The Life of a Showgirl

Uncle Jerry states explicitly that he believes Ophelia is 'an overarching metaphor that runs through' the Life of a Showgirl album, representing Taylor's conquest of the patriarchal forces that would have destroyed her as they destroyed Ophelia. He says 'I think that it is an overarching metaphor for her conquest of that Ophelia self to avoid the fate of Ophelia.' He identifies echoes of Ophelia in Father Figure (the drowning imagery, the patriarchal control) and mentions having seen similar echoes in Elizabeth Taylor, which he has not yet covered. Angela agrees.

Uncle Jerry explicitly raises the possibility that redemption/rescue from a destructive fate is a theme across the entire album, not just this song: 'the more I started thinking about the fate of Ophelia and the rescue from that fate of death, the more I started thinking about the album as a whole. And I think that may be a theme in the album. I think I'd have to go through all the songs and all the lyrics... but it does seem to be a fairly consistent element in the album.' Angela agrees: 'I think I agree. I think this is the album opener and the lead single. And I think it does a good job of like maybe telling the whole story. And then as the album goes on, we get more bits of the story.'