The Tragic Story of Ophelia

Recently, Taylor Swift released a new album where the first track is called “The Fate of Ophelia.” In the song, she makes references to the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Taylor Swift tells us that she was saved from the fate of Ophelia when Travis came into her life, which I believe implies that Ophelia could have been saved if a man had loved her.

John William Waterhouse's painting Ophelia(1894)

 For my first blog post, I thought it would be cool if I wrote about a character who hasn’t left my mind. In case you don’t know Hamlet, here’s a quick summary. Hamlet is a play about the prince Hamlet, who fakes being mad to uncover the truth about his father’s murder and comes up with a revenge plot on Claudius, who has stolen the throne and his mother. Spoiler alert, most of the characters end up dying at the end, but I believe that Ophelia had the most tragic death.

We first meet Ophelia when her brother is about to leave for overseas. Hamlet has his attention on Ophelia, and her brother and father go to her to warn her about Hamlet’s “true intentions.” Ophelia tells them that she thinks that Hamlet really does love her, that he tells her so many times, and she believes him. Right away, her father, Polonius, dismisses her thoughts and feelings and very harshly tells her that Hamlet is just young and fooling around. Polonius tells her that she is not allowed to go near or talk to Hamlet. From this scene, we learn that Ophelia really doesn’t have agency. She is told what to think and do by the men in her family. They treat her like a child and not like the young woman she is. They talk down to her, and she lets them because it is how she has lived her whole life. It’s how women lived during the time period this play was written in.

            Later, as the plot moves on, Ophelia is constantly being used and manipulated by men. During the “get thee to a nunnery” scene, Ophelia is used by Polonius and Claudius to spy on Hamlet, and Hamlet, in turn, uses Ophelia to mislead them. Claudius wants to use Ophelia as bait to find out what is causing Hamlet's weird behavior, and Polonius, trying to climb the political ladder, forces her to go along. They put her in the path of someone they believe is a mad and unstable Hamlet. Hamlet basically emotionally abuses Ophelia, he criticizes her very harshly, makes sexual suggestions, and he just uses her as a pawn in his revenge plot without care for how his words affect Ophelia. Ophelia is left very confused because here is a guy who she thought had true feelings for her, and he very strongly rejected her in a way that was very humiliating.

            After the death of her father, Ophelia caves under the pressures placed on her and goes mad. She sings songs, which seems to have no meaning, and distributes flowers. These songs and flowers symbolize her loss of innocence. She is no longer the woman she was at the start of the story, she has been controlled, abused, and humiliated. Her story comes to an end when we find out she has drowned in the river, and it’s unclear whether she fell in or let herself be taken by the river. I believe she went to the river.

            Ophelia didn’t die because of her father's death or because Hamlet didn’t love her. She died because her whole life she had been controlled by men, she was used for these men’s own personal gain. In a world where she had no control over how she lived her life, she chose death. Her own death was the only thing she had control over.

            Of course, this is my own personal interpretation of Ophelia’s death and not the concrete truth. I just wanted to share my thoughts.