Shakespeare Failed Ophelia—BTS Saved Her.
BTS's #SWIM : Shakespear's Hamlet (Ophelia’s Ghost in the Deep) : A direct comparison reveals how both the track from ARIRANG and Shakespeare's tragedy approach the concept of existence.
“To Be or Not to Be” Meets the Deep:
In Hamlet's famous soliloquy, he debates whether it is nobler to suffer quietly or to ‘take arms against a sea of troubles.’ BTS explores this identical existential weight in SWIM. Yoongi’s verse explicitly highlights this choice, noting that the water is deep but he refuses to get ‘cold feet.’ Both works acknowledge that life can feel like drowning, but where Hamlet stalls in hesitation, “SWIM” urges an active, immediate response to keep moving forward.
The Drowning of Ophelia vs. Moving Forward:
In Hamlet, Ophelia is overwhelmed by grief and literally drowns because she cannot stay afloat amidst the madness of the Danish court. The official music video for “SWIM” offers a redemptive subversion of Ophelia's tragedy. Starring Lili Reinhart as a woman wrestling with intense emotional pain, the MV features BTS acting as a grounding presence. Instead of letting her sink like Ophelia, they guide her to shatter her constraints (symbolized by a tight necklace) and find the strength to survive the rough currents. This is just a modern reinterpretation in a MV, featuring Lili Reinhart, depicts her actively fighting against this fate with support, choosing to breathe and survive.
Support Systems and Personal Agency:
In Hamlet, the prince is isolated, surrounded by betrayal, and left with only Horatio as a true confidant. In contrast, SWIM highlights a powerful collective dynamic. While the members of BTS steady the ship and offer a safe haven, the lyrics remind the listener that the choice to dive in belongs to the individual. It rewrites the tragic isolation of Shakespeare's characters into a shared journey of healing.
Instead of succumbing to the currents, the song’s overarching philosophy #Keepswimming acts as a direct answer to Hamlet's indecisive hesitation. By providing solidarity and a safe haven, the track reframes the deep ocean from a symbol of inevitable doom into a space where an individual can choose agency, break their internal chains, and actively choose to survive
did you know why One More Night was placed as track 12?
Why is the ‘romance’ in the album is placed at the end?
the clock is actually the antagonist. In this story, the true villain isn't distance or a rival lover; it is the clock itself.
the text explicitly tracks time with a clinical precision: "Twenty-four hours in the tub / Twenty-four hours of your thought." In sociology, that 24-hour cycle represents the ultimate metric of post-industrial capitalism: the standard shift, the daily grind, the automated reset of modern labor. (the system dictates exactly when we work, when we sleep, and precisely how much time we are allowed to spend with the ones we love).
so after BTS was done with tracks like Like Animals, Merry Go Round, They Don’t Know ‘Bout Us, Normal, Aliens (songs about calling out the oppressive system that they navigated daily), them placing One More Night as track 12 was the perfect ending to where they shift from a state of political anger to one of intimate, revolutionary survival.
they want to be with human connection, a lover & intimacy. it proves that despite the panopticon, the burnout, and the systemic cages they navigated daily, their final, most defiant answer to the world is an insatiable demand for more love, more time, and more humanity than the system ever intended to give them.
philosophy argues that the highest form of human existence is not found in political systems, but in looking at another human being and seeing them completely as a sacred soul, completely uncoupled from their economic value.
the romance becomes the ultimate antidote to the alienation ♡
Sean Evans shared one of his favorite BTS stories from filming Hot Ones, recalling Jimin enthusiastically cheering everyone on with “C’mon, wing! Let’s go, wing!”
He said that despite the language barrier, that moment brought everyone together and made them feel connected through the spicy wing challenge.
Madonna, Shakira and BTS will co-headline the first-ever FIFA World Cup™ Final Halftime Show at the New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19.
Curated by Coldplay's Chris Martin and produced by Global Citizen, the show will raise funds for the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, improving access to quality education and football for children around the world.