ENGL383 way one would understand the power behind weapons and fighting . Perhaps most explicitly in line 6 is this metaphor solidified with , ‘ Yo . Turns out we have a secret weapon !’. While at this point it is not a visible metaphor directly understanding said weapon to be Lafayette , this song is used as Lafayette ’ s formal introduction to the audience , and they are directly addressed – ‘ Ev ’ ryone give it up for America ’ s favorite fighting Frenchman ! / Lafayette !’. The metaphor quickly goes from implicit to explicit , and visible for the audience ’ s understanding . In the following lines , Lafayette ’ s character takes centre stage with the introductory metaphorical expression ‘ I ’ m takin this horse by the reins makin ’ / Redcoats redder with bloodstains ’. For context , at this point Lafayette was a commander of troops organising the siege of Yorktown against the British ‘ redcoats ’, so while Lafayette is in a military position he is not literally on the battlefront taking any horses by their reins as his position is far superior . However , the use of this now quite commonplace metaphor has a similar effect in this song as ‘ I ’ m a diamond in the rough ’ does in ‘ My Shot ’, allowing the audience to at least interpret Lafayette ’ s position for themselves and understand from the metaphor ’ s usage that he is here to take charge . The horse is the source and the target may be the war , suggesting that Lafayette is here to take over and win the war for them . Additionally , by using the more literal ‘ redcoats redder with bloodstains ’ Miranda cognitively shapes how one interprets this point of the musical as it is positioned from the focalisation of the
American troops – and is throughout – but here the British troops are reduced , by way of synecdoche , to be labelled as simply ‘ redcoats ’, much like they were in real life at this time . This dehumanisation while one is otherwise overwhelmingly faced with metaphors depicting America ’ s strength and prowess allows the audience ‘ in ’ on the metaphorical thinking behind the song . The aggressive imagery continues throughout the song with instances such as , ‘ And I ’ m never gonna stop until I make ‘ em / Drop and burn ‘ em up and scatter their remains ’ and this adds to the powerful stance the song takes , along with the fact it reaches a rapid speed of 6.3 words per second when sang ( Debczak 2015 ).
Act 2 introduces the audience to the characters in a postwar , independent America with Washington as the first president and Hamilton still as his right-hand man and secretary of the treasury . The song ‘ Washington on Your Side ’ depicts the feeling of envy and annoyance felt by Burr , Jefferson , and Madison that Hamilton manages to always get what he wants because of his close relationship with Washington . Miranda draws on lots of the metaphors and imagery used in the more war-focused songs to discuss what the characters plan to do to resolve the situation and ‘ take down ’ Hamilton and this builds an interesting tension . Jefferson describes how , ‘ We smack each other in the press , and we don ’ t print retractions ’ with smack being an aggressive lexical choice used figuratively to describe the behaviours of the cabinet members toward each other in
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