Tag: The Fate Of Ophelia

Because Taylor Swift has increasingly decided to cast herself in the role of “English teacher” to the masses, maybe it should come as no surprise that she opted to not only write a song called “The Fate of Ophelia” for The Life of a Showgirl, but to make it the first track on the album and the lead single. Even though, to be quite honest, of all the schlock on this record, the title track featuring Sabrina Carpenter probably would have been her best bet for “first single” material. But it’s obvious that Swift wants to style herself as some kind of literary authority with this track, even if, for the most part, what comes across is the fact that Swift kind of just likes all the imagery surrounding Ophelia, including plenty of water-related scenes, as well as the famed painting of her by Sir John Everett Millais. Finding it “actually romantic,” Swift delivers her own “Pre-Raphaelite” take on the image by opening the video on a scene of a rather generic-looking rich person’s house (think: the “Blank Space” video) before panning over to a painting off to the side that features Swift in a white dress in “Ophelia pose.”

Naturally, the painting “comes to life,” with Swift rising up as though now on a set. And oh, turns out she is, with the backdrops behind her suddenly lifting as she walks along the sound stage and sings, “I heard you calling on the megaphone” as the presumed director of the “production” does just that (though, needless to say, “megaphone,” within the context of the lyrics, is all about the cheerleader connotation as it relates to football). Swift continues the literalism of the lyrics by taking an oversized matchstick from someone else on the set, miraculously igniting it against her chest and then tossing it casually toward someone else (conveniently, a fire breather) while singing, “As legend has it, you are quite the pyro/You light the match to watch it blow.”

From there, Swift does another costume change into something decidedly more “showgirl”: a sequined red leotard, rounded out by platinum blonde hair. This as she joins her fellow “Eras Tour family” in the dressing room. Commenting on the reunion with her dancers (who appear in various other scenes as well), Swift gushed, “Writing, rehearsing, directing and shooting the music video for ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ was the thrill of a lifetime because I got to be reunited with my Eras Tour family!! I wanted each one-take scene to feel like a live performance and remind us all of how it felt to be at those shows together. Making every moment count. It’s a journey through the chaotic world of show business.” Though, if that was the intent, it certainly doesn’t come across—at least not even one iota as effectively as the chaotic world of show business displayed in, what else, Showgirls. Nor does it have much to do with Ophelia in Hamlet.

Then again, nothing Swift yammers on about in this song really does, least of all the shudder-inducing chorus (which is the part of the song that sounds most like Demi Lovato’s 2011 hit, “Give Your Heart a Break”), “All that time I sat alone in my tower/You were just honing your powers/Now I can see it all/Late one night/You dug me out of my grave and/Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.” Never mind that likening Travis Kelce to Hamlet is in extremely inaccurate taste (for intelligence level alone), but, lest anyone forget, he was no Prince Charming positioned in any way to “save” Ophelia from her “fate”: death. What’s more, even if Kelce isn’t the Hamlet to her Ophelia, per se, that Swift likens a fairy-tale romance to being saved (while repurposing Shakespeare in the process) isn’t exactly a “cute look” for 2025. Though it does certainly fortify the long-standing speculation that she’s fundamentally Republican, ergo right at home with the MAGA crowd despite her “bad blood” with the Orange Creature.

In any case, to heighten the cornball factor of it all, Swift gets into the weeds as usual with her special breed of arithmomania by having chosen to release the video on Kelce’s birthday, October 5th. Worse still, she urges, “Keep it one hundred on the land, thе sea, the sky.” This being a reference to his jersey number, eighty-seven, and her favorite/lucky number in general, thirteen, adding up to one hundred.

The video isn’t always quite so precise, coming off like a, that’s right, kaleidoscope of random scenes as one of the showgirls backstage pulls back the curtain to reveal yet another iteration of Swift, who is now dancing onstage (this time with a brunette wig) in something more akin to a 1960s-era getup. Here, too, the intent appears less about promoting an awareness of Shakespearean plays, and more about announcing all the ways in which no one works harder than Swift. During a portion of this performance, Swift and her backup dancers (wearing the same wigs and dresses as her) are presented as though through a kaleidoscope—this tying into how her visualizers for each song on The Life of a Showgirl are also presented in a kaleidoscopic way.

From there, Swift (who obviously directed) cuts to another stage backdrop that features her on a ship as she strums a mark tree (you know, that wind chime-looking instrument) and remembers that this song is supposed to be, at least somewhat, about Ophelia, singing, “The eldest daughter of a nobleman/Ophelia lived in fantasy/But love was a cold bed full of scorpions/The venom stole her sanity.” Naturally, there are some listeners who won’t bother to read that “scorpions” line as a metaphor, and take it to mean that there was, in fact, a scene of Ophelia lying in bed and suddenly getting stung by scorpions. But no, there is no mention of scorpions at any point in Hamlet, with that “symbol” being more prominent in Macbeth (specifically, when Macbeth says, “O full of scorpions is my mind”). Nor did “venom” steal her sanity, men did. Most especially Hamlet, who killed her father, Polonius. Thus, for Swift to liken her Prince Charming to being the proverbial Hamlet to her Ophelia is a bit…ill-advised.

As the camera pans out to show that the ship is part of a more theatrical kind of production than a film one (perhaps another attempt at “paying homage” to Shakespeare), Swift continues to prattle on about how Kelce “saved her” from, for all intents and purposes, suicide. Or rather, emotional suicide. She thus persists in thanking him for “rescuing” her, praising, “And if you’d never come for me/I might’ve lingered in purgatory/You wrap around me like a chain, a crown, a vine/Pulling me into the fire.” And yes, Swift clearly thinks she’s endlessly clever for referencing fire instead of water here, seeing as how Ophelia drowned. But what she’s really indicating is that Kelce is pulling her into the depths of hell. If for no other reason than to co-sign some Faustian pact with the NFL.

Funnily enough, Swift then kind of does “commit suicide” by jumping into the fake water that then transitions into her starring in some kind of 1930s/1940s Busby Berkeley-inspired production (and, by the way, Jennifer Lopez already tread that ground pretty thoroughly with the “Medicine” video) called Sequins Are Forever (they definitely aren’t, but one supposes that was the best “riff” that Taylor could come up with for Elizabeth Taylor’s famed documentary/general philosophy, Diamonds Are Forever). The camera then pans out to once again reveal that this is just a big-budget film production, with the clapperboard informing viewers that the “film” is “featuring” Kitty Finlay (a nod to the “character” that “The Life of a Showgirl” mentions in the first verse, as well as to her grandmother’s last name) and that it is “Take 100” (because Swift splooges every time she self-references, here reminding that she says, “Keep it one hundred on the land, thе sea, the sky”).

The “spectacle” keeps going in the next scene as Swift, now in a brown-haired wig again, sports a “rope dress” to match with the piles of ropes around her as she’s then lifted into the air. This followed by a cut to her doing her Las Vegas showgirl cosplay because she remembered she didn’t play up the showgirl aesthetic enough.

By the final scene, Swift seems to have lost the plot completely with what whatever “meaning” this video was supposed to have by showing Swift being pushed on a cart in a getup that harkens back to her “Lavender Haze” look as she again sings, oh so “eloquently,” “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes.” However, this time when it’s said, Swift ramps up the cringe factor by having someone offscreen pass a football to her to catch. As if the viewer/listener wasn’t already well-aware that the track is all about Travis being a hero/“knight in shining armor” (or rather, in a shining football uniform).

The cart leads Swift through some 1920s-looking hotel, complete with the aesthetic of the bellhops (maybe she had recently rewatched AHS: Hotel and took notes). And, evidently, these bellhops are having a party (one that looks decidedly New Year’s Eve-y, which would make sense considering Swift’s song, “New Year’s Day”). While Swift feigns getting down with “the help” for a minute, she soon steals away to the bathroom where the final shot is of her lying in the bathtub (from the same photoshoot featured on the standard edition of her album cover). Driving home the point that she’s been spared from the fate of Ophelia in that she’s just taking a bath in her showgirl-wear, not drowning. All because some big, strong meathead saved her! Shakespeare would be so proud.