The title of the book, Reviving Ophelia, is a metaphor based upon the character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this play, Ophelia begins as a young girl on the brink of her youth, and she is full of life, independence, and is steadfast to her own will. She then falls in love with Hamlet and from there becomes nothing more than an object of his affection, living her life only to please and serve him. Pipher explains that this is the state of adolescent girls both in the 1990s and today and states that Western culture molds young girls into shadows of their former selves. Girls who once had goals, ideals, and a sense of self become fractured and lost in the storm of adolescence, often spiraling into depression, eating disorders, or unhealthy sexual habits.

Many of the behaviors that adolescent girls exhibit are taught to them by their culture through media, peers, and even their own parents. Girls are taught to be beautiful, quiet, submissive, and nonthreatening. The male-dominated Western culture has prolonged this ideology for decades, if not centuries. Pipher asserts that it is time for this ideal to change, and, while progress is being made, Western culture still has a long way to go.