The song “Say No to This” is about the affair that Alexander
Hamilton has with Maria Reynolds. It starts with Burr narrating the
circumstances when the affair began. Hamilton then begins telling the story of
how the affair started, when Maria knocked on his door and told him that her
husband was beating her. The song then goes into the details of the affair, and
how James Reynolds, Maria’s husband tried to extort money from Hamilton. That
brings up a line where Hamilton and Maria say,” I am helpless.” The first time
that I heard this I wondered if Miranda’s purpose in doing this was to show
that the entire story that Maria told Hamilton about her husband was a setup in
order to get money from him. The reason that I think this is because Miranda
purposefully has both Maria and Hamilton say that they are helpless while
Hamilton is in the midst of asking about the letter. Additionally, I think that
some of Maria’s following lines are suggestive to that as well. For example, “I
didn’t know any better” as well as “Just give him what he wants and you can
have me.” I think that in her saying both of these things she is helping to
prove that she indeed had a plan with her husband to get money out of Hamilton.
If not I think that Miranda may have used a different choice in some of the
words that he used, and perhaps would have had Maria try to help the situation.
I completely agree with your statement about how Maria was in on the plan with her husband to get money from Hamilton because I also found it kind of sketchy that she just pops up out of nowhere, and goes directly to Hamilton's house and no one else's and if her husband was truly beating her up then why would she lead him back to her house? I mean if you were being assaulted, then wouldn't you want to leave? so yeah I think that she also trying to get from Hamilton as well.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your statement about how Maria was in on the plan with her husband to get money from Hamilton because I also found it kind of sketchy that she just pops up out of nowhere, and goes directly to Hamilton's house and no one else's and if her husband was truly beating her up then why would she lead him back to her house? I mean if you were being assaulted, then wouldn't you want to leave? so yeah I think that she also trying to get from Hamilton as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you. That is another great point that you brought up. I did not really think about how unrealistic that would be. Something else that has been brought to my attention is that shouldn't Hamilton have actually tried to find a solution of this problem if he really wanted to help her? Instead of finding a solution he walks her back to where she has been allegedly beaten.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if we're assuming that Miranda is making this scene historically accurate, he could just be choosing his words to reflect reality rather to infer that they were in on it together. I don't disagree with what you said about Hamilton's word choice, but also keep in mind that Maria divorced James Reynolds (and get this, Aaron Burr was her attorney!). If she had been in on some scheme, I doubt she'd give up her share of that cash. I also doubt that she had any incentive to help her husband, who had actually left the home (see below).
ReplyDeleteAlso, concerning Hamilton taking her back home, her husband had also allegedly left her at this point in time. That isn't SUPER explicit in the show, but she does say "Suddenly he's up and gone/I don't have the means to go on."
I agree with your point of view about how Maria was trying to get money from Hamilton because I also found it kind of weird that she just appears suddenly and she goes directly to Hamilton's house. I think that her husband was not truly beating her up because she would have gone to the police or something like that, it is the most logical thing to do right?
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Devon said that even if he did make is accurate I think he might have changed his word choice to make it more interesting. Also so what if James set up Hamilton, Hamilton should not have cheated on her then non of the whole reputation and worrying about his reputation would have happened. I think that everything Hamilton and Maria did was all Hamiltons fault, Hamilton should never ever cheated on his wife. Anything that Hamilton had to deal with was his fault
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your view on how Maria is trying to get money out of Hamilton with her Husband. This may be a little biased as I feel like she is acting like prostitutes of today and she also doesn't just take the amount of money he gives her. Instead she works with her husband to get $1000 dollars out of him which was a lot of money at that time. I also agree with Olivia as Hamilton shouldn't of cheated on his wife and in the end he accepts this despite his early attempts to pin it all on Maria and James.
ReplyDeleteMARIA IS A MONEY HUNGRY THOT. (Excuse my language). I think she secretly is also in it for the money, but I am sure that it is mostly because of her husband. I honestly feel bad for Maria. I'm sure she is craving love and attention. I also feel bad for her husband (in a way), because he must truly be in need of money.
ReplyDelete