Hamilton: Patron Saint of Writers

Congratulations to Lin-Manuel Miranda! His musical adaptation of the life of Alexander Hamilton, which he also stars in, has been nominated for an unprecedented but well-deserved 16 Tony awards. Inspired by the biography by Ron Chernow, Hamilton: An American Musical tells the story of Alexander Hamilton: immigrant, revolutionary, secretary of the treasury, and writer.

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When Miranda first introduced the music of Hamilton at the White House Poetry Jam in 2009, he said, “[Hamilton] embodies the word’s ability to make a difference”. That is to say that, regardless of how we feel about Alexander Hamilton as a historical figure, a politician, or a human being, Hamilton the writer, or at least the writer presented in Miranda’s musical, deserves our attention and our respect.

I see Hamilton as a sort of Platonic ideal of a writer, consumed by his work, driven by it, and ultimately proud of it to the point of hubris. He writes with an intensity that other men can only envy. Aaron Burr (played by Leslie Odom Jr.) sings, in the song “Non-Stop”: 

“How do you write like you’re running out of time?

Write day and night like you’re running out of time?”

- “Non-Stop”, Hamilton

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Alexander Hamilton is walking proof of the belief that writing is powerful. I wonder sometimes if he is Miranda’s alter ego – another immigrant from the Caribbean, struggling to make his way on the mere strength of his “top-notch brain”. Hamilton’s writing propels his name into history books, building nations, fighting wars, winning over his wife Eliza, growing in fame, growing in power, and ultimately causing his own downfall. In the second act of the musical, Hamilton concisely summarizes his path as a writer. Beset by rivals and caught in an affair with Mariah Reynolds, Alexander contemplates writing his way out of his quandary. He sings: 

“I wrote my way out of hell
I wrote my way to revolution
I was louder than the crack in the bell
I wrote Eliza love letters until she fell
I wrote about The Constitution and defended it well
And in the face of ignorance and resistance
I wrote financial systems into existence
And when my prayers to God were met with indifference
I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance”

-“Hurricane”, Hamilton

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There’s a subtle irony here. Indeed, Hamilton did write his way out of hell of his childhood, writing his way to King’s College in New York. He did write his way to revolution, handling General Washington’s official correspondence. He wrote letters to win his wife’s love and the Federalist Papers to win public support for the US constitution. He wrote the foundations of the treasury department and yes, a writer has tremendous power in their ability to shape the world. But – and here’s the irony – Hamilton hasn’t written his own “deliverance” yet.

At the end of “Hurricane,” Alexander Hamilton decides to write the Reynolds Pamphlet, revealing his affair with Mariah Reynolds to the public. But to call it “[his] own deliverance” is sheer hubris. The pamphlet ruins Alexander’s career, tarnishes his reputation, and breaks his wife’s heart. Two songs after Alexander declaims the power of writing, Eliza Hamilton (played by Phillipa Soo), sings:

“You and your words flooded my senses
Your sentences left me defenseless
You built me palaces out of paragraphs
You built cathedrals”

-“Burn”, Hamilton

This is the power of writing. The phrase “palaces out of paragraphs”, referring here to Alexander’s love letters to Eliza, is the single most Borgesian phrase I have ever heard outside of a Jorge Luis Borges story. Brilliant writing is as magnificent as the flying buttresses of Notre Dame. Brilliant writing can strip the world bare and build a better one it its place. But we must realize, as writers, that the meaning of what we write is not solely dependent on our intentions. Alexander means to “write his own deliverance”, but no one else, particularly not Eliza, sees it that way. Upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, Eliza sings: 

“You and your words, obsessed with your legacy
Your sentences border on senseless
And you are paranoid in every paragraph
How they perceive you”

-“Burn”, Hamilton

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As Eliza suggests, the power of writing depends on audience perception. You can write like a man possessed with the intention of changing the world, but depending on how your audience sees you, the same love letters that seemed opulent and majestic at one point can seem “senseless” and “paranoid” in another. 

This is why I call Alexander Hamilton the patron saint of writers. He believes wholeheartedly in the ability of his writing to change the world. He is driven to write day in and day out. He owes his successes, his legacy, and his downfall to the power of his words and to the way that that power escapes his control.

Next time you sit down and “put a pencil to your temple, connecting it to your brain”, consider listening to the Hamilton soundtrack. In the lyrics, you may find a kindred spirit, a figure to admire, to inspire, or perhaps to act as a cautionary tale. For here is a man who, like us, has dedicated himself to the written word and who, also like us, will live and die by the pen.

Read more of Vernon's work on Floodmark here.