Essay Questions

What is the cause of Lisbeth's view of men?

Lisbeth views the majority of men as predators, and for good reason; growing up, she witnessed her father acting violently towards her mother, and torturing her. Lisbeth is entrusted into the care of a guardian ad litem, Nils Burman, who is supposed to protect her, but he is one of the people she most needs protecting from; he rapes her, and this is the point at which Lisbeth decides that she is going to become a destroyer of any man who causes pain, or acts violently towards, a woman.

She is also able to experience the kindness of men, for example, from Blomkvist, although this does take her some time to trust fully. Lisbeth is a graphic and exaggerated example of the difficulties that women face every day and the way in which violence against women is still not correctly dealt with or taken seriously enough across the globe.

Why does suspicion fall on Lisbeth after Dag Svensson and his girlfriend, Mia, are murdered?

When the police discover the murder, they find the murder weapon at the scene and learn that Lisbeth's finger prints are all over it. This of course points to her guilt, and they do not bother to investigate further. They also believe she has killed Nils Bjurman with the same weapon. However, Blomkvist's investigation shows that Lisbeth has been set up and that the police know perfectly well that she is not the perpetrator of the murders. It is actually the police who are responsible for the crimes, and they have used a gun with Lisbeth's fingerprints on it as a "plant" item to try to implicate her in a double murder she is innocent of.