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Chapter 12
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Danish Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender Transitioning
Self-Transformation
Freedom and Constraint
Love and Acceptance
Courage
Loss and Grief
Summary
Analysis
Not long after Einar’s treatment with Dr. Hexler, Greta arranged the Wegeners’ move to Paris, with Hans’s help. By 1929, they’ve been living there for three years, in a charming little apartment with two studios—one for each of them—and a tiny, bedroom so dark at night it feels to Einar like a “cocoon.”
The Wegeners are well known and connected in Copenhagen; moving to Paris gives Lili greater freedom because there’s less risk of exposure (or public censure) there, where few people know Einar. The cocoon image is important, suggesting that Lili is now well into her metamorphosis.
Active
Themes
Sometimes in the afternoons, Einar visits the establishment of Madame Jasmin-Carton, where, for the price of five francs, he can sit in a private room to watch ladies performing erotic dances through a window. Unlike the other patrons, he doesn’t come in search of sexual arousal. He wants, instead, to study the dancers’ bodies, to understand how they move and delve into the secret of what makes them female.
Madame Jasmin-Carton’s establishment becomes a safe space, far from the eyes of others, where Einar can explore his sexuality. But readers should note how much fear and shame he still feels. He visits the place as Einar because it’s more socially acceptable for men to indulge their sexuality than women—and because he’s not yet ready to explore Lili’s sexual feelings, so deeply has he repressed them due to the pressures of his father and the world.
Active
Themes
Literary Devices
Most mornings, Lili takes a city bus to the ladies’ only pool at Tuileries. In the privacy of her changing hut, she admires the way her breasts fill the tiny cups of her bathing suit. She swims for half an hour each morning, the graceful arc of her arms drawing the attention and admiration of the other patrons. Lili loves bathing, loves the freedom she feels to be herself in Paris, unlike in Copenhagen.
Active
Themes
But sometimes, when Lili is changing back into her street clothes, she catches sight of Einar’s penis between her legs. This throws her into a state of confusion and shame, because the penis reminds Einar that he’s a “little Danish man” in the changing tent of the ladies’ pool and that the only way for him to get back to the safety of the apartment is to undergo the humiliation of wearing a woman’s dress out in public.
Active
Themes
Literary Devices
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One day in May of 1929, Einar visits Madame Jasmin-Carton’s establishment and pays 15 francs to watch a couple making love. It’s the first time he has ever seen a male (besides himself) in a state of arousal. Only when it’s over does he realize that he has ejaculated himself in his excitement, staining his pants. He also realizes that he wants a man to do those things to Lili.
Active
Themes
Einar rinses his pants and leaves Madame Jasmin-Carton’s. He sits on a park bench to watch children playing there under the watchful eyes of their governesses. Because it’s cool and overcast, however, his pants won’t dry. When one of the governesses notices him—she comes over to retrieve a child’s lost kite—she reacts with alarm and suspicion. Einar doesn’t want to be the kind of man governesses and children fear. He cannot go on being both Einar and Lili. He must “sort them out.” He gives himself a year to do so and plans to kill himself if he fails. He looks up as the little girl comes to the bench for the kite’s tail. When he hands it to her, she smiles and thanks him.
