Hamilton: the Musical is a biography of Alexander Hamilton in song form that has gotten increasingly popular in the last decade with its catchiness, unique and varied soundtrack, and the way it speaks directly to people who have interests in history and music both. It’s widely successful for a variety of reasons and it should definitely be listened to by everyone at least once in our lifetimes, and this masterpiece of a musical has endless themes and quirks to be explored, one of them being the emphasis on legacies.
Legacy is a central theme in the whole musical, introduced in the very first song, Alexander Hamilton, with the lyrics: “The world’s gonna know your name.” We clearly see all throughout the musical jabs and direct mentions of going down in history, of being remembered, and of Hamilton coming from nothing and leaving a legacy for himself. Hamilton’s journey is framed by this desire: to be remembered, to create something lasting, with characters grappling with how they’ll go down in history. So let’s dive into it: How does Hamilton explore the idea of legacy and the human desire to be remembered?
One of the most powerful questions raised in the musical is “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” it’s about legacy, or how we are remembered after we’re gone. The musical isn't just about history and the founding of America; it’s about how the characters think about their own mortality and how they want future generations to remember them.
There are a few key characters in the musical to consider when talking about legacy, starting with Alexander Hamilton himself: a scrawny bastard and orphan who is left with nothing and no one from a very young age who develops into a figure that will be remembered forever in human history. The musical starts from when he’s nineteen where we see him as ambitious but young, scrappy, and hungry –direct words from the musical– and from very early on with the song “My Shot” we see his determination to leave a lasting mark. His background as a looked-down-upon immigrant makes him even more driven to prove himself in late 1700s America, a country with great promise but no guarantee for anything. In "My Shot" Hamilton declares: “I’m not throwing’ away my shot”. This refrain is repeated all throughout the musical, embodying Hamilton’s belief that every moment must be seized because he may not get another chance.
In the very last song in the first act of the show, “Non-Stop” truly does the best job at showing Hamilton’s endless urgency, a sort of panic-spurred haze to write, to do something, to change things, to leave a mark. Hamilton’s writing is described as “he’s running out of time”.
Hamilton’s way of securing his legacy is through writing. He writes non-stop–political essays, letters, speeches–because he believes his words will outlast him, no matter what happens. He knows that even if his life is cut short through war and bullets, his ideas can live on. The lyrics “I wrote my way out” capture his belief that through writing he can get out of anything that the world throws at him, that writing is his way to rise above his poor and orphaned beginnings. But his obsession with his legacy eventually causes him to shoot himself in the foot. In an effort to control the way people see him, especially when he’s become a well-known political figure, he publishes a scandalous confession –The Reynolds Pamphlet– about an affair he had, thinking that if he gets ahead of the story first, he can protect his reputation.
In the end, his own ambition to preserve his name in history leads to his ruin, with his peers mocking him as they read aloud, “Never gonna be president now!”
In a lot of songs, the chorus sings about how Alexander will “Never be satisfied” no matter how much he has, how much he achieves. He fights the other founding fathers on almost every matter in the country, he writes and writes in a ceaseless effort day and night.
In contrast, we see the main narrator of the story Aaron Burr being almost the exact opposite of Hamilton. Burr is introduced in the second song, “Aaron Burr, Sir” and is first seen as a comrade and friend of Hamilton, also an orphan who made himself successful after his parents’ death, a lawyer just as Hamilton aspires to be. He is reserved and waits for opportunities to arise instead of making them himself, and he waits. His philosophy is best captured in Wait For It, where Burr expresses his belief that “Life doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes… But I’m willing to wait for it.” He prefers caution over boldness, waiting for fate to align in his favor rather than actively pursuing greatness as Hamilton does.
Later he becomes Hamilton’s political rival and clearly has a very different view of how to achieve legacy. While Hamilton is bold and takes risks constantly, Burr is cautious and he slowly grows to resent Hamilton. In one of his key songs, "Wait For It," Burr expresses his belief that good things come to those who wait, and he prefers to avoid making rash decisions. Burr is careful, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his mark rather than rushing into action like Hamilton.
However, as the musical progresses, Burr becomes increasingly frustrated. He watches Hamilton rise to power, constantly grabbing opportunities that Burr hesitates to take. As Hamilton gets greater in influence, Burr watches from the sidelines. In “The Room Where It Happens”, Burr laments being excluded from important decisions, while Hamilton pushes his way into power. Hamilton’s relentless drive, represented in his 51 Federalist Papers, leaves Burr in the dust, leading him to question his own choices
Burr eventually decides he can’t wait any longer, he’s waited all his life and it has gained him nothing, leading to a fatal duel between him and Hamilton.
After a lifetime of waiting and being cautious, Burr finally acts on impulse, shooting Hamilton. It’s a shocking reversal—Burr, the man who always waited, pulls the trigger, while Hamilton, who seized every moment, deliberately aims his gun at the sky. He shoots Hamilton and forever secures his legacy as the man who killed one of America’s founding fathers. Burr becomes infamous for this single act which completely puts everything he ever worked for into the shadows to be forgotten.
In the end, he realizes too late that the world has room for both him and Hamilton to succeed without one of them having to fall.
After Burr, one of the most touching aspects of Hamilton is the role of Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza. After Hamilton’s death, Eliza takes it upon herself to ensure that her husband’s legacy is preserved as it deserves. In the musical’s final song, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story," Eliza sings about how she spent the rest of her life telling her husband’s story, collecting his writings, and making sure people remembered his contributions to the founding of the country.
But even then Eliza’s legacy goes beyond just protecting Hamilton’s memory. Left without her sisters and both his son and husband dead, she dedicates herself to charitable work, helping to establish orphanages and advocating for causes she believed in. Her actions show that legacy isn’t just about fame or power; it’s about the positive impact you leave behind on the world. In the end, it’s Eliza’s efforts that ensure Hamilton’s story is told, and she emerges as a quiet hero in her own right.
Hamilton’s exploration of legacy is a powerful reflection of the human desire to be remembered. Through Hamilton and Burr’s opposing approaches, we see that legacy isn’t just about what we achieve, but how we are remembered by those who tell our stories. The musical’s final question lingers long after the curtain falls: Who tells your story?