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Act 2: Take a Break
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
It’s “summer in the city,” and Hamilton is exhausted from working so hard. A few weeks in, he meets a woman named Maria Reynolds, who tells him her husband has been abusing her. Hamilton offers her a loan, then quickly realizes that Maria is also trying to seduce him. He is conflicted, but he finds it hard to resist: “my God, she looks so helpless / and her body’s saying Hell yes.”
This sexy R&B number, built in part around original cast member Jasmine Cephas-Jones’s vocal strengths, once more connects Hamilton’s New York City to the city of today. More than that, Hamilton’s sense that Maria is “helpless” sends him back to his traumatic memories of his mother, similarly made “helpless” by her husband’s abandonment. The only thing that can override Hamilton’s sense of honor, it would seem, is this anxiety about his mother. Or perhaps his desire to be honorable to his mother overwhelms his desire to be faithful to Eliza, as he succumbs to his attraction to Maria in the midst of his isolated, pressured existence.
Themes
Soon after the affair starts, Hamilton gets a letter from James Reynolds, Maria’s husband. James knows about the affair, and he is blackmailing Hamilton: either Hamilton has to pay up, or James will tell Eliza that he’s been cheating on her. Hamilton panics, worrying that he is “ruined,” while Maria begs him to forgive her and continue the affair. Seeing how “helpless” Maria looks, Hamilton finds himself powerless to resist. The song ends, and the affair continues.
As the song goes on, Hamilton’s obsession with his reputation becomes a deeply corrupting force: rather than admitting the truth to his wife, Hamilton goes along with the cover-up in a desperate bid to protect his name.
Themes
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