“Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify Hamlet as the central literary allusion governing the entire song. Uncle Jerry provides extensive background on Ophelia as a foil character to Hamlet, she truly goes insane while Hamlet feigns madness, she is systematically oppressed by the patriarchy (Laertes, Polonius, Hamlet, Claudius), and she ultimately drowns. The bridge directly quotes Ophelia's line from Act 1, Scene 3 ('Tis locked inside my memory / And only you possess the key') and her line from Act 3, Scene 1 ('no longer drowning and deceived' echoing 'I was the more deceived'). Taylor reinterprets Ophelia's fate by having the speaker rescued from that same trajectory of patriarchal oppression, madness, and death. Uncle Jerry notes that Taylor changes Shakespeare's tragic ending to a happy one, which he defends by citing the long tradition of Restoration-era rewrites of Shakespeare for happy endings. Angela points out that Taylor previously did this in Love Story (2008) with Romeo and Juliet.
“You'll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you're drowning”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the Ophelia subplot from Hamlet as an overarching metaphor running through Father Figure and the broader Showgirl album. Uncle Jerry describes how Ophelia is oppressed in a patriarchal world, Laertes, Polonius, Hamlet, and the king all tell her what to do, ultimately driving her into melancholy and despair. They connect 'my dick's bigger' to the oppressive masculine voice, 'they want to see you rise, they don't want you to reign' to Ophelia's constrained position, and the word 'drowning' in the final chorus to Ophelia's death by drowning. Uncle Jerry states he believes Ophelia is an overarching metaphor that runs through the songs on this album.
Uncle Jerry references Hamlet's 'words, words, words' exchange with Polonius as a parallel to the challenge of making repeated words interesting, connecting it to the 'they knew, they knew, they knew' repetition in the bridge. He discusses the Mel Gibson and Laurence Olivier Hamlet films as examples of how actors handle the challenge of triple repetition.
“Protested too much”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'protested too much' as a direct allusion to Hamlet Act 3, where Queen Gertrude says 'the lady doth protest too much' in response to the play-within-the-play. He reads the saboteurs who 'protested too much' as carrying a level of duplicity and dishonesty, their excessive protest implying guilt, just as Gertrude's reaction implies her knowledge of the murder.
“Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone But you keep my old scarf from that very first week 'Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me”
Uncle Jerry draws a parallel between Taylor mailing back belongings and the scene in Hamlet where Ophelia tries to return Hamlet's gifts. He notes that Ophelia says the remembrances once had a wonderful smell but now that fragrance is gone and they don't mean anything to her, whereas in Taylor's version, the scarf's smell persists, and Jake keeps it rather than returning it. Uncle Jerry mentions he has discussed this Hamlet parallel in previous episodes.