Hello! Are you Aaron Burr, Sir?
The only reason that I knew about Aaron Burr before listening to this musical was because of his infamous murder of Alexander Hamilton. So naturally, as a lover of money, my opinion of the guy had been poor since the beginning. However, this all changed after a little ditty called, Aaron Burr, Sir.
This whole play unfolds in a way that makes us fall in love with the underdog protagonist, Alexander Hamilton; but he doesn't start off that lovable. By song two Alex was telling us about his misfortunes in college and about him bunching the bursar. He presents himself as a self loving chatter box who is overly outspoken when it comes to his own opinions.
Burr, on the other hand, is presented in a much more timid and level-headed way. Burr tells Alex to, "talk less, [and] smile more," and to, "not let them know what you're against or what you're for." Throughout the first part of the play we are able to see the wise and slow-to-act Burr that is constantly trying to work his way to the top but is being held back by none other than Alexander Hamilton.
Some examples are:
-Burr is a better lawyer but is always second to receive better cases after Hamilton
and
-Burr wants to work for Washington but is turned down so an unwilling Alex will take the job
Finally towards the end of the play, Burr teams up with Jefferson to help bring down Alex's career after years of being put on the back burner thanks to his nemesis. Tension after this flip, from friend to foe, continually rises after heated Cabinet debates and the resignation of Washington.
All of the fighting and resentment soon ends after the duel the leads to the death of Hamilton. But was Burr really a bad guy?
Let's be real for a second: Alexander was a jerk to Burr for a long time without any repercussions from Burr, or ANYONE for that matter. So why wouldn't Burr finally need to blow? My opinion is that Burr was pushed into an unexpected and perhaps ultimately unwanted villainous spot. Burr and his demons never stood a chance against Hamilton and his gnawing ambition.
So the question today is, where do you stand? Burr: murderer or unwanted villain?
I want you to decided and tell me why you think this way, that way I can take a better view at both sides of the argument.
I think that in the end Burr is labeled a murderer, he shot and killed Hamilton because he couldn't control himself any longer. I also think he is an unwanted villain, because he's never on Hamilton's side so people don't like him, but Hamilton was always pushing his buttons, so I can see both sides of how people view Burr.
ReplyDeleteBurr obviously was an unwanted villain! He wanted many of the things Hamilton did. He fought to be a hero and wanted to make his legacy great, because he was an orphan and wanted to make his parents proud. In the end he thought that it was either Hamilton or himself, before he knew hamilton wasn't going to shoot. All he wanted was for his daughter not to be an orphan, like he was. He did not want his story to be told like this. He wanted to be seen as the good guy, but people only see him as a murdere now, but i see him as an unwanted villain.
ReplyDeleteI think that Burr is the unwanted villain because all that he really in trouble of is letting his jealousy get the best of him and of course murdering Hamilton, but that's besides the point. Over the course of the musical, Burr gives Hamilton some advice and he uses it to work his way to the top and starts to get the things that Burr wants such as being Washington's right hand man. as we get farther into the musical, Burr's Jealousy turns into rage and he becomes so irrational that he just can't take it anymore so he kills him. to be completely honest, I think that everyone is capable of doing something like this, it just takes a matter of time and how far we can be pushed aside or ignored until we have had enough.
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