Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

In the epilogue of Hamilton, Jeremy McCarter and Lin Manuel-Miranda write of President Obama’s speech at a special performance of Hamilton, “Past and present seemed to be tumbling together- a shimmery double exposure” (McCarter and Miranda 283).

The idea that Hamilton itself is a “shimmery double exposure” in which past and present seem to come together to create a projection for the future, is perhaps the best way to try and explain the impact that Hamilton has. There are many ways in which Miranda blends the past and present, and through these techniques, he brings the audience to an awareness of their role in the time stream. For example, the costumes that the cast wears during their performances are mostly time period costumes, which evokes the past (clothing is one of the measures by which we keep time). However, Miranda creates a dissonance by not having the actors wear powdered wigs, and by hiring actors of many different racial minorities to play characters who were not their race. In this way, Miranda creates a dissonance between how we view the past and the present; he’s telling the same story but he’s telling it differently, and this different telling changes the way we see ourselves in the present. Miranda pulls a lot from President Obama’s story, the first black president. In Hamilton, George Washington is played by a black man. Because we elected our first black president, it opened a “what if” in the time stream that contributed to Miranda’s ability to bring a show with a black George Washington to the success that he did. The present informs the past, and that new view of the past informs the present and the future.  

In another example, the example that is what makes Hamilton so special, Miranda does the entire play in hip-hop and rap. He takes creative liberties with the lines, modernizing them so that the same emotions are evoked and the historical accuracy is there, but in a way that’s relatable and powerful. Using hip-hop and rap to tell the story of the Founding Fathers creates more dissonance, and enables the audience to gain a new understanding of the same story. The language makes the audience feel as though the story of Hamilton is happening right now, or not too long ago. It enables people to relate to the characters, and become inspired by their stories, on a more personal level. Blending history and rap battles closes the gap that people tend to perceive separating the past and the present, creating that “shimmery double exposure” that impacted so many audiences on so many nights. I feel that blending the past and the present to tell Alexander Hamilton’s story awakens people to their status as time-beings, because it opens up the world of history through the lens of the present, which illustrates the way time ebbs and flows unceasingly. Just because something happened in the 1800s, Miranda teaches us, does not mean that it is behind us.

A final interesting thought about Hamilton is that it is not only the marriage of the past and present, but a story about movement for change in the future. “By ending with Hamilton’s afterlife, not his death, the show asks us to think about what we leave behind when we’re gone: It invites us to think about legacies” (McCarter and Miranda 276). Hamilton does not end when Hamilton’s life ends. This is another nod to the way the time stream moves, and the way the past, present, and future are always influencing and informing each other. Eliza continues after Hamilton’s death, “serving his legacy” by “continuing his work” (McCarter and Miranda 277). Miranda impresses on the audience that knowledge of the way the past and the present are intertwined can inform them in the future, because “that’s the real power of legacy: We tell stories of people who are gone because like any powerful stories, they have the potential to inspire, and to change the world” (McCarter and Miranda 277). Hamilton’s impactful song “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” sums this up really well. It makes the audience think about their role, and their position riding the time wave. The story has a lot to say about time, with Eliza singing about what Hamilton would have done if he had had more time, about what she is doing with the time she has left, and about how much more time there is until they can be together again. All these different conversations about time are very impactful to our class, because they show that even when time is up for one person, time is not up for others who can continue their work behind them. This is the importance of who tells your story, because your story lives on after you no longer do, your story is your legacy. This connects back to the immortality of a life on paper, and the way that books and writing create a kind of timelessness that human lives don’t have the capacity for.

Hamilton, clearly, is a very impactful play when you’re looking at it through the lens of time. The way the rap, period costumes, historical notes, and creative license come together to blend the past, present, and future, is legendary because it awakens people to their role in the time stream. In this way, Lin Manuel-Miranda is sort of like a time-being Pied Piper; leading people through the past, by way of the present, so that they can make a change in the future.