The fate of Ophelia

The first track on Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, is “The Fate of Ophelia”… which got us thinking, well, what is the fate of Ophelia? And why can’t we stop writing, painting, and singing about her?

If—like Travis and Jason Kelce—you’re not up to date on the plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, here’s how Ophelia comes into it: Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, a councilor to King Claudius. Before the play begins, she has a romantic connection of some kind with Hamlet. Her two best known scenes are her confrontation with Hamlet (Act III, scene 1) and her mad scene (Act IV, Scene 5). In Act III, her father uses Ophelia as bait to determine the nature of the prince’s supposed madness. Hamlet turns on her and denies he ever loved her, famously telling her to “Get thee to a nunnery.” Later, Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius and, overcome by grief, Ophelia loses her mind. In her “mad scene” in Act IV, she sings of death and betrayal, and hands out flowers to the court. Ophelia ultimately drowns while hanging flower garlands from a branch over a brook. Whether her death was accidental or suicide is debated within the play. Laertes blames Hamlet for the death of his father and sister, setting up the climactic final duel between them, in which both are killed.

Ophelia, who appears in only five of the play’s 20 scenes, leaves us with more questions than answers. What was the nature of her relationship with Hamlet? Did she end her own life or was her death an accident? In a better world, would Ophelia have survived? And what might that life have looked like?

One of Shakespeare’s best known female characters, the role of Ophelia has also been taken on by generations of famous actresses. Judi Dench’s first professional acting role was playing Ophelia in an Old Vic Company production of Hamlet. Kate Winslet portrayed her in Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 film, and Daisy Ridley played the titular character in a 2018 re-imagining, Ophelia.

Ophelia | From the stage to screen to the Folger collection

Ophelia’s name continues to be a watchword for a young woman fated to a tragic end. Beyond drama, she’s appeared or been referenced in paintings, novels, poems, ballets, songs, and psychology books (1994’s Reviving Ophelia). In Victorian England, artists painted numerous portraits of her; many of them perhaps inspired by one of the most famous paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, John Everett Millais’ c. 1852 depiction of her death. The Indigo Girls and Tori Amos both dedicated albums to her. Bob Dylan includes Ophelia as one of the characters residing on Desolation Row.

Reclaiming her story is a popular modern approach. In 2025, the Folger Theatre produced Lauren Gunderson’s A Room in the Castle, imagining what was happening to Queen Gertrude, Ophelia, and her maid Anna behind the scenes. This modern treatment gave Ophelia a rich interior life, working with Queen Gertrude to try to save the man she loves from his own grief and madness.

Ophelia is having a particularly eventful 2025. In addition to Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia”—and an album cover referencing our drowned heroine— Netflix’s Wednesday features references to a missing Aunt Ophelia, a woman whose psychic ability led to madness.

Just for Fun

Who said it: Shakespeare or Swift? 

Test your knowledge of Taylor and Will with a short quiz using lines from Shakespeare’s plays and poems and lyrics from Swift’s songs.

From the Folger Institute’s Shakespeare for Swifties Mixology event in 2024.