In this song, Hamilton and Eliza get
married, and Angelica gives a speech. Though she gives a speech and wishes them
happiness and success, she later says, "I remember that night, I might
just regret that night for the rest of my days." So why did Angelica
continue to sit on the side lines and wish them well if she wasn't happy
herself? Throughout the musical, you can tell that Angelica loves her sister
Eliza, and only wants the best for her. She even puts her sisters wants and
needs above her own happiness, which makes her seem like the ideal person, but
in some ways she isn't.
Throughout the musical, we see
Angelica wishing Hamilton and Eliza well, but behind her sisters back we see
her flirting with Hamilton, but during the affair she's definitely
on her sister’s side, so it's hard to get a real read on Angelica. Is she
really happy for her sister, or does she want to wiggle her way into her life
so she can be around Hamilton? During this song there is back and forth between
Hamilton and Angelica, where they both talk about how neither are ever
satisfied, and later we find out that the only reason she didn't take Hamilton
for herself, was because she wanted to make her dad proud and marry rich.
As the song continues though, we learn more about
Angelica's thoughts on Hamilton. She knew he was a social climber, but she was
still attracted to him. Why didn't she take Hamilton, and leave her sisters to
make her father proud, and finally become satisfied? Angelica is the oldest so
she sees it as her duty to make her father proud, and lets her sisters be
happy. She'll never be satisfied, because she doesn't have the man that she
truly wants, but she knows that her sister is happy and that makes her happy. So she will settle in the end and wish them well and watch from the side lines as their life together progresses.
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I think that this is a really well analyzed. In addition to your point about Angelica perhaps only wanting to be in Eliza's life for Hamilton, I wondered if Hamilton is doing somewhat of the same thing. Hamilton is just marrying Eliza so that he gets a higher status and can keep Angelica in his life.
ReplyDeleteAngelica most definitely loves Hamilton, and I think that the reason as to why she says that she is going to regret that night for the rest of her life is because she wasn't the one that talked to Hamilton first, that it was Eliza. I agree with you in that she is just trying to be a good sister to Eliza when her and Hamilton get married but deep down, I think that she is jealous of her sister because she wishes that it could've been her.
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