Shakespeare Characters as Taylor Swift Albums

Taylor Swift (Debut): Desdemona

Released when she was 16 years old, Taylor Swift's first album gives the impression of the 'girl next-door'. The songs are full of youthful optimism that befit Desdemona from Othello. Whilst Desdemona doesn't share the country vibe of the album, she is honesty and innocence personified. She is presumably very young, her age is not revealed in the play but it is implied that she is considerably younger than Othello. Therefore the teenage experiences of love, heartbreak (Cold As You/ Perfectly Good Heart), and grappling to understand who she is (A Place in This World) are integral themes to Desdemona's character and Taylor Swift's debut. Desdemona elopes with Othello which really goes to show her naivety and capacity for love. Her love for Othello is unfaltering and pure all the way to the bitter end when he kills her.

Three Taylor Swift Debut lyrics for Desdemona:

I'm just a girl

Why would you want to break a perfectly good heart?

And you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you

Fearless: Romeo and Juliet

Obviously Fearless is for Romeo and Juliet! With breakout hit Love Story being inspired by the timeless play itself, the entire album tells the tales of young but epic loves. Fearless captures Swift mid-transition between genres as a country-pop album. Swift has said the album is about being knocked down but continuing to fight for someone, hence the more assertive pop sound. Whereas the song's storytelling aspect is reflective of the country genre. The stories are also imaginings of what love might be like for her in the future. For example, the title track Fearless is her 18 year old self's idea of the perfect date. The aspirations and longings for a perfect love is in keeping with Romeo and Juliet's dreams of being together, dreams they sadly never get to fulfil before their deaths.

Three Fearless Lyrics for Romeo and Juliet:

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone

And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless

We showed 'em all up, No one could touch the way we laughed in the dark

Speak Now: Helena

Speak Now departs from youthful notions of love and hope and delves into heartbreak. Swift interestingly carves this from the opposing fairy tale aesthetic in her lyrics (Enchanted/ Castles Crumbling). Although not an obvious choice, Helena from A Midsummer Night's Dream is a character wounded by love in a setting of magic and mysticism that is in keeping with this album: Her relationship with Demetrius is a rollercoaster of emotions that are ultimately harmful. Helena is betrothed to Demetrius but he falls for her friend Hermia. Helena remains in love with him throughout the play despite his mistreatment of her. A potion makes Demetrius love Helena overnight, a confusing, and heart breaking experience for Helena, she thinks he is cruelly playing with her affections.

Three Speak Now lyrics for Helena:

Oh simple complications, miscommunications lead to fall out

I was screaming, "Long live all the magic we made" and bring on all the pretenders

The lingering question kept me up, 2AM who do you love?

Red: Katherina

Taylor Swift says she named the album Red because of all the extreme emotions she felt in this period of her life: frustration, anger, and confliction provoked by unhealthy relationships. There are an overwhelming number of unhealthy relationships across the Shakespeare plays, but Petruccio's and Katherina are an especially good fit for this album. He uses a number of manipulative games to tame Katherina into an obedient wife. (It very much gives All Too Well ten minute version). Katherina displays frustration and anger throughout.

Whilst The Taming of the Shrew is a 'play within a play' that could suggest Shakespeare's intention was to mock men like Petruccio and their arrogance, it is hard to control what audiences actually take from it which can be damaging. It's a tricky play in that sense, because the supposed irony is not obvious. You could say Swift is also no stranger to being misunderstood and this album pays attention to that.

Three Red lyrics for Katherina:

Time won't fly it's like I'm paralyzed by it, I'd like to be my old self again but I'm still trying to find it

Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting, silence, the train runs off its tracks, kiss me, try to fix it, could you just try to listen?

I wonder what we would've become if you were a better man

1989: Mercutio

Taylor Swift's 1989 is THAT pop album. The album chronicles Swift moving to New York and finding herself. Parties, famous friends, and fun - with a tinge of paranoia over her new life being overexposed by the big city's media. Mercutio is the party It-girl of Shakespeare. (Harold Perrineau's performance of Mercutio from Baz Luhrmann's 1996 version in particular is so 1989 coded). Mercutio has quick wit and suggestive wordplay that grants him a comedic relief type of role in Romeo and Juliet. This is key to his character so that when he is fatally wounded in the battle between Tybalt and Romeo, his curse on the two feuding families is captivatingly profound (Alexa, play Bad Blood, Taylor's Version). Having fun and being betrayed are key sentiments in this album as well.

Three1989 lyrics for Mercutio:

'Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream

Now we've got problems and I don't think we can solve 'em, you made a really deep cut

Say you'll remember me standing in a nice dress staring at the sunset

Reputation: Lady Macbeth

Reputation is in the pop-culture hall of fame for how it came about. After Kanye West's and Kim Kardashian's Taylor Swift smear campaign drove the singer into a long hiatus, she delivered the musical comeback of all musical comebacks. Donning a new dark aesthetic, black lipstick, and an angrier sound, Taylor Swift's revenge album found the old pop princess dead in a ditch!

Naturally, revenge is a key theme to any Shakespearean tragedy. Lady Macbeth orchestrates the murder of King Duncan so that her husband can be crowned and manipulates Macbeth into doing all the dirty work. She is vengeful because after the Weird Sisters' prophecy, Lady Macbeth believes it is her and her husband's right to sit on the throne. In a less bloody fashion, Taylor Swift reclaims her position as musical royalty with Reputation.

Three Reputation lyrics for Lady Macbeth:

Some boys are trying too hard, he don't try at all though

I play him like a violin and I make it look, oh, so easy

I've got a list of names and yours is in red underlined

Lover: Cassio

Taylor Swift dropped Lover in her third year with boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, in 2019. Expectedly, the album is all about the happiness of love but it does get into the vulnerabilities that come with it too. Michael Cassio is the charming and gentlemanly Chief Lieutenant under Othello. However these Lover-boy traits leave Cassio vulnerable to Iago's grand plan. Iago tells Othello that Cassio's friendship with Othello's wife, Desdemona, is evidence of an affair (he is very Heartbreak Prince).

A romance with someone lower in the societal hierarchy is something Taylor sings of in this era: 'I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings' - Bianca, a prostitute, is in love with Cassio. However he is only affectionate towards her, this bittersweet unofficial relationship is more like Lover's breakout hit, Cruel Summer. Finally, Cassio is the only main character that survives the mass killing in the play which makes his ending a relatively happy one as far as Shakespearean tragedies go. This qualifies him to represent the sunniest Taylor Swift era!

Three Lover lyrics for Cassio:

Lyrical smile, indigo eyes

My team is losing, battered and bruising, I see the high fives between the bad guys

And snakes and stones never broke my bones

Folklore: Ophelia

This album blurs the lines between dreams and reality by drawing upon stories from Swift's imagination. Folklore are tales passed down through time until truth is indistinguishable from fantasy. We watch Ophelia drift from reality into a dissociative state in Hamlet after her father, Polonius, is murdered and Hamlet cruelly shuns her. She later finds Hamlet killed her father. A painful shunning from a lover that breaks both their hearts is the storyline of the song exile. Ophelia's experience is misunderstood by those around her - the tale of a woman openly expressing her distress and depression only to be labelled insane is told in mad woman. The overwhelming sadness causes Ophelia to drown herself - isolating sadness is explored in songs like this is me trying and my tears ricochet.

Three Folklore lyrics for Ophelia:

And you can aim for my heart, go for blood, but you would still miss me in your bones

What a shame she went mad, you made her like that

Only twenty minutes to sleep but you dream of some epiphany, just one single glimpse of relief

Evermore: Emilia

Described as a 'translucent' album in which Taylor Swift sees herself clearer than before, she shows confidence and growth. As the only character who is not deceived in the play, Emilia from Othello is very Evermore. Seeing Iago for what he is and what he is trying to achieve affords Emilia the gift of clarity but the curse of complicity in his murders and trickery (no body no crime vibes). She is Iago's wife and is abused into silence and submission by him (similar to tolerate it). Her love for her friend, Desdemona, eventually spurs Emilia to expose Iago in order to avenge her dear friend's death and clear her name. Iago stabs Emilia and her passivity is transformed into brave sacrifice. She is Iago's downfall (closure captures this feeling).

Three Evermore lyrics for Emilia:

I'm on waves out being tossed, is there a line that I could just go cross?

Always taking up too much space or time, you assume I'm fine but what would you do if I break free and leave us in ruins?

The knife cuts both ways, if the shoe fits walk in it

Midnights: The Weird Sisters

'Inspired by 13 such witching hours throughout her 32 years, the album is a paradoxically futuristic retrospective.' Is how Elle magazine describes Midnights. As Swift's narrative voice acts like a keeper of time across the album, the Weird Sisters and their prophesising in Macbeth suit it best. The future and past merging into one moment is something the Weird Sisters represent. They know who Macbeth is before he tells them and they know what he will become. Songs like Mastermind, Maroon and Karma consider the relationship between the past and future as well - something Swift says she thinks about at night - and how they inform her perception of herself at 32.

The witching-hour theme also pairs nicely with the Weird Sisters as three witches we meet in the night. The Witchcraft Act was reinstated by James I for whom Macbeth was primarily written, and it allowed for the killing of 'witches' who were usually just wise, normal, unmarried women. There is a reflection of gender and how women are demonised in Midnights (Dear Reader / You're on Your Own, Kid) and a rejection of such judgement (Bejeweled).

Three Midnights lyrics for the Weird Sisters:

The planets and the fates and all the stars aligned, you and I ended up in the same room at the same time

So I wander through these nights, I prefer hiding in plain sight [...] These desperate prayers of a cursed man

Meet me at midnight