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Hamilton Fans Debating What Eliza’s Gasp At The End Means

After premiering on Disney Plus last week, fans are now debating - once more - what Eliza's gasp at the end of Hamilton means.

Hamilton

Over five years after it first premiered, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton hit Disney Plus on July 3rd and tons of fans have been reliving the epic tale of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

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With Lin-Manuel’s critically acclaimed and Tony award-winning musical now on the streaming platform, though, many people who weren’t able to catch the Broadway production are finally able to see what all the fuss is about as well. And it seems that everyone has been checking it out lately, with Hamilton topping the trending chart on Disney Plus and bringing in a ton of new subscribers.

As is the case with most things that gain traction on the internet, though, Hamilton has sparked a lot of debate recently, especially regarding its portrayal of slavery. But there’s something else that folks are debating about, too, and that’s the meaning of Eliza’s gasp at the end of the play, with it unclear exactly what it’s supposed to represent. The fans certainly have their theories, though, and below, you can see just a few of them.

https://twitter.com/TheMicAndMe/status/1281010892776386561

https://twitter.com/MattGottlieb_/status/1281006658165125127

https://twitter.com/tiff_mau/status/1281006625596174338

Hamilton

So, what does Eliza’s gasp really mean at the end of Hamilton? Well, actress Phillipa Soo spoke about it a while ago and explained it as so:

“People are like, ‘Is it Eliza going into heaven? Is she seeing Alexander? Is she seeing God? What is it?’ And it’s kind of all of those things. Sometimes, it’s literally, I look out and I see the audience, and that’s what it is, but I think, that idea of ‘transcendence’ is present in all of that. Whether it’s in Eliza’s mind, or in Phillipa’s mind, they’re both one and the same, which is beautiful about that moment.”

Of course, that’s still pretty vague and clearly, it’s going to be up to each individual audience member to make up their own mind on what exactly this hotly-debated gasp might mean and what Lin-Manuel Miranda is trying to say with it.

But tell us, do you have any interesting Hamilton theories of your own? Even if they aren’t necessarily related to this particular moment? If so, be sure to leave them via a comment in the usual place down below.