What Is the Fate Of Ophelia?
I’ve criticized Ms Swift in the past, offering praise for her work as a whole, but not when she tackled Romeo and Juliet in “Love Story.” So, when I heard she was making a new song specifically about Ophelia, the young ingenue role in Hamlet, I wasn’t sure what to think. I am pleased to report that Taylor Swift’s song has a masterful grasp of not only Shakespeare, but of many classic iconic ingenues (both real and fictional). And her album, Life of a Showgirl, has a salient point to make about relationships, love, and Ms Swift as a woman and artist.
And I of ladies, most deject and wretched, Have sucked the honey of his music vows. -Hamlet, Act III, Scene i.
Put quite simply, the fate of Shakespeare’s Ophelia is, bad. In Hamlet, Ophelia is the prince’s girlfriend. Over the course of the play, her brother Laertes leaves her for France and Hamlet breaks up with her before accidentally killing her father, Polonius. Ophelia cannot take the strain of all this misery, and she loses her mind, unable to communicate except through flowers or little songs, as this clip from Slings and Arrows shows:
Once Ophelia loses her mind, she dies by drowning. Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude relates how she was picking flowers for garlands (flower crowns), and the branch she was holding broke. She was then weighed down by her gown and sank into the river:
Gertrude: There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
- Hamlet, Act IV, Scene vii.
It’s unclear whether Ophelia committed suicide, died by accident, or if Gertrude actually mercy killed her to end her suffering. In any case, Ophelia lost her family, her mind, and eventually, her life.
Ophelia’s Songs
Like Taylor Swift herself, Ophelia deals with her pain through songs and they range from upbeat and pretty, to deeply nihilistic:
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead;
Go to thy deathbed;
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll.
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan.
God ‘a’mercy on his soul!
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b’ wi’ you. -Hamlet Act IV, Scene v.
It’s the actress’ ultimate test to determine what these songs mean, (“Though this be madness, yet there’s method in it)”. I’ve seen some Ophelias who seem vapid, and consumed by melancholy. Others are full of rage, particularly at Hamlet and Claudius, since they are responsible for her dire fate. As you probably know, if you read my review of Branaugh’s Hamlet, my favorite Ophelia is Kate Winslet, who manages to be all of these and more. Her songs tell the story of a woman who followed her heart, and ended up broken for it; a fate Taylor Swift knows all too well.
TS’ Literary Allusions
The eldest daughter of a nobleman
Ophelia lived in fantasy
But love was a cold bed full of scorpions
The venom stole her sanity
And if you’d never come for me
I might’ve lingered in purgatory
You wrap around me like a chain, a crown, a vine
Pulling me into the fire
All that time
I sat alone in my tower
You were just honing your powers
Now I can see it all (see it all)
Late one night
You dug me out of my grave and
Saved my heart from the fate of
Ophelia
The central conceit of the song is how an unnamed person stopped the speaker from suffering the same fate as Ophelia. The song suggests that Ophelia’s first mistake was that she was too naive “living in a fantasy.” One thing Ophelia’s father and brother repeatedly impress on her is that she cannot be the wife of a prince like Hamlet, since (like so many Disney characters), she isn’t actually royal. There is a deep danger to this unequal power dynamic, which explains her image of a bed full of scorpions, (which by the way, could be cribbed from Macbeth’s line “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife”).
It’s particularly interesting that Swift uses allusions, not just to Ophelia, but to other characters as well: Her imagery of venom and purgatory suggests the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, who alludes to being stung by a serpent, and who might be trapped in purgatory. Like Ophelia, the ghost is languishing and suffering because of a man’s crime. I love how she intertwines the ghost and Ophelia with the metaphor of a chain, crown, and vine. While the ghost suffers due to his crown and his chains, one would wish someone would come up to Ophelia with a rope or vine, to save her from her drowning death.
The final image I’d like to discuss is the notion of being pulled out of a grave. Obviously, the Ghost comes out of his grave, but so does Ophelia! In Act V, Scene i, her brother Laertes jumps into his sister’s open grave and fights with Hamlet over her corpse!
- Laertes. Lay her i’ th’ earth;
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A minist’ring angel shall my sister be
When thou liest howling.- Hamlet. What, the fair Ophelia?
- Gertrude. Sweets to the sweet! Farewell.
[Scatters flowers.]
I hop’d thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;3580
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d, sweet maid,
And not have strew’d thy grave.- Laertes. O, treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that cursed head
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Depriv’d thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.
[Leaps in the grave.]
Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead
Till of this flat a mountain you have made
T’ o’ertop old Pelion or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.- Hamlet. [comes forward] What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wand’ring stars, and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps in after Laertes.]- Laertes. The devil take thy soul!
- [Grapples with him.]
- Hamlet. Thou pray’st not well.
I prithee take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,
Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!- Claudius. Pluck them asunder.
- Gertrude. Hamlet, Hamlet!
- All. Gentlemen!
The question is, who is this mystery figure who metaphorically pulled Taylor Swift from her grave? To answer that, we need to look at the music video itself.
Imagery In The Video
Taylor As Ophelia
I certainly expected Taylor to appear in an Ophelia-like pose, and I suspected she’d base it on the famous 1851 painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais. For the record though, apparently the pose is based on a lesser-known painting by Friedrich Heyser from 1900 .
Ms Swift establishes who Ophelia is using a pose reminiscent of these late 19th and early 20th century paintings. They make Ophelia into a sort of fairy tale character. The lighting is bright and ethereal. The colors suggest a literal watercolor painting, which is important, given the motifs of water and fire in the song. Taylor seems placid, dreamy, and extremely passive.
Taylor as a Mermaid/ Siren
Taylor’s character keeps changing through the video- she goes from Ophelia “A creature incapable of her own distress,” into more active and more assertive characters. First, a mermaid. This isn’t so much of a departure from Shakespeare since, as you saw above, Gertrude compares her to a mermaid. Like Ophelia, mermaids are singers with strong connections to water, who sometimes give their lives for humans, (like in the iconic Hans Christian Anderson story The Little Mermaid).
However, in ancient Greek mythology, mermaids are known as sirens, and they can drive men mad with their songs. Taylor’s character has turned tables on Ophelia and is taking control of the men in her life in this image. She becomes a sort of siren/ pirate, using a sword to keep men at bay. This also echoes how, after being sent oversees, Hamlet himself boards a pirate ship and makes the pirates take him back to Denmark, so he can finally take revenge on Claudius. Of course, Taylor Swift wouldn’t settle for the supporting character of Ophelia, and has recast herself as the starring role.
Waiting In the Wings
The title of Taylor’s album is The Life of a Showgirl, so the whole song is an homage to Taylor’s chameleon like persona, which evocatively, (and provocatively), come through in this shot. The strategic ropes and the bobbed haircut suggest a 1920s flapper, one of the most famous kinds of showgirls. In addition, Taylor is backstage in a dark theater, where ropes and pulleys are frequently used in stagecraft.
The shot and the album as a whole also explore the joys and sorrows of celebrity. Taylor is literally tied to the stage. Perhaps she sees herself as part of the scenery, not a real person. One might even recall how Prospero, one of Shakespeare’s self-insert characters, recalls how ephemeral the illusion of theater and film can be:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and1880
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve1885
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
I interpret this image as Taylor enjoying the glamor and creativity of the limelight, but also feeling lonely and not totally fulfilling. A showgirl is still not totally alive, without an audience.
The Fire
At the climax of the song, Taylor’s persona becomes a dynamic showgirl in fiery red and orange; the complete opposite of the quiet and passive Ophelia. The song itself makes a reference to being pulled from the water into the fire- from cold, lonely death, to dazzling life. She seems to be happy to be a star and, for the first time, she is sharing the stage. Clearly, finding support and backup (pun intended), is what saves her from the fate of Ophelia. The question remains though, who saved her?
Ophelia In Art
Ope not thy lips thou foolish one
Nor turn to me thy face
The blasts of heaven shall strike thee down
ere I will give thee grace”
–Elizabeth Siddall
Even famous paintings about Ophelia have a tragic story- I mentioned the famous John Millais painting, in which the model for Ophelia was a poet named Elizabeth Siddall. As you can see in the video above, Siddell modeled for Millais in a bathtub for hours in increasingly cold water, leaving her pale and her lips blue. Swift also alludes to Siddall in the shots where she herself is in a bathtub. Here yet again, we have a woman whose every action is dictated by a man, one who cares little for her physical and mental health.
Mystery Solved?
So, who is the mystery man who saved Taylor from the fate of Ophelia? Well, even though the song need not be autobiographical, since the song’s release coincides with her recent engagement, it’s easy to read the song as an ode to Taylor’s fiance, Travis Kelce.
My Take
I know I have been critical of TSs’ interpretation of Shakespeare in the past, but I think she nailed it this time. Her song, and album is a joyous celebration of a healthy relationship, one devoid of jealousy or control. Taylor is celebrating that she can truly be herself around Travis, and that means both her public persona as a superstar, and her private persona that is known only to Travis and herself. Ophelia represents the person Taylor feels pressured to be- a face frozen in time and cold water. Taylor wants a more active persona, and her fiance gives her the courage to do so!
Dream Album-
Now that Ms Swift has tackled both Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet, I would adore it if she wrote songs for more iconic Shakespearean characters:
Antony and Cleopatra- who better to write about the original power couple than Tay Tay!
Twelfth Night- Both Viola and Taylor know what being a tomboy feels like
Lady Anne from Richard III Let’s be honest, Taylor is known for her celebrity feuds, and who had more beef than the Yorkists and the Lancastrians?
Do you agree with my analysis? If you were TS, what Shakespeare plays would you write about? Let me know in the comments!
Lots of teachers play this game and there are many Youtube videos of people playing it. Occassionally, even Shakespearean actors have played it:
There are also online quiz forms available on Quizlet and Gimkit. You can also show your students this video below:
- Richard III and Henry Tudor- Bad Blood
- Macbeth- Look What You Made Me Do
- King Lear- Anti-hero
- Lady Macbeth- No Body No Crime
- Julius Caesar- My Tears Ricochet
- Richard II- Castles Crumbling
- Antony and Cleopatra- Style
- Mercutio from “Romeo and Juliet”- 22 and “Shake it Off”
- Goneril from “King Lear”- Blank Space
Do you agree with my list?
Teachers are increasingly seeing the value in analyzing Taylor Swift with their students to teach them about literature. What a gift Ms Swift has given us with this song!
For More Information:
- Prestige Online: Literary References in Taylor Swift: https://www.prestigeonline.com/my/lifestyle/culture-plus-entertainment/literary-references-in-taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department-ttpd-peter-pan-romeo-juliet/
- Allusions (Taylor’s Version)
3. Taylor Swift and Shakespeare by Stephanie Burt (who taught a course on Taylor Swift at Harvard) https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/taylor-swift-and-shakespeare/
4. Vanity Fair Review https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/story/taylor-swift-ophelia-shakespeare-references?srsltid=AfmBOorO4HwP6YkKzjKslt7rPX_ZU4weqYYjqpWcKWhML1oJx-dcSLcH
5.
The Shakespearean Student 