Taylor Swift Presents a Twist on

 The opening track of Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated The Life of a Showgirl subverts a legendary woman’s tragedy to proclaim the happier fate of another: that of Swift, the showgirl herself.

In “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift makes frequent references to the much-analyzed character from William Shakespeare’s masterwork Hamlet. (Lines such as “I might’ve drowned in the melancholy,” “You dug me out of my grave,” “the eldest daughter of a nobleman,” and “the venom stole her sanity” count among the most obvious nods to Hamlet’s Ophelia.) As imagined by Shakespeare, Ophelia is indeed “the daughter of a nobleman,” as well as the sister of Prince Hamlet’s eventual murderer, Laertes. Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, is often characterized as sheltered and naive, though she is also loyal and unselfish. Still, it is her love and loyalty for the men in her life that ultimately predict Ophelia’s doom—a fate Swift can clearly relate with.

At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, Laertes and their father, Polonius, warn Ophelia that Hamlet’s love for her is fickle—and that, therefore, she should end their romance and quash any expectations of marriage between them. Ophelia, obedient to these men (and believing them to be acting in her sincere interest), agrees to cut off her relationship with Hamlet. When the prince later appears in her bed chamber, looking distinctly unwell, she runs to tell her father of the incident. Polonius assumes that Hamlet has gone insane thanks to Ophelia’s rejection of him