Previous
Act 2: Cabinet Battle #1
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
Angelica obsesses over a comma in one of Hamilton’s letters: “it says ‘my dearest, Angelica,’ / with a comma after dearest.” In their correspondence, Hamilton and Angelica trade references to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Hamilton quoting Macbeth’s lines and Angelica responding with Lady Macbeth’s text (“screw your courage to the sticking place”).
The analysis Angelica applies to Hamilton’s letters—and the back-and-forth theatrical allusions within them—shows the great joy and danger of language. Hamilton’s letters give Angelica enough evidence of his love to obsess over, but they cannot make clear the full truth…just as historical archives let us imagine history without being able to actually access it.
Themes
Meanwhile, Hamilton and Eliza’s son, nine-year-old Philip, learns to play piano, teaching himself to write melodies and raps about his father. In a letter, Eliza pleads with Hamilton to “take a break” and join her upstate. But Hamilton, busy trying to create the national bank, refuses to leave the city. And though Hamilton admits to “longing for Angelica,” not even Angelica’s arrival from London can change his mind.
Eliza seems to have given up on becoming part of her husband’s narrative, now just asking him to at least “take a break” from making history and join her at home. Two other things worth noting from this scene: Hamilton’s feelings for Angelica remain reciprocated, and Philip’s counting to 10 on the piano parallels the rhythm and tune of “The Ten Duel Commandments.”
Themes
