An allegory of survival instead of sorrow.: where Hamlet’s Ophelia sank beneath the river, Swift’s Ophelia is pulled to safety.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is undone by grief, betrayal, and a world that denies her voice. The Pre-Raphaelites later transformed her tragedy into an unforgettable image: Millais’s Ophelia floating among wildflowers, a vision of fragile beauty and sorrow.
Now, in her latest song ‘The Fate of Ophelia,‘ Taylor Swift reframes that story. Instead of surrendering to the current, she imagines a rescue from someone who arrives before the river claims her. It’s a powerful reversal: Ophelia as allegory, not of inevitable loss, but of survival.
Swift’s song reminds us how enduring Ophelia’s symbolism remains, whether in Victorian canvases or modern lyrics.