My father left the family home to go with this other woman the very year we were reading hamlet at school. The young prince’s anger at his mother for the haste with which she had thrown herself into her brother-in-law’s arms while still wearing the same shoes with which she had accompanied her husband’s funeral procession, his inner hatred of his uncle, his skepticism about love, the fragility of women, of the world, of loyalty – all of these were themes that resonated in my mind. If Corín Tellado had roughly educated us in love, Shakespeare gave us this other bit of emotional education four hundred years earlier, along with lyrics from The Cure and U2. And she was no Princess of Denmark, she had exchanged the evil king for a stepmother who fulfilled the stereotypes of fairy tales and was a little identified with Hamlet and a little in love with him. He was capable of making me as angry as he was and of expressing the greatest atrocities (though with less ease with words than Shakespeare). We were young and suffering. And then there was Ofelia with this desperate love that understood neither reasons nor limits. He also suffered for her. Also Was a little bit her.
Back then, we thought that women were bound to suffer for love, and it was almost impossible to get used to the idea that someone just didn’t love you and give up the fight, get up and move on. You had to insist, tolerate, strategize, everything that needed to be conquered. A friend’s older sister, with a few years of wisdom left and a few more years of emotional balance, mockingly sang “Trapitooooo” to us and placed her arms in the shape of a cross like García Ferré’s scarecrow character: “They crawl like rags with love!” And with that he explained it to us Ofelia ended badly, she drowned in the water Water of a stream surrounded by beautiful flowers, but dead. And single, it has to be said. rag was a good expression for generation poisonousand even if they understand the concept, they will make the same mistakes as teenagers.
The scene begins with a majestic, dimly lit room and a camera movement takes us to a painting. It’s Taylor Swift, dressed as Ofelia in a flowing white dress, lying on the water and surrounded by flowers. Within seconds he stands up, leaves the frame and begins to sing. The theme is called “The Fate of Ofelia” and is inspired by the tragic figure in the work hamletby Shakespeare. Ofelia, the one who goes crazy with love and dies.
The painting that Taylor revives is a perfect replica of a circa 1900 oil painting by the German painter Friedrich Heyser and is on display at the Wiesbaden Museum in the German city of the same name. It is in turn inspired by another painting by the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais from 1852, which also depicts the final minutes of Ophelia.
Since the release of Talylor Swift’s latest album in October The life of a showgirlwhich contains the topic about Ophelia, The more than two hundred year old museum was in the middle of the storm and thousands of fans came to view the work. Taylor’s fans, Swiftieswho are almost like archaeologists looking for treasures hidden in the sand, quickly discovered the clue and spread it on social networks: the painting in question existed and was located in Germany. Virality was almost as inevitable as the fate of young Ofelia and fans were not long in coming.
“We are experiencing real Ophelia fever and are quite surprised and happy about it”Museum spokeswoman Susanne Hirschmann told the British press.
The scene that appears in the painting is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet, in a speech by Queen Gertrude. She is never seen on stage, she does not exist apart from being described as a queen. Heartbroken and almost losing her mind with pain, Ofelia makes garlands out of wildflowers. As he climbs a willow tree hanging over a stream, a branch breaks under his weight and falls into the water. She remains suspended in the air for a while, trapped between the fabrics of her dress, like a mermaid, says Shakespeare. She sings, also like a siren, unaware of the danger. But it’s those same soaked clothes that lead them to a muddy death. The painting shows her in all its versions before she sinks forever, drowned in her grief for love. Hamlet doesn’t want her, let her go to a monastery, he tells her. ¿Is there anything that hurts more than this contempt, is there a worse blow to narcissism?
In the lyrics, Taylor tells her fans about other possibilities for love and its tragic end. It was a cold bed full of scorpions. I could have drowned in melancholysays, but you dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ofelia. It may be that a slight hint of cynicism makes me doubt the figure of the Savior Prince, but that is me. And of course there are also healthy loves. In the Wiesbaden museum, girls jostle at the entrance, young people from all over the world register for conferences about the work and take photos in front of Heyser’s painting, which for many people must recreate the scene from the video clip. Centuries have passed between the Shakespeare tragedy, the paintings in question and Taylor Swift’s final album, but the pain, love and fascination for these subjects seem intact.
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