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Leslie Ramirez
English 114B
Your Typical Romance

Hamiltons clich romance is told in Elizas new hit song, Helpless.

Like every other love song, this song talks about love at first sight, literally.
Eliza, Alexander Hamiltons wife, says you walked in and my heart went
Boom (YouTube, 0:37), referring to her first encounter with Hamilton. They
both fell in love. This love story occurred ages ago. That being said, Hamilton
had to ask for her fathers blessing. Nervously, Eliza describes the scene. She
sings, Two weeks later, in the living room stressin. My fathers stone-faced
while youre asking for his blessing (YouTube, 1:59). Could this have been
what Eliza was really stressing about, or could it have been that she was
stressing over her slutty sister trying to steal her man? We all know the
history between Hamilton and his women. All three Schuyler sisters were
head over heels for Hamilton. I was surprised he even settled with Eliza.
Regardless of the little love triangle Hamilton had going on, Eliza decided to
marry him. Before they got married, Hamilton stressed how he had nothing
to offer Eliza but his love. Sadly, we all know how this love story ends.
The lyrics to the song Helpless sound like a poem. Most sentences
rhyme with one another, which just makes the song sound more clich, like a
poem. They do really badly on using rhetorical moves in this song; I only
noticed a few similes and metaphors. Hamilton uses one of the few rhetorical

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moves in the song when he says, Angelica tried to take a bite of me
(YouTube 3:00). Obviously, Angelica did not literally try to take a bite out of
Hamilton, shes not a vulture. Hamilton referred to Angelica trying to steal
her sisters man. The song itself meant to reveal the love triangle between
the two sisters. Every time Eliza sang the word Helpless, you can hear both
of her sisters voices echoing in the background. Coincidence? I think not.
Towards the end, we can clearly hear a familiar wedding song. The producer
was very clever by doing this because he implied that the wedding occurred
without actually saying it occurred. Although the song is terrible, they made
good use of the genre. This pop/contemporary R&B really gets the message
of love across. If this song would have had a different genre, it would not
have worked out.
When I first heard the song Helpless, I automatically thought of
Destinys Child song, Cater to you. Although Helpless talks about the
meeting of two lovers and Cater to you talks about women wanting to cater
to their men, both songs have a similar rhythm and have one lead singer
along with two background singers. I dont know why I automatically thought
of Cater to you when I heard Helpless. I mean Eliza does not have nearly as
good a voice as Beyonc, nobody does. I just compared the two because of
the similar beat and rhythm. But coincidentally, the background singers are
related to the main singer in both songs and both of the songs talk about
love. These songs are both clear examples of how woman tend to express
themselves in a basic way despite the different time periods. Regardless of

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what she aimed for, this song isnt going anywhere other than YouTube. It
just doesnt have the potential.
In all honesty, this song has so many flaws to criticize on. Its way
easier for a girl like me to criticize something rather than say something
good about that something. Its just our natural instinct; we want to feel
superior and better. This song was just bad. I mean how many times do we
have to listen to the same old love story? Its totally 90s, like what man still
asks for a girls hand in marriage? Were in 2016; most girls these days have
never even met their father. Like yes, I know the song is just telling the story
of what happened between Hamilton and Eliza, but we want to hear the juicy
stuff. We all want to know about the affair and how Eliza truly felt after it. We
all want to know more about the Schuyler sisters and what was really
happening behind closed doors. The only reason we even know about the
Schuyler sisters is because of what was said indirectly. I personally would like
to know how Elizas father reacted after finding out that his daughters
husband betrayed her after promising he was going to stay true. Todays
society is more appealed by the juicy gossip, rather than a mushy love story.
Overall, this song rates in the top ten worst love songs. Sorry Eliza, no shade
or anything.