The Bard and Broadway B-Boy: Hamilton

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton resonates with Shakespearean storytelling on many levels. The musical’s songs often function like modern soliloquies, laying bare the characters’ inner conflicts much as Shakespeare’s monologues do. Aaron Burr’s reflective ballad “Wait For It,” for instance, offers an introspective side to a character worthy of Hamlet. Miranda even weaves direct Shakespeare references into the script. At one point, Hamilton says,“They think me Macbeth, ambition is my folly,” explicitly linking himself to the famous Scottish king. This is no throwaway line from Lin-Manuel: similar to Macbeth, Alexander Hamilton is a vaulting ambitious figure propelled by hubris and impatience. His relentless drive is portrayed as a fatal flaw, echoing the tragic arc of a Shakespearean hero whose pride precedes his downfall. Indeed, scholars have noted that Hamilton “indisputably” belongs to the lineage of Shakespeare (medium.com), from its character-driven tragedy to its razor-sharp verse and wordplay. Even the rivalry between Hamilton and Burr has a classical Shakespearean feel, with two extremely ambitious men attempting to establish their legacy vis-a-vis their vanquishment of the other. Throughout Hamilton, Miranda channels Shakespeare’s blend of poetic language and political commentary. He uses rap’s rhythmic verse where Shakespeare used his iambic pentameter, giving history a pulsing poetry. And just as Shakespeare’s historical plays slyly commented on politics in the Elizabethan era, Hamilton serves as political commentary on the founding ideals of America and its flaws. (Miranda himself even called it “a story about America then, told by America now,” bridging past and present in true Shakespearean spirit.) The result is a musical that mirrors the grand storytelling techniques of Shakespeare, leaving us with a timeless tragedy about hubris, fate, and the legacies we build.