Recently, I rewatched “Hamilton,” but this time I paid more attention to Eliza. The first time I watched it, I didn’t really pay attention to the theme; I just liked the songs. But this time, I really got to experience the whole story and understand it. Eliza has definitely become my favorite character in the whole musical.
After she finds out Hamilton cheated on her, she sings “Burn.” I already loved that song, but understanding the context has now made me love it even more. A lot of the things she says make me feel so sad for her. For example, when she says, “I’m re-reading the letters you wrote me, I’m searching and scanning for answers in every line,” it really resonates with me. I’m a person who always needs to know why things happen, and I want to understand everything, even though I don’t always have to. Of course, Eliza says this because she wants to understand why he did that and why he would betray her like that.
She also says, “You told the whole world how you brought this girl into our bed; in clearing your name, you have ruined our lives.” Honestly, this might be the saddest line in the whole song. Even though I’m just watching, I can feel her pain, if that makes sense.
Another line that really stuck with me is, “The world has no right in my heart, the world has no place in our bed, they don’t get to know what I said.” It is also heartbreaking. To me, the worst thing about the whole situation was how he didn’t think about this, about how their marriage, their house, their relationship deserved respect and privacy. Instead, he put his name and his reputation over hers and their family. Also, by this point, I’m pretty sure they had children, which makes it even worse. Imagine being a child and seeing your father make something like that public. In fact, it directly leads to Philip’s death. To defend his father’s honor, their son duels someone who was speaking about it, which ultimately leads to his death.
Regardless of all this, Eliza still forgives him and decides to carry on his legacy. To me, that makes her the best character in “Hamilton,” not because of what happened to her, but because of how she chose to move forward.
