By Katalina Echavarri, Haley McGill, and Allie Pizzino
Hamilton
Emotion management is also expressed in music through song lyrics. In “Satisfied,” a woman tells the story of how she had to put aside her feelings for a man (Alexander Hamilton) in order to uphold the expectations for her life set forth by society and her family and to put her sister Eliza’s interests in Hamilton ahead of her own. The song is sung by Angelica Schuyler in the musical Hamilton as she gives a maid-of-honor speech at her sister’s and Hamilton’s wedding; Angelica flashes back to the moment she met him, and how her emotions evolved as she realized the weight of both her social position and Eliza’s feelings. Angelica sings that the man “set [her] heart aflame” and how she wants to “take him far away—” until she sees the “helpless” look on her sister’s face, and she realizes she must hide her feelings. She reveals how if she showed her emotions, her sister would suffer:
I know my sister like I know my own mind
You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind
If I tell her that I love him she’d be silently resigned
He’d be mine
She would say “I’m fine”, she’d be lying
Angelica manages her emotions by surface acting. She smiles and supports the bride and groom through the wedding, starting her toast with the words “To the groom… / To the bride… / From your sister… / Who is always by your side [italicized for emphasis].” Her actions are recognized as surface acting because she uses words and facial expressions to convince the people around her of her purely platonic feelings for her brother-in-law. Angelica continues to acknowledge that “when [she] fantasize[s] at night, it’s Alexander’s eyes,” making it clear that she is not deep acting. Angelica is not attempting to internalize her lack of romantic feelings; rather, she is choosing to hide them from society.
The Sound of Music
Furthermore, examples of emotion management can be seen in the song “I Have Confidence” from The Sound of Music. The vocalist and protagonist Maria is about to become the governess for a family with seven children. She feels overwhelmed, yet she sings this song to build her confidence and explain how she will continue to do so. Maria acknowledges her fears at the beginning of the song; she then resolves: “Oh, I must stop these doubts / All these worries” and proceeds to explain how she will do so. Deep acting is a form of emotion management that individuals perform to convince themselves as much as society of the new emotions they want to take on. Maria is deep acting because she uses tactics like visualization to induce her own feelings of confidence.
The courage to serve them with reliance
Face my mistakes without defiance
Show them I’m worthy
And while I show them
I’ll show me
Maria is eager to be a role model for the children, and she uses this desire in her imagery to build her confidence. By the end of the song we can see how Maria’s attitude has changed. She ends the song reaffirming the confidence she now feels after her fast-paced deep acting and acknowledging that others (“which you see”) will recognize her confidence, as well.
Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers
When you wake up
Wake up!
It’s healthy
All I trust I leave my heart to
All I trust becomes my own
I have confidence in confidence alone
…
Besides, which you see
I have confidence in me
Miranda, Lin Manuel. Hamilton: An American Musical. Atlantic Records, 2015, MP3. Spotify. Wise, Robert, director. The Sound of Music. Twentieth Century Fox, 1965. 2hr., 54 min. Disney+.