The Fate of Ophelia

Today, October 3rd 2025, Taylor Swift released her newest album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. I will admit, it’s 2:57am and I haven’t even listened to the whole album. But this post is not about the album, or Swift, or anything but my girl, my queen, my Shayla: Ophelia.

I would like to begin by saying I feel Ophelia is misunderstood most times she is represented outside her media. She is often portrayed only in her relationship to Hamlet. The fate of Ophelia is her life is not her own. Her madness, her death, her tragedy, is never independently recognized. I have said before that Hamlet’s grief permeates Denmark like a stench. It consumes. Within the play, Hamlet’s life consumes Ophelia’s. Without, Ophelia is saturated in the legacies of men.

Does this make sense? It’s 3:02 now. What I’m trying to say is Ophelia is NEVER portrayed outside the play outside her love to Hamlet. When we think of Shakespeares other women, they have attributes culturally. Beatrice is witty, Katherine is stubborn and proud and sometimes feminist, Desdemona is soft and innocent and bright, Ophelia is… mad with love? Next!

The truth is, limiting Ophelia to her relationship to Hamlet does the reader a disservice. If you read Ophelia as ONLY Hamlet’s plaything, it is much less impactful when she kills herself. Do you give a fuck if your pocket pussy dives off a cliff? Not really. It’s replaceable. But Hamlet and Laertes do not brawl in a grave over a pocket pussy. They grieve the loss of a vibrant girl. A witty girl. A bold girl. Someone deserving of a partnership with the creature of upmost intelligence, Hamlet.

Now, at first I thought Swift just referenced Ophelia instead of actually writing about her. This would be a non problem. But Swift writes as though she knows Ophelia. It is plain she is no hamletologist.

“The eldest daughter of a nobleman, Ophelia lived in fantasy, But love was a cold bed full of scorpions, The venom stole her sanity”

Meh. ‘Eldest daughter’ is an interesting thing to emphasize here. I don’t think Ophelia is ever stated to be older than Laertes, though it is possible. To me, this feels more like Swift inserting herself into Ophelia. Which would be fine, if it felt right for the character. As a hamletologist, it doesn’t.

Let’s discuss whether or not it was LOVE that drove Ophelia to madness. Can we see Ophelia’s love, loyalty, dedication to Hamlet as the fault that killed her? I don’t know. I, personally, would prefer to reframe. Because had Hamlet not gone mad with grief, Ophelia’s love would not be tragic. Framing the love as the tragedy here takes a nose dive from the plot. And honestly makes me wonder if Swift has read Hamlet.

Yeah, okay, I’ve nailed down what’s wrong with this song.

1. We are, once again, refusing to acknowledge that an Ophelia exists outside of her relationship to Hamlet.
2. The relationship to Hamlet and his tragedy is misinterpreted. The tragedy of Ophelia is not that she loved. The tragedy is Hamlet’s hamlety Grief infecting her love, as it does with all of Denmark, and marring it. Hamlet’s grief takes the beauty of Ophelia’s love and turns it into the dagger with which she stabs herself.

All of this is words words words. Please understand. I am begging someone to love Ophelia as Hamlet loved her.