Letters Symbol Analysis

Letters, the primary form of communication for Hamilton and his cohorts, symbolize the power words have to shape reality—and to transform the way history is remembered. Writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda chose to frame many of the most pivotal moments in his musical around letters. Hamilton first courts his wife Eliza via letter-writing (“you built me palaces out of paragraphs,” she later reflects); he and Aaron Burr speak to their newborn children in “Dear Theodosia,” a song written in letter format. And because letters capture private thoughts and relationships, preserving them for future archives and historians, the characters are tremendously concerned with how their letters are written and interpreted. When Hamilton’s sister-in-law Angelica notices a surprising comma in one of Hamilton’s letters, she can’t help but obsess: “it changed the meaning, did you intend it / one stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days.” And when Hamilton’s affair comes to light, a heartbroken Eliza takes her revenge by burning his letters (“Burn”): “I’m erasing myself from the narrative,” she vows, “I’m burning the memories, burning the letters that might have redeemed you.” In “Burn,” Eliza makes clear that letters can spark love or tarnish it, build reputations or destroy them—and when those letters are kept and archived, they impact the historical “narrative” forever.