Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton is the central character and protagonist of the musical. In the show’s opening lines, he is portrayed as an illegitimate orphan, an immigrant, and of mixed race. All of these play into the narrative of the show, defining the internal reasons he makes the choices he does and, perhaps more importantly, how other characters perceive him and react to him – external experiences that also propel him to make the choices he does. Ultimately, the story portrays him as being on the negative side, the receiving end, of a number of prejudices, some of which he internalizes (i.e. makes part of his identity) and all of which he struggles, over the course of the show, to confront and overcome.

Hamilton is also portrayed as being fiercely, almost frantically, intelligent, driven not so much to succeed as to express his ideas, his passions, and his...