"A Wrecking Ball Funeral" Blog Post #5

Poor Ophelia!  No one quite understands her.  She sings of a man who has “donned his clothes” (4.5.35) and of a maid who’s virginity “never departed more” (4.5.38)   Everyone in the castle in this time period is aghast at the permiscuity, namely the queen who asks her uneasily “what imports this song” (4.5.23) that she sings?

Oh where have we seen this before?  A young innocent girl, suddenly sings about taboo subjects for the attention that she craves.  I’ll give you a hint, she used to be a Disney star, and is now in controversy after a shocking VMA performance.  Of course, it’s Miley Cyrus!

So not only does the artist’s life have shocking parallels to Ophelia, but one of her most recent hit songs “Wrecking Ball”  expounds upon this character.  In “Wrecking ball” Miley describes a relationship (it is unknown if it is autobiographical) where she has given everything into a relationship.  Not only does Ophelia have one relationship that is like this, but she has two: Her love for Hamlet and her love for her father.  Arguably she could even have a third, which is her love for her brother, but we can stick to two loves for now.  This is not simple love though, it is an obsession.  Whenever she says to her father “you are keen my lord, you are keen.” (3.2.12)  or “you are as good as a chorus, my lord”(3.2.30) she means it with all her heart.  She takes this wisdom as if it were from a biblical scene.  But as much as she takes her father’s words nearly ass sacred as the word of God, arguably she loves Hamlet even more.  She fawns over his “power of beauty” (3.2.90)  Or how he speaks with “words of so sweet breath composed” (3.2.98)

But “Wrecking Ball” is not a story of the joys of love – after all, it opens with a close up of a teary-eyed Miley.  So just as Miley was hurt in the end by “falling under [the] spell” of another man, Ophelia was hurt twice over.  After she “did repel his letters and denied [Hamlet’s] access” (2.2.20) to her in order to follow her father’s orders, in her mind, she drove Hamlet mad.  So in her mind she caused Hamlet to be “Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;” (2.2.4)  How can a woman live with herself thinking that she caused a man to appear with “no hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd?” (2.2.6)  So on top of all this, her father’s death pushed her over the edge, and drove her completely insane.  Though she is not shaking her behind at the VMA awards, she suffers “wrecking ball syndrome” and this is why it would be appropriate for that song to be played at her funeral.

Lyrics

Wrecking Ball: Miley Cyrus

We clawed, we chained our hearts in vain
We jumped never asking why
We kissed, I fell under your spell.
A love no one could deny

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I put you high up in the sky
And now, you're not coming down
It slowly turned, you let me burn
And now, we're ashes on the ground

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you
I can't live a lie, running for my life
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me

I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
And instead of using force
I guess I should've let you win
I never meant to start a war
I just wanted you to let me in
I guess I should've let you win

Don't you ever say I just walked away
I will always want you

I came in like a wrecking ball
I never hit so hard in love
All I wanted was to break your walls
All you ever did was wreck me

I came in like a wrecking ball
Yeah, I just closed my eyes and swung
Left me crashing in a blazing fall
All you ever did was wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me
Yeah, you, you wreck me