The Art of Ophelia

‍ ‍Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia 1851-52

I am grateful Taylor Swift brought the story of Shakespeare’s Ophelia back into pop culture. Taylor based her imagery in her song The Fate of Ophelia on the iconic 1851 painting Ophelia by Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir John Everett Millais. Millais was a child prodigy who, at age eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. He was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Elizabeth Siddal, a fellow artist and model, posed for the figure in a bathtub filled with water heated by lamps, which famously went out, causing her to catch a severe cold. She portrayed the tragic character Ophelia shown floating in a river moments before her death, with a calm expression, illustrating a scene described by Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, Act IV, Scene VII. The landscape was painted on-site along the Hogs Mill River in Surrey, with flowers meticulously rendered to carry their symbolic meaning. Willow symbolizing forsaken love, Nettles symbolizing pain, Daisies representing innocence, and Pansies representing vain love. This depiction of the tragic drowning of Shakespeare’s character from Hamlet embodies intense, naturalistic detail and symbolism to represent innocence, death, and forsaken love, highlighting the vulnerability of a woman driven to madness by patriarchal forces. I love that Taylor brings this imagery back from the play. While the painting is highly admired today, it received mixed reviews upon its 1852 exhibition, with some critics questioning the choice of focusing on a "weedy ditch". 

“Save my heart from the fate of Ophelia” line in Taylor’s song says it all. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia drowns after going mad from grief following her father’s murder by her lover, Hamlet. Her death is often interpreted as suicide, though it is described as an accident involving a broken branch over a stream. Taylor’s lyrics use this tragic figure to represent being saved from emotional ruin, which is something we all want.