Elizabeth Siddal and the Tragic Fate of Ophelia

Elizabeth Siddal was the face of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood—the model for John Everett Millais's iconic Ophelia painting and the lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti for ten years before they married. But was she a victim of a toxic relationship, a talented artist erased by history, or something more complicated?

This episode explores her life as a model and artist in Victorian England, her decade-long relationship with Rossetti, her addiction to laudanum, and her death at 32. We also examine how every generation since has rewritten her story—from Victorian tragic muse to 1920s hysteric to 1960s groupie to feminist icon—and what that says about how we consume historical women.

CW: addiction, stillbirth, postnatal depression, suicide.