These lyrics are repeated in the show, by a conservative estimate, around five thousand times. If they appeared any more frequently, it would probably get really annoying and they would lose any impact that they held. Upon a first surface-level listening, one might wonder why this particular phrase is used with such frequency throughout this show. But I have listened to Hamilton (ballpark guess) 2 or 3 times all the way through, and many more times with various songs on shuffle. So I've had a chance to process and think about why Lin-Manuel Miranda loves this series of words so much.
Put very simply, "I am not throwing away my shot" (and the lyrics that follow) serve as Alexander Hamilton's theme. In lots of movies and musicals, certain characters have a musical or lyrical motif attached to them. In film, this may weave its way through the score during key scenes involving the character (such as the classic "Binary Sunset" in the original Star Wars, which serves as a theme of sorts for Luke Skywalker). In musicals, it's usually much more explicit; a certain melody or set of lyrics may be sung by a character during key plot moments, or may be sung or spoken to a character when a scene pertains to them. As you may have noticed, these are the exact sorts of ways that "My Shot" and its chorus are used for Hamilton. He sings or speaks excerpts from it more frequently than any other set of words or notes in the show (I'm pretty sure; I haven't done an exact count, but I'd be shocked if anything beat it besides maybe "Aaron Burr, Sir").
So why "My Shot?" Why doesn't Miranda choose something else for Hamilton's theme? I mean, "Alexander Hamilton," the first song of the show, bears his name, so why not that, for instance? As far as I can see, two reasons.
The first being how well "My Shot" and its lyrics serve as a mantra for Hamilton and everything he stands for. If he gets an opportunity, he's going to take it. Hamilton is, as he sings, just like America- "young, scrappy, and hungry." These lyrics specifically appear less as the show goes on; Hamilton, as he gets older, finds less shots to take and has settled into his career choices. The message doesn't go away completely however, as he tells various other characters, "do not throw away your shot."
The second meaning holds a lot more literal meaning. Two of the most crucial plot moments in the show, the deaths of Alexander's son Philip, as well as his own death, involve someone literally "throwing away their shot;" both Alexander and Philip aim their pistols at the sky in their respective duels, and are killed because of it. In "The World Was Wide Enough," Hamilton references it one last time (heh, see what I did there) in saying "If I throw away my shot, is this how you'll remember me?/ What if this bullet is my legacy?" (I'll probably do another post on legacy at some point as well). This is clearly a large internal debate for Hamilton, but in acting against the thing he's repeated throughout the show so frequently, it shows that he is willing to act even against his own wishes to do what's right.
Alexander Hamilton seems like the underdog in the beginning, he hasn't had his shot yet so he repeats the mantra, and as his life goes on he finds where he thinks he belongs and makes strides in that position. In the end when he points the pistol into the sky and "wastes" his shot, it seems like Hamilton was trying to show us that he'd grown as a person and understood that the duel was going to give the winner a bad name, and he had worked so hard at that point to make it known that he was fighting for freedom not ending it for someone.
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something with the idea that Alexander's not wasting v. wasting his shot correlates with his character development. By the end, he might have felt as though he hadn't wasted his figurative shot, so he could waste his literal shot. The latter was far less meaningful with what he had built and was leaving behind.
DeleteI didn't even think about how "my shot" was actually a possible foreshadowing for the duels: wow! I think that everyone, at some point in their life, has to take "their shot" and take a chance in order to get a foothold. Everything that happens in our lives can each be stemmed back to an event where we had to step up to the plate and take a chance in order to get an in. I like that you reflected on the fact that once he has a place in society and a job, he begins telling this to others, because he took his shot and it worked out for him. Good points!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that Miranda was definitely trying to foreshadow Hamilton's death. I think that he tried to do this with both his word choice, and the fact that Burr sings a line about someone getting shot. I also think that the repetition of the word "shot" was a clue as well of what was to come.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't really think about how "My shot" was a hint at the ending. I always felt that those words were what described Hamilton's character, when he is given a shot he doesn't throw it away and ends up working harder on it then many other people would have. I also think that since he is a immigrant he feels that he has to take whatever he can get since people look down on him.
ReplyDeleteI think it is ironic how Hamilton does not waste a single shot he gets throughout the musical but then in the end he wastes a shot by pointing his pistol into the air and shooting. Hamilton worked his ass off since he was a young boy to get to where he was. He came to America and made something of himself by not wasting any chance he got to move up in life. But then when it finally came to his death he wasted the last shot to save what he had built. He sacrificed a shot to save all of the others he had taken throughout his life.
ReplyDeleteHamilton seems to have wasted his actual shot to protect his figurative shot. His builds his legacy and doesn't want it to fall because he shot someone during a duel. It's irony, but Hamilton has a reason to his madness. If he had not wasted his last shot, I believe he would have wasted his figurative shot.
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