love to write, teaching how to write is a different story. I’ve fallen for my own misbelief that writing is easier for kids who are naturally good writers. I’ve spent many hours reading narratives from student authors thinking that I’ve failed them after reading stories with plots that seem to go nowhere. Hopefully, I’ll have more success with what I learned from Story Genius.
Hamilton's Backstory
Now, back to Hamilton. At first, I couldn’t figure out Hamilton’s misbelief. I wondered if these unspoken rules to story writing maybe didn’t apply to Broadway. Also, Hamilton is based on history, so nailing his misbelief isn’t necessary. The reason why I couldn’t figure it out at first is because I didn’t know much about Hamilton when I first watched the play. Now, after my own research, I realize that he indeed had a strong misbelief that guided his every decision until that final encounter with his rival, Aaron Burr.
Before viewing this play, the only thing I remembered learning from school about Hamilton was that he was a founding father, he was on the ten-dollar bill, and he was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. I was surprised to learn that one of our founding fathers was an illegitimate orphan from the Caribbean. Being a product of an unwed relationship was very shameful at this time in history. I learned from the book I’m reading with my children, Who was Alexander Hamilton? by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso that Alexander and his brother James weren’t allowed to attend a formal school because his parents were not married. Alexander didn’t have access to the same educational opportunities as other kids simply because he was a bastard. Everything he learned as a child and teenager he learned at home or taught himself. Since his father left him when he was 11 years old, and his mother died shortly after that, it’s easy to believe that he was self-taught.
The most remarkable thing about Alexander’s life to me was after he wrote a letter to his father describing the hurricane he experienced after it hit St. Croix. When that letter got into the right hands and was published in the newspaper, it compelled the people on his island to raise money to send him to New York to receive a proper education. The people felt that it was a waste for someone with a mind like his to spend the rest of his life on their island. That was the opportunity Alexander needed to set him on the path to greatness. Seriously, I don’t think Hollywood could write a backstory quite like this.
We learn about Alexander’s childhood in the first song of the play, but it’s not until the third song, “My Shot,” that we learn about Alexander’s misbelief. He starts singing “I’m not throwing away my shot” early into the song, and it’s a phrase he repeats throughout the play. Here’s his misbelief: because he literally came from nothing, he has to constantly prove his self-worth. For people who don’t share his upbringing, they don’t have to constantly prove themselves because their value is found in their inherited wealth, power, and name. Alexander doesn’t have this, so he’s not going to throw away his shot anytime he has an opportunity to prove himself. For this part of the story, he believes this opportunity is on the battlefield.
The Right Hand Man
It doesn’t take long for someone important to see Alexander’s potential. Enter as Aaron Burr sings, “the moment you’ve been waiting for for...the pride of Mt. Vernon, George Washington!” This part of the story was pretty accurate from what I’ve researched. George Washington offered Hamilton the position as his aide de camp, and although Hamilton wanted to prove himself on the battlefield, he realized that writing for George Washington was quite an opportunity. However, he saw this as a chance to be a war hero. Washington in a way saw Alexander as the son he never had and became protective of him. Anytime Alexander asked him for a chance to lead his own command, Washington kept blowing him off. He didn’t want him to fight. I believe because he saw so much potential in Alexander, he saw how his life could be wasted on the battlefield if he was killed. I think Washington realized how much the country was going to need someone like Alexander after the war was over. Alexander, however, failed to see this in himself and believed the only way his life would have value is if he had the opportunity to become a war hero to prove his self-worth.
The Love of His Life
We see this misbelief rear its head again when he asks for Eliza’s hand in marriage in the song “Helpless.” He tells Eliza, “Eliza, I don’t have a dollar to my name, an acre of land, a troop to command…” These three things he mentioned were what he thought gave those around him value, and in a way he was correct. After the constitution was written, only white men with wealth and land were able to vote. He saw the fame and glory from war heroes like George Washington at this point in the play, he still didn’t have that opportunity. Why would Eliza want to marry someone like him? Now that he was marrying Eliza, he believed he also had to prove his self worth to the woman he loved. He didn’t realize that for Eliza, that wasn’t necessary at all. She truly loved him just the way he was.
Write like He's Running out of Time
His misbelief reveals itself again in the song Nonstop. There’s so much that happens in Alexander’s life in that song. It’s because of his misbelief that he becomes wildly successful. He practices law, he was chosen for the Constitutional Convention, writes the majority of the Federalist Papers, and becomes Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury. It seems like his misbelief is doing him a favor at this part of the play, but let’s pay attention to his wife and children. He keeps putting those relationships on the back burner. Eliza keeps asking for a “fraction of his time,” while he continues to pursue those opportunities to prove his self-worth. Now, our country benefited, sure, but his family paid the price for all the times he writes like he’s “running out of time.”
It’s his misbelief that forms more of a rift between himself and Aaron Burr and he gains more enemies because of this. He gets a spot in the “Room Where it Happened,” to get his debt plan on the table right after cheating on his wife during the Reynolds Scandal. In the play, he could’ve been with his family on vacation, but because he had to prove his self-worth, he stayed behind, and put himself in a situation where he couldn’t say “no to this.” Once again, his wife paid the price for his “shot.”
Overcoming the "Misbelief"
Lisa Cron explains that characters will eventually overcome their misbelief before the end of the story. As I think about this writing strategy, I wonder if there was a moment that Hamilton overcame his misbelief. As I’ve already stated, this is Broadway and is based on history, and not a novel. However, I believe he does overcome his misbelief when his son is killed in a duel over his father’s honor. His son had all the potential Alexander had and could’ve risen to the same greatness as Alexander, but his life was wasted in that duel. I think Alexander finally realizes that his true self worth comes from those he loves. He realizes that his value isn’t in his accomplishments, but in the love his family has for him. The family he almost lost because of his affair, and the death of his son. His wife forgives him, and they cling to each other like never before as they grieve the death of their beloved child.
Alexander steps back from the spotlight as the song, “It’s Quiet Uptown” describes. I believe at this point in Alexander’s life, it was quiet. He and his wife were trying to figure out their new normal when facing life without their oldest son, Phillip. The play doesn’t show this, but I learned they welcome a new baby and name him after the son they lost. I believe Alexander finally figured out his life’s worth at this point in the play, and his actual life.
Sadly, Alexander couldn’t settle the beef he had with his long time rival Aaron Burr peacefully. I still can’t understand, especially after losing his son in the same way why he thought a duel with Burr was a good way to settle their disagreements. It might be because of that ugly misbelief again. He thought he had to prove his self-worth, and the only way he could do that was on the dueling ground. We all know how it ends. However, I wonder if he actually did overcome that nagging misbelief at that moment. He actually threw away his shot, which cost him his life, but, maybe he realized that his self-worth would not be found in the death of his friend.
Telling his Story
I don’t know about you, but every time I see the final moments of Hamilton with Eliza gasping at the end, I tear up. For the rest of Eliza’s life, she spends her time telling Alexander’s story. It’s because of her that we know about him. Why was his story so important for her to tell it? He wasn’t exactly the best husband, I mean he cheated on her, and he never gave her the time she needed, but she adored him. Why, though? I think it’s because of the very thing in his life that resulted in his misbelief about himself. I believe she loved him because he came from nothing. The very thing he thought was holding him back was the reason why his wife loved him as much as she did. She probably had her choice in husbands, yet she chose to marry an illegitimate orphan. She never remarried even though she lived for another 50 years. One of her proudest moments was starting the orphanage in Alexander’s honor. It still exists today. I’m sure her motivation in starting an orphanage was because Alexander was an orphan, and what better way to continue his legacy than to help children who face the same circumstances he was in as a child. Eliza saw his value not because of what he accomplished, but because of who he was.
Now that this post is over 2,000 words, it’s probably obvious that I have a bit of an obsession with this musical. I know I’m not the only one. I believe that one reason for this obsession is the brilliant way Lin Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton’s misbelief into this play. Even though there’s no way to know for sure, I believe it’s an authentic misbelief that the historical Hamilton had to overcome. I’m taking what I’ve learned into the classroom when school starts in a few weeks. I’m writing lesson plans for a Hamilton unit which will include language arts and social studies standards. I plan on sharing what I learned about Hamilton’s misbelief with my students in hopes that understanding Hamilton’s misbelief will inspire them to write their own characters and as Lisa Cron taught me, write stories that matter.
Sources:
currently reading. This biography was the inspiration for the musical.