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 Dresden" (29.71). She begins as Einar Wegener, a Danish man in Copenhagen, and she ends as Lili, the Danish girl in Dresden. She might be dying, but at least she's who she truly wants to be at last.