Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Satisfied(spoilers)

Many People associate the word Satisfied with Angelica Schuyler, because she is the one to song the song "Satisfied" in the musical itself. But not I. I think that the word satisfied does not belong to Angelica, but in fact Alexander Hamilton himself. Yes, the song "Satisfied" is about how Angelica will never be satisfied without Alexander, but in reality she is satisfied with the love from her sister, Hamilton is truely the one who will never be satisfied. He is always the one pining for something or someone else.


Through the course of the play we see him go from one goal to the next always searching for something to fill his void. It starts with him wanting to make a name for himself. He starts this by getting a coveted job of being George Washington's right hand man. He is there for every meeting and writes documents for Washington himself. He gets himself a name, but thats not good enough. He thinks he will be more satisfied if he fought in the war. Then when he got the chance to fight that was not good enough either, he wanted to lead the fight and he did all he could to try to get there, risking all of his career in doing so by fighting with Charles Lee. He does end up getting his leadership role eventually though and in that position helps win the war. But when he gets back he still isn't satisfied with helping lead the country to victory. Now he must be the best lawyer and after that when he gets an even better job at secretary of treasury he still can't be satisfied because someone he dislikes also has a position in power, Jefferson. Nothing can give him ease of mind.

Not only can Hamilton never be satisfied with his position in the world, but this need for satisfaction transfers to his personal being as well. He gets possibly the best girl, Eliza Schuyler to marry him, but still almost ruins that by cheating on her with Maria Reynolds. Then when Jefferson and Madison find out about the affair and make a deal not the tell anyone what he did, it still doesn't satisfy him. He cannot just let it go under wraps, he wants to make sure that people no he is not guilty of fraud so he writes the Reynolds pamphlet and tells everyone that he had an affair, thinking he will be satisfied if his name is clear, but of course this is not the case. It just leads to him being even more unsatisfied because his wife is so upset by the news that she practically leaves him. 


So no, I do not believe that Satisfied is Angelica's word. It is Hamilton because he will truely "Never be Satisfied".



1 comment:

  1. I really like your interpretation of the events of the show as they relate to satisfaction. I think that both the song "Satisfied" and the emotions it is tied to are powerful, underrated themes in the show; adjusting your lens and looking at the show through the lens of characters attempting to achieve satisfaction above all really sheds new light on their actions. This is most interesting when comparing Hamilton and Burr, one of which never stops working and fighting for satisfaction, and the other who is willing to wait for it (heh heh) to come to him.

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