The Girl Who Played With Fire

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual violence, rape, child abuse, physical abuse, bullying, gender discrimination, antigay bias, and cursing.

In the previous novel, Lisbeth’s personal history is unknown, but the traumatic sexual assault that Bjurman perpetrates against Lisbeth is vividly described. Upon dealing with Martin Vanger, Lisbeth finds that her trauma sparks a greater desire to take down a known rapist and murderer. In The Girl Who Played With Fire, Lisbeth’s extensive history of dealing with men who hate women becomes the dominant factor in her own inner development, showing that a life of consistent disregard, disdain, and outright violence has dissuaded Lisbeth from participating in social systems at all. From her father, Zala, and her psychiatrist, Teleborian, to every police officer and social worker she has met along the way, Lisbeth has only learned to better internalize her feelings and shut out others. As a result, even in her direst straits, she isolates herself from the people who are best suited to help her, like Blomkvist.

When she was a child, teachers ignored Lisbeth, while other children bullied her and never suffered any consequences. At home, Lisbeth periodically witnessed Zalachenko beat Agneta, and he ignored his daughters completely.