The Girl Who Played With Fire

The direct issue of Lisbeth’s life is that the system is orchestrated to keep her subjugated to the government, preventing her from exposing the crimes of her father, Zala. When Lisbeth was a child, Zala’s abuses were covered up by Sapo, who saw Zala as an asset, making him more important than Agneta, Camilla, or Lisbeth. After the event that Lisbeth labels “All The Evil,” Bjorck and Teleborian conspired to frame her as an incompetent, violent woman, destroying her credibility. Although she avoided permanent confinement to a psychiatric hospital with the help of Palmgren, Lisbeth was still regarded as a second-class citizen because of her guardianship. By the opening of The Girl Who Played With Fire, Lisbeth has no means of defending herself to the police or the public since they have already judged her based on her supposed background, which is entirely fabricated by Bjorck, Teleborian, and Zala. Her story is largely driven by society’s tendency to predetermine judgments against women by suppressing their ability to participate in society. To fight against this injustice on her own terms, she takes actions that are themselves extralegal and sometimes ruthless, willingly making herself a vigilante and embracing even more compromising situations.

The theme is also illustrated throughout the chapters that focus on the murder investigations and the hardened criminals. Larsson explains the misogyny of Swedish society through side comments from characters like Bjurman, Faste, and Zala, whose attitudes reflect those of real-world men who hate women as a general rule. Bjurman always refers to Lisbeth with derogatory terms such as “whore” or “bitch,” degrading her image in his mind to make up for the fact that she outsmarted him and took control of his life. However, the most potent example of misogyny in degrading women’s roles in society comes from Zala, who tells Lisbeth, “You can have whatever fantasies you want about her. But I know that she was a whore […] As if I’d marry a whore” (467). Zala’s repetition of the word “whore,” paired with the idea of “fantasizing” that Agneta was a full person with desires and goals, undermines any effort made by women to succeed in the world. To Zala and to many men in Larsson’s works, women are only useful as sex objects, and any actions that they take to refute this narrow, oppressive definition make them either “whores” or “bitches” in these men’s eyes.

Perhaps most tellingly, however, is Larsson’s portrayal of the ingrained sexism that impacts the very dynamics of investigations, and Faste stands as an avatar of toxic masculinity, actively undermining women’s efforts and degrading both Mimmi and Modig. As Modig observes, “It was obvious that Faste felt threatened by a beautiful, intelligent, and outspoken lesbian” (281). Throughout the novel, his extensive prejudices lead him to warp Mimmi’s testimony and accuse Modig of trying to sleep with Mimmi. In each case, Faste uses his position of power to undermine the professional integrity of the women he confronts, and only Bublanski’s interference prevents Faste from destroying Mimmi’s and Modig’s reputations. Likewise, when Modig challenges Faste as a police officer, he responds, “But I think you’re unprofessional and don’t have any business being a police officer. At least not at this level” (348). Faste’s assertion that Modig, as a woman, should not be in a position of power mirrors other characters’ assumptions that Lisbeth could only have been useful for cleaning or getting coffee at Milton Security. These frequent examples are collectively portrayed as an amalgamation of the systemic, sexist discrimination that dominates Swedish society.