i-will-mourn-the-wicked:

wow you guys, the time has come for my very first written-by-me Hamilton post.

Disclaimer for the Hamilton fans who tend to start ship wars: take a breath, I am not attacking you—believe it or not, my life doesn’t revolve around spite for people I disagree with.

With that out of the way, here’s a dose of Hamilton analysis ft. Hamburr from your local overthinker.

It’s safe to say that a good chunk of the characters in this musical are referred to by most people by their last names: Hamilton, Burr, Lafayette, Laurens, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc., because that was the norm back then. We really only see exceptions with close relationships/family relationships.

Let’s focus on Hamilton for the time being. He’s generally addressed with his last name, or occasionally his full name, with the exceptions who refer to him as Alexander being: his dear friends, Laurens, Lafayette, and Hercules, the two women who fell in love with him, Angelica and Eliza, and…Burr?

Burr is lumped in with the small contingent of people who are close enough to Hamilton to call him by his first name, or are on a first name basis, if you will.

Burr tends to refer to Hamilton as just that, Hamilton, when he’s providing the narration/storytelling, when he’s talking about him (i.e. in Wait For It: “Hamilton faces an endless uphill climb”, in A Winter’s Ball: “Washington hires Hamilton right on sight”, in Your Obedient Servant: “how does Hamilton”, etc.).

But when Burr is speaking to him, he calls him Alexander (i.e. in Farmer Refuted: “Alexander, please”, in The Story of Tonight Reprise: “congrats again, Alexander, smile more”, in their back and forth conversation in songs such as Ten Duel Commandments and Non-Stop, in We Know: “Alexander, rumors only grow”, etc.)

The only exception to this is the beginning of Non-Stop; “co-counsel, Hamilton, sit down”, (which was in a professional courtroom setting), and vice versa, in The World Was Wide Enough; “when Alexander aimed at the sky” (and I know for a fact there’s some kind lf meaning behind that, I just cannot for the life of me figure it out—expect a post when I do, folks).

All in all, what I’m trying to say here is, Burr obviously considers himself close enough to refer to Hamilton as Alexander, and is included in a group of people (Lafayette, Hercules, Laurens, Angelica, and Eliza) who do the same—a group where at least two (or three, depending on if you count Laurens or not) of the people within were very much in love with Hamilton.

do with that what you will.