On Oct. 3, 2025, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Among its 12 tracks is her catchy, love-struck single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” a reference to the infamous literary figure of the same name from William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” She begins her retelling with a twist, depicting herself as Ophelia, committed to a lonely, independent lifestyle. Enter her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who she frames as her knight in shining armor, rescuing her from her tower of isolation. The song is essentially a fantasy-driven love letter to Kelce, a theme of admiration that she continues to explore throughout the rest of the album.
However, the track, as catchy as it may be, fell short for me as both an English major and longtime Swiftie invested in her expansive, deep world of songwriting. While I could overlook some of the arguably shallower, dated lyricism she uses, I could not, as someone in the literary community, ignore her vapid mischaracterization of one of literature’s most tragic figures. To justify my distaste, I will dive into exactly what Swift got wrong in her track and, hopefully, shed light on interpretations that recognize what Ophelia represents as both a character and a symbol within the feminist movement.
1) “And if you’d never come for me / I might’ve drowned in the melancholy”
In this line, Swift references Ophelia’s “fate” at the end of the play, where Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, announces that she has drowned in a nearby brook. Before her death, Ophelia descends into a state of madness brought on by her father’s death and emotional rejection by her lover, Hamlet. Hamlet and Ophelia, despite being in love, did not share the romantic love story Swift narrates. Instead, Hamlet is one of the primary catalysts for Ophelia’s unraveling, as he spends the play recklessly pursuing the throne and dismissing her concerns. Swift’s retelling reads as an ironic interpretation of the original narrative. Casting herself as an Ophelia-like figure saved by Kelce demonstrates a blatant contradiction of Ophelia’s true circumstances, in which her lover only exacerbated her suffering rather than saved her from it.
2) “All that time / I sat alone in my tower”
Here, Swift appears to reference the fairytale “Rapunzel,” originally developed by the Brothers Grimm in the 1800s. Within “Hamlet,” there is no mention of Ophelia being trapped in a tower. It is possible that the songstress is alluding to Hamlet’s family castle, where the majority of the play unfolds. However, for the purpose of following Swift’s clear fairytale theme, we’ll stick with the former. Her association of Ophelia with Rapunzel suggests an arguably deluded romanticism of Ophelia’s story. Equating Rapunzel, who is commonly depicted as a damsel in distress rescued by her lover, with Ophelia, a damsel in distress because of her lover, demonstrates the lyrics’ lack of depth. This comparison displays Swift’s oversight of the play’s tragic themes, many of which address the consequential nature of patriarchal structures. In doing so, she undermines the feminist commentary audiences and scholars have long drawn from the original play, diluting it to a simple, almost demeaning fantasy.
3) “‘Tis locked inside my memory / And only you possess the key / No longer drowning and deceived / All because you came for me”
In the final bridge of the song, Swift directly references Ophelia’s tragic death in a body of water. Her praise of Kelce for saving her from a metaphorical demise grossly ignores Ophelia’s position within the power dynamics of the play. Ophelia exists as Hamlet’s lover, Polonius’ daughter and Laertes’ sister. Throughout “Hamlet,” the three figures, driven by their own power-hungry goals, use Ophelia as a pawn to execute their agendas. In the process, they consistently belittle and objectify Ophelia and her womanhood, with Laertes and Polonius in particular pressuring her to preserve her chastity or amount to nothing as a result. Their actions eventually lead to Polonius’ murder by Hamlet, who stabs him to death after mistakenly believing he is his uncle, King Claudius. A grief-stricken Ophelia, unaware of the cause of her father’s death, attempts to lean on Hamlet, only to be met with dismissal. She spends her final moments in psychosis, singing about her anguish and betrayal and unable to cope with her isolation. Consumed by his own twisted motives, Hamlet not only destroys his relationship but also the life of a woman he was supposed to protect. Swift’s reframing of Ophelia and Hamlet’s tragedy to fit her own love story with Kelce, her depicted savior, single-handedly reduces Ophelia’s legacy as a literary figure who is ultimately a victim of her environment.
Swift didn’t get it all wrong. She was right to say that Ophelia was unknowingly trapped in a “cold bed full of scorpions” filled with “venom [that] stole her sanity.” What she neglects to address, however, is the role that patriarchal structures played in shaping Ophelia’s surroundings. Instead, she negates its impact by refusing to acknowledge it. Swift’s repetitive, gracious devotion to Kelce in the song does nothing to empower women who feel lost while attempting to navigate society. Every man in Ophelia’s life fails her to the point of death. Her legacy teaches audiences, especially women, that we do not have to become victims of our societal circumstances. Instead of drowning in the ambitions of others, Ophelia’s story implores us to fight for our own voice and autonomy.