Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

Hamilton Ending: Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

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Hamilton, streaming on Disney+, is about who lives, who dies, and who tells your story. Here’s what happens in the ending, and what it means.

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Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

The musical Hamilton, streaming as a movie on Disney+, comes to an end with the death of its titular character, Alexander Hamilton, a gasp from his wife, Eliza, and one last song that brings together the themes and meanings behind the entire production. Since debuting on Broadway in 2015, Hamilton has become a major hit and pop culture phenomenon. One of the biggest musicals of all time, it made the leap to Disney+ in July 2020, with a version of the stage show that was filmed across three nights at the Richard Rogers Theater in New York back in 2016.

With its focus on Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and in particular his rivalry with Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.), Hamilton is able to tell an expansive tale of America’s fight for independence, and the struggles that come with gaining freedom and having to lead a nation. At the same time, though, it’s also able to give an intimate account of Alexander and Eliza (Phillipa Soo)’s marriage, and the key players within that. The personal and political intertwine across the musical’s runtime, bringing things to its rather tragic denouement.

Hamilton’s big finale sees Alexander cross the river into New Jersey (where everything is legal) to have a duel with Burr, which results in the former’s death. It then comes to a close with many of the major players coming back to the stage for one last big performance that sums up the entire show, bringing its story and character arcs to a fitting conclusion. Here’s what happens in Hamilton’s ending, and what it all means.

Why Alexander Hamilton Doesn’t Shoot Burr (& Dies Instead)

Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

Despite the rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr leading to a duel that the former should really win, since he’s a good shot and Burr himself notes that he is not, it’s the latter who comes out on top. That’s not down to skill or luck, though, but because Hamilton chooses not to shoot at his opponent, instead raising his gun to the sky before the count of 10 – something Burr clearly doesn’t realize as he fires on him all the same. In terms of both narrative and themes, this links Alexander’s death to that of his son, Philip (Anthony Ramos), who was killed duelling in the same way in almost the exact same spot. Since it was Alexander who advised his son to raise his pistol to the sky, then he himself had to follow that advice; he knew what it might cost, but he also couldn’t in good conscience be responsible for taking the life of another, because he knows the pain of losing someone.

A frequent refrain throughout Hamilton is that its protagonist is not throwing away his shot, but that’s exactly what he does, in a very literal sense, in his final moments. And yet, at the same time, he’s also taking his shot for one last time. Hamilton, both the musical and its lead character, are obsessed with the idea of legacy; Alexander Hamilton is haunted by his impending doom, with frequent references to it and death itself appearing as a secret character in Hamilton by way of The Bullet (a member of the ensemble who appears at key moments). But it’s not so much about dying, but how he’ll be remembered. After the musical’s first duel, Hamilton is reproached by George Washington; later, the would-be first President teaches Hamilton of the importance of legacy. In these final moments, Hamilton takes his shot to be remembered, hopefully, as a better person than he often was. Burr, meanwhile, has to face a ruined reputation as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton.

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Why Eliza Gasps At The End of Hamilton (& What Happens Next)

Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

At the very end of Hamilton’s final song, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”, Alexander returns to the stage for a brief moment of reconcilliation with Eliza. She then stands alone in front of the crowd and gives a tearful gasp, clutching at her chest, before the lights go down on the entire production. It’s a poignant climax to the musical, but also an intriguing one as well, with plenty of speculation as to what Eliza’s gasp really means. While the ambiguity is part of what makes the moment so great, there are two main interpretations of the scene. One is that this is Eliza breaking the fourth wall, and that the gasp is her seeing the audience. Given how Hamilton is framed by songs that step beyond the narrative contained within – with the first song having the key players introduce themselves – then there’s a sense of things coming full circle if Eliza is seeing the audience in this moment. Eliza is in the moment asking “Who tells your story?” – or, in other words, who will tell Eliza’s story? The gasp is one of seeing the audience, and one of recognition; they are the people who will tell her story.

The other interpretation is that this is Eliza’s final breath, which is perhaps even more fitting, and in keeping with the lyrics of the song itself. Eliza sings about having “more time” and tells of all the deeds she’s accomplished after Alexander’s passing, before singing: “Oh I can’t wait to see you again / It’s only a matter of time.” With Alexander joining her on stage and a life well-lived detailed, then it’s very likely this is Eliza being reunited with Alexander as she passes on. Both notions are supported by Phillipa Soo, who said (via BroadwayGirlNYC): “People are like, ‘Is it Eliza going into heaven? Is she seeing Alexander? Is she seeing God? What is it?’ And it’s kind of all of those things. Sometimes, it’s literally, I look out and I see the audience, and that’s what it is, but I think, that idea of ‘transcendence’ is present in all of that.”

Eliza, as she details in the song, went on to live a full life after Alexander’s death, before passing away in 1854 at the age of 97. Having lost the father to her children, Eliza went on to co-found Graham Windham, which was New York’s first private orphanage. On top of her philanthropic work, she continued to support and defend Alexander’s legacy, which included demanding apologies from those who had spoken against him, and organized and campaigned for the publication of his many letters and other writings. Eliza died in Washington, DC, but was buried near Alexander’s grave back in New York.

What Happens To Aaron Burr After Killing Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

After killing Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr sings: “When Alexander aimed at the sky / He may have been the first one to die / But I’m the one who paid for it / I survived, but I paid for it / Now I’m the villain in your history.” Burr briefly fled to South Carolina after the duel (“you’d better hide”) but eventually went back to Washington to complete his term as Vice President. He was charged with murder in New York and New Jersey, but ultimately neither crime was able to stick, and so Burr didn’t face any prison sentence for Hamilton’s death. Nonetheless, things were never quite the same for him after that.

Aaron Burr, after departing the office of Vice President, worked with General James Wilkinson on what was eventually purported to have been a conspiracy against the United States, whereby Burr intended to develop lands in the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico into its own independent country, having been leased lands in Texas by the Spanish government. Wilkinson betrayed Burr to President Thomas Jefferson, who attempted to have his old rival charged with treason. As with murder, Burr was eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing due to a lack of the evidence demanded by the Constitution, but any shreds of his political career that were left by that point were completely destroyed. Burr left America for Europe, spending some years in England, before eventually returning to New York to once again practice law, but wasn’t the acknowledged force or key player he had once been.

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America’s Future After Hamilton’s Death

Hamilton Ending Alexander’s Death & The Final Song Explained

“What Comes Next?” may be a song belonging to King George III after America gains its independence, but it’s also one worth asking after Hamilton’s death. With another of its Founding Father’s dead, and the Vice President the person who shot him, what did the years immediately following Hamilton’s death entail, and how did they speak to his legacy? Two core tenets of his time in government and what he thought about his legacy were slavery and, given he ran the Treasury, the nation’s finances. As both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison sing in “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tell Your Story”: “I’ll give him this: his financial system is a work of genius / …he doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave us.” Hamilton is a core figure in the American School of Economics, which was the nation’s guiding economic principal (to varying degrees) for almost 200 years. Including high tariffs, government investments, and a national bank, it’s Hamilton’s greatest legacy that was built out from his (debated, at the time) work in the Treasury.

Perhaps more open to debate is Hamilton’s work on the abolition of slavery – although the musical presents him as abolitionist, mostly through his strong support of John Laurens, there are some challenges on exactly how much of a priority this was for Alexander, not least because his mother owned slaves. Nonetheless, Hamilton’s work did help lead to Haiti becoming the first independent state in the Western Hemisphere to have a majority Black population. On the flip side of his politics, Hamilton’s decision not to support his own part essentially led to the end of the Federalist Party as a major player: Thomas Jefferson was followed by a long-line for Democratic-Republican Presidents, including James Madison.

What Hamilton’s Final Song Really Means

In a more obvious sense, Hamilton’s final song, “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” is a question very directly about Alexander Hamilton who, until the musical was released, did not receive the same amount of attention as America’s other Founding Father’s, as Angelica (Renée Elise Goldsberry) sings: “Every other founding father’s story gets told / Every other founding father gets to grow old.” It’s reflective of how history is not only told by the victors, with Alexander’s premature death perhaps ruling him out of the books in a broader sense, but also just how selective history can be in general. The question of “Who tells your story?” is directed at the audience, and ultimately it fell to Lin-Manuel Miranda & Co. to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton.

That falls into a bigger picture of what the musical is trying to do, not least through Hamilton’s cast made-up mostly of people of color, and with that the decision to make most of the music rap and hip-hop, or at least closely linked to those genres. It’s about being able to reclaim history and tell that story with new perspectives and putting people of color back into the narrative, not just Hamilton himself. And going even broader than that, the final song thematically links with the entire musical, seen through songs like “History Has Its Eyes On You”, about the power and importance of legacy, and how they can be framed in different ways depending on the perspective of the person telling the story. Hamilton wants to control his legacy, but in his duel with Burr he realizes that’s not possible; he throws away his shot because, as he notes in the penultimate number: “Legacy, what is a legacy? / It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see / I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me.” Hamilton doesn’t get to control his legacy, because he isn’t the one writing it.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hamilton-musical-ending-explained-alexander-dies-final-song/

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