On Saturday, September 13th, I went to the movie theater to see Hamilton. Ten years after the musical first premiered, the film version was available to see on the big screen.The U.S has changed a lot in those ten years, particularly the political climate. At the time, Obama was serving his second term as president, compared to that position now being held by Donald Trump.
I was seeing the film after a shocking week, one I was ready to take a break from. Yet I was quickly reminded of the events by the time “My Shot,” the third song in the musical rolled around. A lyric I had heard many times before suddenly gained new relevance to me, “will the blood we shed begin an endless cycle of death with no defendants.” I immediately thought of the recent assasination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative social media icon. He was at Utah Valley University, where he was debating a student, when he was shot in the neck, and shortly after pronounced dead. This lyric in particular refers to the bloodshed and lives lost during the American Revolution. Alexander Hamilton, the main character, questions whether this violence will always repeat itself. It seems as if it will.
Political violence is nothing new. The U.S. has had four assassinated presidents, with two more being injured in attempts. Yet, it seems that political violence is currently on the rise. Last year, there was an assasination attempt on Donald Trump while he was speaking at a rally. Furthermore, a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were killed this summer, with another lawmaker and his wife injured. Charlie Kirk’s murder is the continuation of this escalation of violence; one that does not seem to be slowing.
The show Hamilton is in no way a stranger to political violence. The musical features three separate duels: one between John Laurens and Charles Lee over negative comments the latter made about George Washington, one between Phillip Hamilton and George Eacker about comments made by Eacker about Hamilton’s father, and finally the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The latter was caused due to Hamilton endorsing Thomas Jefferson for president, the man who Burr was running against. Two of these duels resulted in death; both Hamiltons would die from gunshots they received during the duels.
Immediately after shooting Hamilton, Aaron Burr feels remorse. In the musical’s opening number, he call himself “the damn fool who shot [Hamilton]”. In “The World Was Wide Enough,” the song that covers and follows the duel, he shares how “history obliterates / Every picture it paints, it paints me in all my mistakes” and that now he’s “the villain in your history.” Finally, he ends the song having learned that the world was in fact wide enough “for both Hamilton and [him].”
Just like the duels in this musical, political violence is caused by anger, hatred, and the feeling that there is not enough space for people with opposing opinions. Yet, hopefully, people can recognize a true message in Burr’s words: that the world is wide enough for people of different viewpoints.
