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Act 2: The Reynolds Pamphlet
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hamilton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration, Disagreement, and Democracy
Stories vs. History
Ambition and Mortality
Immigration and Diversity of Influence
Honor
Summary
Analysis
Hamilton’s “poor wife,” Eliza, appears, alone and holding stacks of Hamilton’s eloquent letters. Having heard about the affair, she recalls Hamilton’s early letter-writing days (“you built me palaces out of paragraphs”). Then, in a moment of heartbreak and revenge, she burns the letters, singing, “I’m erasing myself from the narrative / let future historians wonder / how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart.”
Over and over again, Eliza has begged to “be a part of the narrative”; over and over again, Hamilton has denied her this basic courtesy. Now, her ultimate revenge is to destroy the letters that Hamilton crafted her. If writing is his superpower, his way to build “palaces” and nations, Eliza will deny him anything that might “redeem” him in archivists’ eyes. In doing so, she also reclaims agency over the historical narrative (at least in Miranda’s telling).
Themes
