Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Widow's Peak Noisy neighbors rarely add any sort of thematic significance to your life—their loud music and snoring through the walls are annoying, not interesting—but Einar and Greta, who live...
Narrator Point of View
Two Girls and a Danish GuyFrom the title, you'd think the book is about a Danish girl, or a girl passing out pastries. And it is (without the pastries), but it's not only about a Danish girl. The b...
Genre
Making HistoryLili Elbe made history as the first person to undergo male-to-female sex reassignment surgery—and then everyone promptly forgot about her. David Ebershoff found a casual mention of...
What's Up With the Title?
The title—The Danish Girl—is fairly self-explanatory as titles go. But Ebershoff emphasizes the title in the book's final chapter, as Lili thinks, "She was Fraulein Lili Elbe. A Danish girl in...
What's Up With the Ending?
Einar successfully transitions into Lili. Yay. Lili gets one last procedure and dies. Whoa… Where are our tissues?The ending to The Danish Girl is actually very vague. We're not told flat-out "Li...
Tough-o-Meter
Den danske pige er skrevet på engelsk, men det bruger enkelt og letforståeligt sprog, næsten som om det var skrevet på dansk, men oversætte for en engelsk-talende publikum.Oops. We had a glitc...