Introduction
The musical Hamilton hit the
musical scene in 2016 and became an instant classic. Blending the music
styles of hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway on stage in a way that’s
never been done before. The show has been renowned for its music and
lyrics since the first performance. The composer, and original actor for
the titular, Lin Manuel-Miranda wrote this show over the course of seven
years. Hamilton was nominated for a record breaking 16 Tony awards in 13
different categories and won 11 of them, including Best Original Score
(music and lyrics) for a Musical.
The show follows the life of the founding father, Alexander Hamilton beginning with immigrating to the United States, the nation’s first major sex scandal, and his eventual death by duel. The other main characters that will be discussed during this analysis are Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s friend turned enemy and Eliza Hamilton, his wife and mother of their children. Another unique feature of the show is that the actors who play the other supporting characters switch roles from Act I to Act II.
Throughout this analysis I will be using the musical term ostinatom which means a melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition.
To begin this text analysis we need to first load the following packages.
library(tidyverse)
library(tidytext)
library(textdata)
library(wordcloud2)
library(gridExtra)
library(readr)
ham_lyrics <- read_csv("ham_lyrics.csv")
Analysis by Lyric
The first step is to create a
filter for all of the lyrics in the show, excluding the common words
such as “the” and “me” that do not add any value to the lyrics of the
musical.
all_ham_lyrics <- ham_lyrics %>%
unnest_tokens(word, lines)%>%
anti_join(stop_words)
## Joining, by = "word"
Using this filter we can look at the 20 most common words in the musical.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
head(20)
## # A tibble: 20 × 2
## word n
## <chr> <int>
## 1 da 89
## 2 wait 81
## 3 time 77
## 4 hamilton 75
## 5 hey 69
## 6 burr 63
## 7 shot 58
## 8 sir 56
## 9 alexander 50
## 10 whoa 42
## 11 gonna 38
## 12 rise 37
## 13 world 36
## 14 em 35
## 15 story 35
## 16 alive 34
## 17 satisfied 33
## 18 york 33
## 19 helpless 32
## 20 home 32
We can also visualize the most common words of the musical in the following word cloud.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
wordcloud2()
From the list and the word cloud we can see the word “da” appears the most in the musical. “Da” as the most common word was a surprise to me because I know that it is only used in a couple songs. The character King George III sings the word and is only in three songs of the entire musical, so I wanted to see in which song he sang that word the most.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(word == "da") %>%
count(title, sort = TRUE)
## # A tibble: 2 × 2
## title n
## <chr> <int>
## 1 You'll Be Back 76
## 2 I Know Him 13
It appears that “You’ll Be Back” was the most popular song for tha tlyric, but it was alarming that only two of his three songs were listed. The missing song from the list is “What Comes Next,” so I listened to the song and heard him sing his ostinatom “da da da da da”. I believe that this shows an error in the original data source.
The next most popular word from the musical is wait. I know that
in the musical the character Aaron Burr is known for being patient and
waiting for his time to take action, whereas Alexander Hamilton is more
impulsive. I assume that Burr will be the most common speaker of the
word wait, because it is what he is most known for, and wanted to
check.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(word == "wait") %>%
separate_rows(sep = "/") %>%
count(speaker, sort = TRUE)
## # A tibble: 12 × 2
## speaker n
## <chr> <int>
## 1 BURR 21
## 2 ENSEMBLE 21
## 3 BURR & ENSEMBLE 11
## 4 HAMILTON 8
## 5 COMPANY 4
## 6 COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON) 4
## 7 HAMILTON & COMPANY 3
## 8 ANGELICA 2
## 9 ELIZA 2
## 10 FULL COMPANY 2
## 11 MEN 2
## 12 LAURENS 1
Burr and the Ensemble sing this word the same number of times, which is not what I originally predicted, but it makes sense. When I hear the word wait, I think of Burr’s song “Wait for It” and in that song whenever he says the line “I’m willing to wait for it,” the ensemble sings is as well. I wanted to confirm that this was the most common occurrence of the word wait and decided to check.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(word == "wait") %>%
count(title, sort = TRUE)
## # A tibble: 11 × 2
## title n
## <chr> <int>
## 1 Wait For It 40
## 2 Hurricane 14
## 3 Alexander Hamilton 8
## 4 Non-Stop 7
## 5 Take A Break 3
## 6 The Room Where It Happens 3
## 7 Satisfied 2
## 8 My Shot 1
## 9 Schuyler Defeated 1
## 10 The World Was Wide Enough 1
## 11 Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story 1
This confirms that the song “Wait for it” has significantly more instances of the word wait being sung. I thought that it was interesting the song Hurricane was the second most common because that is a song sung mainly by Alexander Hamilton, and he is not known for waiting. Hamilton’s ostinatom throughout the show is about not having enough time to write and “not throwing away my shot.” The last most common word I will look at is “time,” because I’m not sure whether or not that will come from Hamilton or Eliza more.
all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(word == "time") %>%
separate_rows(sep = "/") %>%
count(speaker, sort = TRUE)
## # A tibble: 21 × 2
## speaker n
## <chr> <int>
## 1 HAMILTON 13
## 2 BURR 8
## 3 ELIZA & COMPANY 7
## 4 ENSEMBLE 7
## 5 WASHINGTON 7
## 6 ELIZA 6
## 7 COMPANY 5
## 8 HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/LAURENS/MULLIGAN 5
## 9 LAURENS 4
## 10 BURR & ALL WOMEN 2
## # … with 11 more rows
It appears that Hamilton sings the lyric the most and is followed by Burr, which was unexpected. Burr and Hamilton have many conversations about their different approaches to the way they spend their time, but it makes sense that Hamilton talks about it a couple more times than Burr. I also noticed that Washington is tied for the third most common speaker, which makes sense because he sings a song entitled “One Last Time.”
Analysis by Same Character
The next thing I
wanted to investigate was what each character’s most common words were
per act of the musical. There are two acts in the musical, each
containing 23 songs, and are about two different times in Hamilton’s
life. The first act is about Hamilton coming to America, fighting in the
Revolutionary War, getting married to Eliza, and ends with the birth of
his son and the end of the war. The second act is about creating a
stable government, Hamilton’s public affair, the death of his son, and
his own death resulting from a duel with Aaron Burr. To analyze each act
I first had to create two filters separating the songs by each act.
c("Alexander Hamilton", "Aaron Burr, Sir", "My Shot", "The Story of Tonight", "The Schuyler Sisters", "Farmer Refuted", "You'll Be Back", "Right Hand Man", "A Winter's Ball", "Helpless", "Satisfied", "The Story of Tonight (Reprise)", "Wait For It", "Stay Alive", "Ten Duel Commandments", "Meet Me Inside", "That Would Be Enough", "Guns and Ships", "History Has Its Eyes On You", "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)", "What Comes Next?", "Dear Theodosia", "Non-Stop") ->ACT_1
c("What'd I Miss", "Cabinet Battle #1", "Take A Break", "Say No To This", "The Room Where It Happens", "Schuyler Defeated", "Cabinet Battle #2", "Washington On Your Side", "One Last Time", "I Know Him", "The Adams Administration", "We Know", "Hurricane", "Burn", "Blow Us All Away", "Stay Alive (Reprise)", "Stay Alive (Reprise)", "It's Quiet Uptown", "The Election of 1800", "Your Obedient Servant", "Best of Wives and Best of Women", "The World Was Wide Enough", "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story") ->ACT_2
Once I created the filters for songs in each act, I used them to make
the following filters of the most common lyrics Hamilton sings in each
act of the show.
Alexander Hamilton
ham_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "HAMILTON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Hamilton ACT I Top Ten Words")
ham_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "HAMILTON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Hamilton ACT II Top Ten Words")
With both of these filters I can look at the graphs side by side
to compare Hamilton’s most common lyrics per act.
grid.arrange(ham_actI_graph, ham_actII_graph)
Hamilton had the same first and third most common words in both
acts. It is really interesting because those words are often spoken
together. Hamilton will usually say “Burr sir” together. It is also
interesting to see that the other common words follow the overall plot
of each act. The first act for Hamilton is about fighting in the war and
his most common words are words like shot, war, and command. The second
act is about forming the government and his most common words are
writing, plan, and time. I expected the word time to be more common in
the first act because throughout the show he is worried about not having
enough time to do what he wants in his life, but it does make sense that
it is more common in the second act because he reaching the end of his
life and that is when he is more worried about running out of time. The
only word that has a sentiment analysis value is war. I was surprised
that the word shot did not have a sentiment value attached as well. I
believe that Hamilton’s most common words follow the theme of both acts
during the show.
Aaron Burr
The next
character we will look at is Burr, and we will follow the same structure
for the following characters.
burr_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "BURR") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Burr ACT I Top Ten Words")
burr_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "BURR") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Burr ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(burr_actI_graph, burr_actII_graph)
Aaron Burr is one of the clearest examples that a character. They
start out as friends with a common interest in winning the war, but
after Hamilton beats Burr for many political positions, so he becomes
upset with Hamilton and feels that the two are fighting against each
other now. I thought that it was interesting that Hamilton is such a
common word for Burr, but I realized it’s because he is playing the part
of the narrator. So while the other characters are talking to Hamilton
they don’t say his name as often as Burr does when he is talking about
Hamilton. Burr’s sentiment analysis only has a few values that are not
accurate with context. For example, when Burr says nice in the second
act, he is sarcastically saying that about Washington being too nice of
a President. Even though the character Burr has the clearest line of
friends to enemies, it is not really reflected in the sentiment
anakysis.
Eliza Schuyler/Hamilton
eliza_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "ELIZA") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Eliza ACT I Top Ten Words")
eliza_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "ELIZA") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Eliza ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(eliza_actI_graph, eliza_actII_graph)
Eliza Schuyler/Hamilton is Alexander Hamilton’s main love interest
throughout the show. They get fall in love, get married, and have a
child in the first act of the show, and then go through a rough time
when Hamilton’s affair becomes publicized in the second act, but
eventually she forgives him. I think Eliza follows the friends to
enemies theme of the show because they are in love in the first act, and
then is obviously upset with him in the second act. In the first act
Eliza has a few words with values for the sentiment analysis, however
they are not completely accurate with context. Eliza’s song Helpless is
about how she feels helplessly in love with Hamilton, which is a good
thing, however this word has a negative value associated with it. I
thought that it was interesting that Eliza’s most common words in the
second act are seven, eight, and nine in French, but remember that she
teaches her son to count to ten in French multiple times during the
show. I was surprised that the words burn and break did not have a
negative value from the sentiment analysis in act II as well. I think
that it is clear that Eliza follows the friends to enemies plot with
context of the show, but it could not be determined soley from the
lyrics.
Angelica
angelica_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "ANGELICA") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Angelica ACT I Top Ten Words")
angelica_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "ANGELICA") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Angelica ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(angelica_actI_graph, angelica_actII_graph)
Angelica Schuyler is Eliza’s sister who also wants to be with
Hamilton, but stepped aside so her sister could marry him. She is not in
as much of the second act because she marries someone who lives in
London and moves away, but returns when Hamilton’s affair becomes public
to help her sister. In the first act Angelica’s most common word is
“satisfied,” which is not surprising because that is the title of her
solo song. Two of her other most common words are about Eliza (sister
and bride), which show how much she cares about her sister. Alexander is
in the list for both acts, which makes sense, but I was surprised to see
that it was the most common word for her second act. There are only a
few values for the sentiment analysis. Similarly to Eliza and the term
helpless, when Angelic sings satisfied she is talking about how she
would have had a more satisfying life if she had married Hamilton. Even
though the word on its own has positive connotations, in this context I
believe that it is more negative and should have a lower value. The
second act only has one value for the sentiment analysis and it is
positive for the word reach which I thought was interesting because I
can’t recall when she sings that word. I think that Angelica is more of
a friend to her sister and supports her no matter what, so she follows
the friends to enemies track only because Eliza does.
George Washington
washington_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "WASHINGTON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Washington ACT I Top Ten Words")
washington_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "WASHINGTON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Washington ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(washington_actI_graph, washington_actII_graph)
George Washington acts as a role model for Hamilton during both
acts. I am not really sure how he would follow the friends can be your
enemies theme because he always supported Hamilton, up until the affair
went public. But, Hamilton was the one who publicized the affair, so he
would be responsible for any consequences of that action. Washington’s
most common words in the first act are mostly about Hamilton. His most
common word is Hamilton, he calls Hamilton his son and Alexander, which
are all three words in his top ten most common words. In his second act
Hamilton is actually spoken more times than the first act, but is not
his most common lyric. The reason that Jefferson has made it onto the
list is because during the Cabinet Battle Songs where Hamilton and
Jefferson are arguing, Washington acts as a mediator (with a slight bias
towards Hamilton) and says their names a lot. There are only two words
with a sentiment analysis value for each act, but I am surprised that
the word “goodbye” from the second act didn’t have a value as well. I
think that it is fair to say that Washington’s most common words make
sense for his character, but do not follow the friends and enemies
theme.
Analysis by Different Character
When
Lin Manuel Miranda wrote this show, he wanted the some of the actors to
play different characters parts in Act I vs Act II. For example, the
character who plays Hercules Mulligan in Act I also plays James Madison
in Act II. The reason behind this is because he wanted it to follow the
theme that the same people who are your friends can also be your
enemies. Mulligan is one of Hamilton’s main friends who helps him fight
in the war in the first act, and Madison is Jefferson’s second in
command who are both trying to take down Hamilton. I always thought that
this was an interesting concept and wanted to see if there were any
similarities or differences between the lyrics for the actors who play
different characters.
The first set of characters on that list are
Mulligan/Madison, and I followed the same filter steps as I did above.
Hercules Mulligan/James Madison
mulligan_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "MULLIGAN") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Mulligan ACT I Top Ten Words")
madison_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "MADISON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Madison ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(mulligan_actI_graph, madison_actII_graph)
Hercules Mulligan was one of Alexander Hamilton’s friends who
helped him fight the war in the first act and James Madison is Thomas
Jefferson’s advisor, who is helping him fight against Hamilton
politically. Neither Mulligan nor Madison have many words in each act
because they only really sing by themselves in one song per act. In this
first act Mulligan’s most common words come from the song “Aaron Burr
Sir” and the second act comes from “Washington on Your Side.” There is
only one word with a sentiment value, which is nice and that word is
actually said sarcastically towards Washington for being too nice of a
President (which also happened with Burr). I don’t think that this lyric
analysis shows the differences between the characters because there is
not enough information from the lyrics alone.
Marquis de
Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson
Lafayette_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "LAFAYETTE") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Lafayette ACT I Top Ten Words")
jefferson_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "JEFFERSON") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Jefferson ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(Lafayette_actI_graph, jefferson_actII_graph)
Marquis de Lafayette is one of Hamilton’s three main friends in the
first act that helps him fight the war. Lafayette is from France, so it
is no surprise that his most common word is France. In the second act as
Thomas Jefferson, he and Hamilton get into many political fights about
Washington, so it makes sense that those are some of his most common
words. There are only two values for the sentiment analysis in each act,
and they both have the same value so it does not appear that the
characters Lafayette/Jefferson differ depending on when they are friends
or enemies.
Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds
Peggy_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "PEGGY") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Peggy ACT I Top Ten Words")
Maria_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "MARIA") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Maria ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(Peggy_actI_graph, Maria_actII_graph)
The characters Peggy and Maria are two of the most polar opposite
in terms of their character, even though both only really sing in one
song per act. Peggy Schuyler is younger sister to Eliza and Angelica and
her most popular words reflect her innocence. Her ostinatom is saying
“and Peggy” whenever the sisters introduce themselves, and it makes
sense why that is her most common word. After that her most common words
only have a count of one because she does not sing in many other songs.
In the second act the character Maria Reynolds is the person that
Alexander Hamilton has an affair with. This character is sexualized and
is the exact opposite of Peggy from the first act. I think that they
lyrics from the second act don’t really represent the character without
that piece of context. I was surprised that certain words had a
sentiment analysis value, but others did not. The words from the first
act have negative connotations and make sense, but I was shocked that
the lyrics “cheatin” and “beatin” in the second act were not associated
with a negative value.
John Laurens/Philip
Hamilton
Laurens_actI_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_1 & speaker %in% "LAURENS") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Laurens ACT I Top Ten Words")
Philip_actII_graph <-all_ham_lyrics %>%
filter(title %in% ACT_2 & speaker %in% "PHILIP") %>%
count(word, sort = TRUE) %>%
left_join(get_sentiments("afinn")) %>%
head(10) %>%
ggplot(aes(x=n, y=reorder(word, n), fill = value)) +
geom_col() +
xlab("Count") + ylab("Word") + ggtitle("Philip ACT II Top Ten Words")
grid.arrange(Laurens_actI_graph, Philip_actII_graph)
The final character of the analysis is John Laurens/Philip
Hamilton. Laurens was a close friend of Hamilton and Philip was his
oldest son. In the first act Laurens works with Hamilton during the war.
His ostinatom is to “rise up” so it makes sense that his most popular
word is rise. Another phrase that he repeats a lot is raise a glass to
freedom. We can see that raise and glass are two of the most common
words, but I am a little surprised freedom did not make the list because
all three of those words are usually said together as a phrase. In the
second act his most common words are seven, eight, and nine in French,
just like Eliza’s. They both count two ten while playing the piano
multiple times during this act and while Philip is dying so it is not
surprising that these are both of their most common words. I think that
the lyrics for Laurens/Philip match each character’s persona, but I
don’t think that it necessarily follows the friends and enemies theme
per act. Laurens is fighting a war in the first act and his words follow
that theme with rise up and raise a glass. And in the second act he is
playing Hamilton’s son as a child and his words match the innocence of
that character in counting numbers and saying father.
Conclusion
Overall, it could not de determined
if characters followed the theme that your friends can become your
enemies theme throughout the show, just based on the sentiment analysis.
They most common lyrics became clearer when context for the show was
given, but it is extremely difficult to prove that the theme is followed
without the sentiment analysis values. This investigation did prove that
each character’s ostinatom was one of their most commonly said words
throughout the show. I found it really interesting to see the different
words that were most common for each character because I would often
recognize with song they came from. I also thought it was interesting
that the word immigrant wasn’t more common throughout the show,
especially in the first act, because most of the characters are
immigrants fighting for freedom in America, which is another prominent
theme of the show.
I believe that part of the reason this
investigation was unsuccessful in proving the theme of the show, is
because it is a staged oroduction and there is more to it than just the
lyrics. There are ostinatoms for each character in the music and stage
directions. When that is all combined it can become more clear. But when
we isolate part of it and look at one aspect, the lyrics, it can be
difficult to prove something about the show as a whole.
Limitations
The most significant limitation was
the lack of words with value for the sentiment analysis. The characters
Peggy/Maria had the most sentiment analysis and there were only five
values. Every single main character had another character’s name as one
of their most common words, but there are no values associated with
names. It would be interesting to see the sentiment analysis for other
character’s names, especially for the characters who play different
roles each act. If we had those values, then we could really see if the
lyrics follow the theme of your friends can also be your enemies. Burr
would also be a character to include in that analysis, even though he is
the same character both acts, because he is Hamilton’s first friend and
enemy and Hamilton in his top ten most common words for both acts.
Additionally, the sentiment analysis was not always accurate for the
context of the show. Eliza’s ostinatom is that she feels helplessly in
love with Hamilton when he is around, but the sentiment analysis assigns
the word helpless a value of -2. The word usually has a negative
connotation, but given the context of the show, it has a more positive
meaning.
Another limitation to this analysis was that the words for
each character only counted if they said them by themselves. There were
some lyrics that multiple characters sang, that did not count in the
character’s analysis. Additionally this data source needs a closer
review because we found an error in the King’s lyrics, which could be
evidence for more errors in the data that were not found.
Another analysis that could be done using this data is a deeper
look into the ensemble. Most of the time the ensemble is repeating words
that the main characters say, but it would be interesting to see if
there is are certain characters they repeat more or have parts of their
own. There are certain characters in the ensemble that have featured
roles, but this can’t always be seen from the lyrics. One ensemble
member acts as the omen of death throughout the show, but never sings
about it, because it is all expressed through the choreography.