While "Ophelia" is not a concept record in the traditional sense, the name of the album and the title track are a literary reference to Shakespeare's Ophelia. In the play "Hamlet", Ophelia becomes mad and eventually commits suicide when Hamlet remains noncommittal and lost in himself. Merchant's "Ophelia" describes a series of women throughout time—women who dared question the patriarchal status quo and who were often castigated for doing so—and is a cry for women's rights and for more understanding of female archetypes beyond the scope of the "mother" and the "whore", both of which severely limit women and attempt to turn them into little more than chattel. The portrayal of the women in the song is a tribute to the non-traditional "too smart for her own good" type of woman who is often misunderstood by society. As a lyric to the title song cries: "Your common sense, your best defense, was wasted and in vain!" A reflection of women driven mad by social limitations, Natalie's tribute described Ophelia as being at once a "novice carmelite", a "suffragette", a "circus queen", a "demigoddess" and a "mafia courtesan". On the album sleeve, Merchant is pictured in colorful and ornate costumes as each of these different characters. As a companion to the album, she also released a film where she portrays each of these different characters, with voice-overs used for the "novice carmelite", the "sweetheart" and the "courtesan" as they are Spanish, German, and Italian, respectively.