Helpless

The men’s flirting at the end of the previous song becomes flirtatious walla here, providing the background conversation as the soldier boys trip over themselves to win the ladies' praise.

While the women continue to rep the flirtatious atmosphere from the song’s transition, Eliza opens with what one says at one’s wedding, which happens to be the trajectory of this whirlwind romance of a song.

Using “hey” as a (very short) shorthand for courtship becomes particularly appropriate here, considering Eliza and Alexander meet and get married in under a month.

Rushed engagements and marriages were not entirely uncommon in the period for many different reasons. First of all, these men and women were in the middle of a war. It’s still not uncommon for couples to rush to the altar before one of them get shipped out for a tour of duty.

Not to mention, there was that pesky understanding that women were supposed to remain pure and chaste before marriage, and amorous couples were often… excited to get to their wedding night.

Basically, these people weren’t f*cking around about their f*cking around.

Eliza de-emphasizes her agency throughout this song, referring to her feelings in terms of fatalism and defeat. “Down for the count” is literally the moment when a fighter loses a boxing match. She “drowns” in Hamilton’s eyes. Despite the song’s ecstatic feeling and upbeat style, there’s a hint of irony that lurks about this tendency in her word choice (for further discussion, see below).

Repetitions of “down for the count” are also one of the song’s more overt homages to Beyoncé’s “Countdown.” The inversion adds to the song’s emphasis to Eliza’s protestations of ‘helpless'ness (as they oppose Beyonce’s own proactiveness in “Countdown”) in the face of her feelings for Hamilton.

Down for the count could also reference the countdown in Ten Duel Commandments, in which several characters are literally down during the count.

Miranda invokes Christian Death’s “Drowning" (“Down for the count I’m still drowning / I’m still drowning”), but flips the desperate tone of the lyric on its head, instead utilizing such imagery to illustrate Eliza’s elation.

Descriptions of Hamilton almost always note his unusually bright eyes. Chernow described them as “sparkling violet-blue.” And here’s Fisher Ames, who later became Hamilton’s friend in the Federalist party:

These were of a deep azure, eminently beautiful, without the slightest trace of hardness or severity, and beamed with higher expressions of intelligence and discernment than any others that I ever saw."

Thus, “the sky” can refer to both the color of Alexander’s eyes, as well as the intelligence and desire which they convey. Of course, Hamilton also attracts comparisons to Icarus throughout the play, and for that mythological character, the sky truly was the limit. Because of this implication, this line may prefigure Hamilton’s later betrayal of Eliza in favor of his ambition and libido.

Eliza de-emphasizes her agency throughout this song, referring to her feelings in terms of fatalism and defeat. “Down for the count” is literally the moment when a fighter loses a boxing match. She “drowns” in Hamilton’s eyes. Despite the song’s ecstatic feeling and upbeat style, there’s a hint of irony that lurks about this tendency in her word choice (for further discussion, see below).

Repetitions of “down for the count” are also one of the song’s more overt homages to Beyoncé’s “Countdown.” The inversion adds to the song’s emphasis to Eliza’s protestations of ‘helpless'ness (as they oppose Beyonce’s own proactiveness in “Countdown”) in the face of her feelings for Hamilton.

Down for the count could also reference the countdown in Ten Duel Commandments, in which several characters are literally down during the count.

Miranda invokes Christian Death’s “Drowning" (“Down for the count I’m still drowning / I’m still drowning”), but flips the desperate tone of the lyric on its head, instead utilizing such imagery to illustrate Eliza’s elation.

Eliza will vacillate between attitudes throughout the musical. She starts off here, trying to stay in the background. Later on, she’ll ask to be a part of the narrative, then erase herself from the narrative, then puts herself back in the historical (and the literal) spotlight at the very end.

Another way to interpret this line is to see that Eliza doesn’t vacillate, she develops. Her ambitions are very private and domestically focused. She’s very aware of Alexander’s concern about legacy and image, but she doesn’t consider that a priority for her. She starts out self-effacing and retiring, she learns it’s important to control the narrative, and slowly she comes to actually embrace the scrutiny of history as a way to fulfill Alexander’s dreams, and in the process, her own. But she never actively courts the spotlight for herself, the way that Alexander did. She just earns it.

A room lit by hundreds of candles gets very warm, even in the dead of winter. And there’s another connotation:

Eliza demonstrates awareness of Angelica’s capacity to garner admiration, perhaps foreshadowing Hamilton’s own romantic interest in her.

During Hamilton’s experiences in the war, where “booms” literally and figuratively echo cannon and gunfire (see: “Right Hand Man”). This time we see him exploding onto a very different landscape—Eliza’s heart.

This particular boom is likely a reference to The Beatles‘ “I Saw Her Standing There,” which has a similar theme of falling for someone at first sight, as well as the same “my heart went boom” line.

Moreover, the reverb effect on the “Boom!” may be a reference to Trina’s “Da Club.”

Purposeful history conflation here between the 18th century and the 21st. The bass may have been pumping here, but only because the bassist’s bowing arm was flexing like fire. Still, this mixture of modern and historical helps make the party sound as fun to be at for modern audiences as it actually was for our protagonists.

Echoes the melody in Beyoncé’s “Countdown”:

Grind up on it, girl, show him how you ride it.

In the show, the ball’s guests dance in pairs and the men are actually grinding.

Lin-Manuel Miranda originally wrote a song called “This One’s Mine” for Eliza to sing in place of “Helpless.” But:

During Hamilton’s Off-Broadway run, Angelica had a song called “Congratulations”. It was ultimately cut, resulting in her section in “The Reynolds Pamphlet”, but featured a reference to this line.

“And a million years ago she said to me ‘this one’s mine’
So I stood by”

Eliza is worried that Hamilton will be more interested in Angelica than her, perhaps because she believes Angelica is more interesting than herself. Eliza and Angelica are obviously very close and think highly of each other, as evidenced by Angelica’s lines in “Satisfied,” later reprised in “The Reynolds Pamphlet.”

In the 18th century, it would’ve been “improper” for a single woman to speak to a man without having been introduced first by a third party, so we should take Angelica’s direct approach to Hamilton as somewhat scandalous (apropos of her self image from “Satisfied,”) and also as a possibly inadvertent nod to the historical reality that Angelica was already married to John Church when Eliza met Hamilton, and so it would have been perfectly appropriate (and expected) for her to directly introduce herself to Hamilton and then introduce him to Eliza.

There’s a contrast here between Eliza and Angelica’s perspectives of the ball. In “Satisfied,” Angelica never mentions Alexander looking at Eliza, but she does notice Eliza’s staring. The way that Angelica tells it, this prompts her to introduce them. In the show’s staging, we see Angelica point towards Eliza from the stairs and Alexander turns to look.

Over the course of the show, Eliza’s character arc takes her from the “helpless” young woman shown here to an independent woman taking charge of not only her own narrative but Hamilton’s. Here, at the beginning of her story, she’s still so helpless that even when her sister appears to be making a move on the man she claimed, she just stands back and watches it play out. C'mon girl, go get your man!

Here’s one historian’s account of Hamilton’s looks. Donald Philips' from On The Wing of Speed:

Hamilton has been with Washington for nearly the entire duration of the war—first as an artillery officer and then as aide-de-camp. Everyone knows that Hamilton has earned his reputation as one of Washington’s most trusted advisers. Some say he is also the brightest. But on first sight, it is hard to believe. Standing barely five feet seven inches tall with narrow shoulders, he looks more like a young boy than a seasoned veteran who has just turned twenty-six years old. He has a freckled baby face with piercing violet-blue eyes. His forehead is high and his sandy brown hair is curly and cropped short.

Here’s one historian’s account of Hamilton’s looks. Donald Philips' from On The Wing of Speed:

Hamilton has been with Washington for nearly the entire duration of the war—first as an artillery officer and then as aide-de-camp. Everyone knows that Hamilton has earned his reputation as one of Washington’s most trusted advisers. Some say he is also the brightest. But on first sight, it is hard to believe. Standing barely five feet seven inches tall with narrow shoulders, he looks more like a young boy than a seasoned veteran who has just turned twenty-six years old. He has a freckled baby face with piercing violet-blue eyes. His forehead is high and his sandy brown hair is curly and cropped short.

Here’s one historian’s account of Hamilton’s looks. Donald Philips' from On The Wing of Speed:

Hamilton has been with Washington for nearly the entire duration of the war—first as an artillery officer and then as aide-de-camp. Everyone knows that Hamilton has earned his reputation as one of Washington’s most trusted advisers. Some say he is also the brightest. But on first sight, it is hard to believe. Standing barely five feet seven inches tall with narrow shoulders, he looks more like a young boy than a seasoned veteran who has just turned twenty-six years old. He has a freckled baby face with piercing violet-blue eyes. His forehead is high and his sandy brown hair is curly and cropped short.

Here’s one historian’s account of Hamilton’s looks. Donald Philips' from On The Wing of Speed:

Hamilton has been with Washington for nearly the entire duration of the war—first as an artillery officer and then as aide-de-camp. Everyone knows that Hamilton has earned his reputation as one of Washington’s most trusted advisers. Some say he is also the brightest. But on first sight, it is hard to believe. Standing barely five feet seven inches tall with narrow shoulders, he looks more like a young boy than a seasoned veteran who has just turned twenty-six years old. He has a freckled baby face with piercing violet-blue eyes. His forehead is high and his sandy brown hair is curly and cropped short.

Could be a reference to SWV’s “I’m So Into You,” or Tamia’s “So Into You.”, or possibly both! Those 90s girls were all over this topic.

Let’s have another historian’s description of Hamilton, shall we? Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers has this particularly memorable description of him and Burr:

Burr had the dark and severe coloring of his Edwards ancestry, with black hair receding from the forehead and dark brown, almost black, eyes that suggested a cross between an eagle and a raven. Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair, all of which came together to suggest an animated beam of light to Burr’s somewhat stationary shadow.

Could be a reference to SWV’s “I’m So Into You,” or Tamia’s “So Into You.”, or possibly both! Those 90s girls were all over this topic.

Let’s have another historian’s description of Hamilton, shall we? Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers has this particularly memorable description of him and Burr:

Burr had the dark and severe coloring of his Edwards ancestry, with black hair receding from the forehead and dark brown, almost black, eyes that suggested a cross between an eagle and a raven. Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair, all of which came together to suggest an animated beam of light to Burr’s somewhat stationary shadow.

Let’s have another historian’s description of Hamilton, shall we? Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers has this particularly memorable description of him and Burr:

Burr had the dark and severe coloring of his Edwards ancestry, with black hair receding from the forehead and dark brown, almost black, eyes that suggested a cross between an eagle and a raven. Hamilton had a light peaches and cream complexion with violet-blue eyes and auburn-red hair, all of which came together to suggest an animated beam of light to Burr’s somewhat stationary shadow.

Eliza’s own trepidation leads listeners to hear a sexual undertone here. “What’s she gonna do,” indeed? Whisk him away to a private corner and change his life? ;) Given the flirtatious conversation they just had (which we won’t hear until “Satisfied”), that’s probably what Hamilton was hoping!

Yet the truth is sweeter. At this point in the song, Angelica has realized that she cannot marry Hamilton herself, and has no intention of further leading him on. Instead, she introduces him to Eliza, hoping to change his life by leading him to a wonderful future wife. It is not until “Satisfied” that we recognize the wistfulness behind this line.

In real life, Angelica could never have even considered marrying Hamilton, given that she had already married John Barker Church three years prior to their meeting.

Check out the surprise on Hamilton’s face—it makes a little more sense after “Satisfied,” doesn’t it? More cynically, Hamilton is just a flexible gold digger, perking up at the name because he’s lost his chance with one rich Schuyler sister only to immediately meet another.

In the background, you can see Anthony Ramos dancing. At this point, the show’s company is performing a modern version of 18th century ballroom dancing.

See also:

I wish I was as smooth as Hamilton when he’s meeting Eliza for the first time. I always think of the scene in “The Godfather” when homeboy sees Apollonia for the first time, and they go: oh he’s been hit with the lightning bolt.

I used all my powers for that one.

Never read this line in The Game. As slick lines go, this is definitely better than “You’re looking pretty, what’s a girl like you doing in this rough city?”

This line in “Satisfied” take place in the middle of her three ‘truths’. While she is, literally in the blocking, stepping away from the couple, she is also ‘stepping away’ from the situation, not interfering with her sister’s happiness.

See Angelica’s third fundamental truth in “Satisfied”.

This is the first instance of Eliza’s countdown to the wedding from her first meeting with Hamilton during “A Winter’s Ball”.

Letters she apparently did not save, in favor of Hamilton’s own. But Hamilton appreciated them. As he told her:

My Betseys soul speaks in every line and bids me be the happiest of mortals. I am so and will be so. You give me too many proofs of your love to allow me to doubt it and in the conviction that I possess that, I possess every thing the world can give.

Hamilton used his greatest asset, his skill with words, to woo Eliza. And what a way to woo:

I have told you, and I told you truly that I love you too much. You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else. You not only employ my mind all day; but you intrude upon my sleep. I meet you in every dream-and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetnesses.

He even gets a little naughty later in the letter. The man just can’t help himself apparently…

A spirit entering into bliss, heaven opening upon all its faculties, cannot long more ardently for the enjoyment, than I do my darling Betsey, to taste the heaven that awaits me in your bosom. Is my language too strong? It is a feeble picture of my feelings—no words can tell you how much I love and how much I long—you will only know it when wrapt in each others arms we give and take those delicious caresses which love inspires and marriage sanctifies.

In one letter, Angelica told Elizabeth that she loved Hamilton “very much and, if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while.”

PROPOSED SUGGESTION: The letter was written 7/30/1794, fourteen years after Eliza married Alexander. Here’s more of it: “I have a letter my dear Eliza from my worthy friend M. de Talleyrand who expresses to me his gratitude for an introduction to you and my Amiable, by my Amiable you know that I mean your Husband, for I love him very much and if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while, but do not be jealous, my dear Eliza, since I am more solicitous to promote his laudable ambition, than any person in the world, and there is no summit of true glory which I do not desire he may attain; provided always that he pleases to give me a little chit-chat, and sometimes to say, I wish our dear Angelica was here. Talleyrand and Beaumetz write in raptures to all their friends of your kindness, and Colonel Hamilton’s abilities and manners, and I receive innumerable compliments on his and your account.
Ah! Bess! you were a lucky girl to get so clever and so good a companion.” More of the letter, displaying Angelica’s remarkable grasp of politics, is quoted here:

Angelica Schuyler (Hamilton 12) — Diannedurantewriter

In 1776, the "old money" families in New York - the ones that had been around in Dutch times and had continued to thrive for a century under the British - were the Van Rensselaers, the Van Cortlandts, and the Schuylers.

In one letter, Angelica told Elizabeth that she loved Hamilton “very much and, if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while.”

PROPOSED SUGGESTION: The letter was written 7/30/1794, fourteen years after Eliza married Alexander. Here’s more of it: “I have a letter my dear Eliza from my worthy friend M. de Talleyrand who expresses to me his gratitude for an introduction to you and my Amiable, by my Amiable you know that I mean your Husband, for I love him very much and if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while, but do not be jealous, my dear Eliza, since I am more solicitous to promote his laudable ambition, than any person in the world, and there is no summit of true glory which I do not desire he may attain; provided always that he pleases to give me a little chit-chat, and sometimes to say, I wish our dear Angelica was here. Talleyrand and Beaumetz write in raptures to all their friends of your kindness, and Colonel Hamilton’s abilities and manners, and I receive innumerable compliments on his and your account.
Ah! Bess! you were a lucky girl to get so clever and so good a companion.” More of the letter, displaying Angelica’s remarkable grasp of politics, is quoted here:

Angelica Schuyler (Hamilton 12) — Diannedurantewriter

In 1776, the "old money" families in New York - the ones that had been around in Dutch times and had continued to thrive for a century under the British - were the Van Rensselaers, the Van Cortlandts, and the Schuylers.

Eliza counts again here at ‘two weeks later’.

These lines are another musical reference to Beyoncé’s “Countdown,” as the stress on the last two syllables is practically identical to when Beyoncé sings “lip locking” and “flocking” in the third verse, as confirmed by Alex Lacamoire.

Alexander and Eliza met in February 1780, and by late February or March, Alexander wrote to Philip Schuyler asking permission to marry Eliza. Alexander’s letter hasn’t survived, but we do have Schuyler’s response to it, 4/8/1780:

Dear Sir, Yesterday I had the pleasure to receive a line from Mrs Schuyler in answer to mine on the subject of the one you delivered me at Morris town; she consents to Comply with your and her daughters wishes. You will see the Impropriety of taking the dernier pas [the last step, i.e., getting married] where you are. Mrs. Schuyler did not see her Eldest daughter married [because Angelica eloped!]. That also gave me pain, and we wish not to Experience It a Second time. I shall probably be at Camp [in Morristown] In a few days, when we will adjust all matters. …

The rest of the letter discusses politics.

Call back to the line above, only this time Eliza is not part of the wining and dining, and rather is forced to wait on the sidelines for her father’s approval.

This sets up the echo in “Burn”, where Eliza remembers that Hamilton built “cathedrals” and “palaces out of paragraphs”.

Really nice callback to the earlier verse in the song, when Eliza is nervous as Angelica makes her way across the room to Hamilton. The parallel structure mimics the back-to-back perspectives of “Helpless” and “Satisfied.”

Philip Schuyler didn’t actually “make his way across the room” to A.Ham; rather, he sent a letter dated April 8, 1780 in which Hamilton received permission to marry Eliza.

Founders Online: To Alexander Hamilton from Philip Schuyler, 8 April 1780 — Archives

Yesterday I had the pleasure to receive a line from Mrs Schuyler in answer to mine on the subject of the one you delivered me at Morris town; she consents to Comply with your and her daughters wishes. 2 You will see the Impropriety of taking the dernier pas where you are.

Dammit Alexander, you had one job.

That father’s instinct is in full force here. Hamilton will, of course, not be true to Eliza. He will have a scandalous and public affair and make his daughter very unhappy for a time. So, narratively, General Schuyler may be preemptively admonishing the wandering eye that he senses in Hamilton.

Channeling Michael Jackson both here and in the following line, which references “The Girl is Mine,” and in addition to Brandy & Monica’s related “The Boy Is Mine.”

This is an interesting role reversal; while the convention in storytelling is for the woman to belong to the man (e.g. “I’m yours,”) from the very beginning Eliza claims Alexander as her own (“Yo, this one’s mine.”) The dynamic is consistent throughout the story, becoming a heartbreaking refrain in “Burn.” (In the song, Eliza also hints at its being confirmed by Alexander – “you said you were mine.”) This subtle demonstration of her personal agency is in contrast to her constant reiteration of how helpless she is in the context of the larger narrative. Without ever explicitly stating it, the wording makes it clear that Eliza, a woman, belongs to no one. (There’s a nice dose of irony when you take into consideration that she was a slaveowner, though.)

After Hamilton’s death, Eliza worked tirelessly to promote his legacy, hiring people to sort through his papers and trying unsuccessfully to commission a biography, referring to him as “her Hamilton” even in widowhood.

Eliza will desolately refer to this feeling later in Act II, at the beginning of the song “Burn.” As we see throughout the musical, Eliza is not into sharing, despite Hamilton’s difficulty confining himself to the bounds of matrimony.

Hamilton raps this guest verse in Eliza’s first big solo number. With the the casting call of Eliza as Alicia Keys, Hamilton is Maxwell in the “Fire We Make.” Hey.

While reprising his role as Hamilton in January of 2019 in Puerto Rico, Lin tweeted:

Hamilton was painfully aware of the fact that he was a poor man marrying into a wealthy family and was unlikely to have the resources to keep Eliza in the style to which she was accustomed and wrote to her frequently to ensure that she was OK with this. But also…

Get it? Not a dollar to his name. But soon the $10 bill will have his name all over it!

A bit of foreshadowing here, as in the second act a love affair on Hamilton’s part will cost him this very honor he flaunts here.

This phrase has probably inspired more Hamilton fan fiction and fan art than any other in the show, with the possible exception of “Laurens, I like you a lot.”

Humblebrag?

“Hamilton probably spent little more than two years at King’s and never formally graduated due to the outbreak of the Revolution.”

Chernow, Ron (2005-03-29). Alexander Hamilton (p. 72). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

According to Miranda, merely a “subconscious” reference to Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain”.

This song has already inverted some gendered romantic tropes (e.g. Hamilton belongs to Eliza, not she to him in “this one’s mine” and “that boy is mine”). This line is another inversion. Instead of accusing Eliza of insanity for letting her emotions control her judgement (as many men have done throughout history), Hamilton characterizes himself as the one who is acting irrationally, since falling in love has changed his thoughts and his behavior just as much.

This is the last time Peggy was mentioned in the play. In “Take a Break”, her absence is notable. Eliza and Angelica exchange greetings, there is a pause before Alexander sings, ‘the Schuyler sisters’, where Peggy would have sung her name.

Historically, Peggy and Alexander were very good friends, and when she was sick Alexander would sit by her bed and talk to her.

A playful allusion to Angelica’s striking ability to go toe to toe matching wits with Hamilton (as seen in “Satisfied”), but also a reference to their infamous flirtation.

In the musical after this line, Eliza looks around for Angelica worriedly. Hamilton takes her face and focuses her attention back onto him, proceeding to reassure her with the next line.

Credit for the animation

From Lauryn Hill’s verse in “Ready or Not” by The Fugees

More historical blurring, as of course, Harlem nowadays is a famous, predominantly black, neighborhood of New York which fits with the song and the style that Hamilton is portraying to its audience. Of course, in 1780 it was still mostly trees and just beginning to get properly settled, but there was a growing community there, and it was a good place to put down a homestead.

Sadly, these lines also foreshadow some of the darker moments of Act II.

Hamilton cheats on Eliza and puts his own reputation above saving her pain, causing her to rethink everything about their relationship, especially these early moments (“Burn”). The line about Harlem and figuring it out also prefigures their moving uptown to Harlem while grieving, and slowly “figuring out” how to go on with their lives, and how to forgive.

The Grange, the Hamiltons' home uptown, can currently be found in St. Nicholas Park on 141st Street between Convent and St. Nicholas Avenues.

This is one of the few times in the musical that we hear Alexander talk about his parents and where he came from—a truly vulnerable, open moment he shares with Eliza. Contrast with his reaction in the next song, “Satisfied,” to Angelica asking about his family: he says it’s “unimportant,” Angelica points out “his hands started fidgeting, he looked askance.” He next promises that he’ll never let Eliza feel as helpless as he did as when growing up, providing another possible explanation, pride aside, for his reluctance in speaking about his youth.

Chernow wrote:

The delirious Alexander was probably writhing inches from his mother when she expired at nine o' clock on the night of February 19.

Chernow described Alexander as “delirious,” Miranda may be hinting that Hamilton was experiencing hallucinations while ill, but that he saw his mother’s helpless face and knew that it was real.

Miranda’s voice descends into a growl reminiscent of Ja Rule’s voice when performing with women such as Ashanti and Jennifer Lopez. For example, “Mesmerize”:

This has been confirmed on Miranda’s twitter.

Another reason for irony here is that, while Alexander promises to never make Eliza feel helpless, she was helpless from the moment she first saw him. In fact, she’s already sung almost an entire song about this feeling!

There is a funny bit of staging during these lines as Hamilton and Eliza circle the stage’s turntable. Three background dancers hold up papers around them. Hamilton signs the bottom of each of the letters, going around the circle and eventually gets out of the light to return again in the wedding scene. After him, Eliza goes around the circle, taking the letter from each background dancer and putting them into a box provided by Peggy. She is happily drowning in his letters.

This line also has a deeper significance, playing into Eliza’s character arc from “Helpless” to “Burn” through an opposing water/fire motif which will illustrate the transformation in how she defines herself in relation to Hamilton’s narrative. In “Helpless”, she describes herself as “drowning” (an act usually associated with water) in his eyes, minimizing her agency within the narrative and portraying herself as vulnerable to Alexander and powerless in his courtship of her despite the role she clearly plays in pursuing him (“this one’s mine”).

However, in “Burn,” she does a 180 in how she approaches her lack of personal agency, utilizing the opposite of water—fire—to burn her letters with Alexander. Her erasure is turned from self-imposed powerlessness to a defiant act of reclaiming her power— through actively “erasing [herself] from the narrative,” she exerts the only form of control that she has by changing the way Alexander’s story and her role in it will be told by historians.

“I do” is a reference to marriage vows.

However, in the context of the lyrics, she is also directly replying to Alexander and the ensemble’s “"swear to God you’ll never feel so helpless.” Eliza admits, happily, that she already does. Her “I do"s are another concession of her agency in the name of love, something that will come back to haunt her when she later learns of Hamilton’s affair.

Women of Eliza’s time lost a lot of their rights when they married, pretty much signing up to be the property of their husbands. Eliza, in her starry-eyed infatuation with Hamilton, isn’t thinking practically and fails to realize that she really will be helpless to Hamilton’s whims in the future.

In spite of everything, Hamilton does love Eliza.

The backing vocals finish Hamilton’s sentence: he’s never felt so helpless.

Hamilton grew up without any siblings, and, for a good chunk of his life, without any family. Unlike Angelica, Hamilton has never had to put someone else’s needs before his own. He loves Eliza just as much as Angelica does, but ultimately chooses himself over Eliza, because he’s spent his whole life looking after himself.

There is a funny bit of staging during these lines as Hamilton and Eliza circle the stage’s turntable. Three background dancers hold up papers around them. Hamilton signs the bottom of each of the letters, going around the circle and eventually gets out of the light to return again in the wedding scene. After him, Eliza goes around the circle, taking the letter from each background dancer and putting them into a box provided by Peggy. She is happily drowning in his letters.

This line also has a deeper significance, playing into Eliza’s character arc from “Helpless” to “Burn” through an opposing water/fire motif which will illustrate the transformation in how she defines herself in relation to Hamilton’s narrative. In “Helpless”, she describes herself as “drowning” (an act usually associated with water) in his eyes, minimizing her agency within the narrative and portraying herself as vulnerable to Alexander and powerless in his courtship of her despite the role she clearly plays in pursuing him (“this one’s mine”).

However, in “Burn,” she does a 180 in how she approaches her lack of personal agency, utilizing the opposite of water—fire—to burn her letters with Alexander. Her erasure is turned from self-imposed powerlessness to a defiant act of reclaiming her power— through actively “erasing [herself] from the narrative,” she exerts the only form of control that she has by changing the way Alexander’s story and her role in it will be told by historians.

“I do” is a reference to marriage vows.

However, in the context of the lyrics, she is also directly replying to Alexander and the ensemble’s “"swear to God you’ll never feel so helpless.” Eliza admits, happily, that she already does. Her “I do"s are another concession of her agency in the name of love, something that will come back to haunt her when she later learns of Hamilton’s affair.

Women of Eliza’s time lost a lot of their rights when they married, pretty much signing up to be the property of their husbands. Eliza, in her starry-eyed infatuation with Hamilton, isn’t thinking practically and fails to realize that she really will be helpless to Hamilton’s whims in the future.

In spite of everything, Hamilton does love Eliza.

The backing vocals finish Hamilton’s sentence: he’s never felt so helpless.

Hamilton grew up without any siblings, and, for a good chunk of his life, without any family. Unlike Angelica, Hamilton has never had to put someone else’s needs before his own. He loves Eliza just as much as Angelica does, but ultimately chooses himself over Eliza, because he’s spent his whole life looking after himself.

There is a funny bit of staging during these lines as Hamilton and Eliza circle the stage’s turntable. Three background dancers hold up papers around them. Hamilton signs the bottom of each of the letters, going around the circle and eventually gets out of the light to return again in the wedding scene. After him, Eliza goes around the circle, taking the letter from each background dancer and putting them into a box provided by Peggy. She is happily drowning in his letters.

This line also has a deeper significance, playing into Eliza’s character arc from “Helpless” to “Burn” through an opposing water/fire motif which will illustrate the transformation in how she defines herself in relation to Hamilton’s narrative. In “Helpless”, she describes herself as “drowning” (an act usually associated with water) in his eyes, minimizing her agency within the narrative and portraying herself as vulnerable to Alexander and powerless in his courtship of her despite the role she clearly plays in pursuing him (“this one’s mine”).

However, in “Burn,” she does a 180 in how she approaches her lack of personal agency, utilizing the opposite of water—fire—to burn her letters with Alexander. Her erasure is turned from self-imposed powerlessness to a defiant act of reclaiming her power— through actively “erasing [herself] from the narrative,” she exerts the only form of control that she has by changing the way Alexander’s story and her role in it will be told by historians.

Even though he breaks the sanctity of marriage, he stills relies on Eliza, especially in the later songs, when Philip dies and Alexander is dueling. In this line we also see a contrast to his standard “ready to die” attitude as he appears to be looking towards a brighter future.

Taking ‘life’ to mean the story of Alexander Hamilton, and this also refers to how it was ‘fine’ because Eliza told his story for forty years after his death, and the children she bore with him documented it as well.

This also sets up the line for Eliza to rhyme with it, carrying the theme that characters who are close finish each others rhymes.

According to Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist named Fisher Ames describes Hamilton’s eyes as “a deep azure, eminently beautiful, without the slightest trace of harshness or severity…” Lin-Manuel Miranda draws attention to Hamilton’s attractive eyes in this verse.

Like most of the musical samples and callbacks in the play, this reference is an anachronism; it is from the “Bridal Chorus” from Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, which premiered in 1850.

Laurens (best man) and Angelica (maid of honor) walk down the aisle together, followed by Lafayette and Peggy.

Mulligan gets to be the flower girl:

Alexander’s and Eliza’s wedding bands (with their names engraved on them) are at Columbia University, sometimes on display at Butler Library.

A poignant callback to “Alexander Hamilton.” In that song, the line is all about Hamilton’s determination to escape and overcome the terrors, slights, reversals, and heartbreaks of his childhood. Here, it becomes a celebration of the blessing of being able to make a fresh start. Despite being a bastard orphan, marriage offers Hamilton a family again, and makes him a “new man.”

The last two chords and the sweet melodic turn at the end of “Helpless” form an “Amen” plagal cadence commonly used at the end of church hymns. Here, for the first time in Hamilton, we go to church, get married, and hear something simply holy and beautiful in Eliza and Alexander together. We won’t go to church again until “It’s Quiet Uptown.”

Historically, Eliza and Alexander married in Albany at the Schuyler Mansion in December 1780.

As discussed above, despite this song being adorable and upbeat and a lovely characterization of Eliza, there is a problematic aspect to it: Eliza constantly de-emphasizes her own agency in her and Hamilton’s courtship and marriage. This is a common trope in the creative vernacular of romance—the enormity of feeling one experiences when ‘falling’ in love can seem so pre-determined and fateful. However, by saying she is helpless, she is erasing her own role in accepting and encouraging Hamilton’s advances. This adds a hint of irony to the song’s “helpless” motif, which will get exploited by the show in its various, less happy reprises. After all, if you don’t stand up for yourself, if you don’t craft your own narrative, fate—and other people—have an awful tendency to walk all over you.

Essentially, Eliza is not acknowledging her role in her own narrative here, and it is part of her personal character arc that she must learn to take ownership of herself and her story, and to accept that she has the strength to carry not only her own, but also her husband’s legacy.