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Chapter 6
Themes
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
Lili and Henrik meet three evenings in a row, at dusk, in the week after the Artists’ Ball. The first night, as Lili gets ready, Greta asks where she’s going. She remains silent yet seems unhappy when Lili tells her the truth. Henrik arrives 20 minutes late, full of profuse apologies for getting caught up in painting and losing track of time. He and Lili walk hand in hand around town, and he kisses her before they part. They repeat this routine the following night. Henrik tells Lili he hopes to meet Greta properly someday.
In a very literal way, it’s safer for Lili to meet Henrik at dusk, since in the dark there’s less chance of their being noticed by anyone who might know Einar and less chance of Henrik noticing any of Lili’s male anatomy. Like many transgender people before her and since, she’s scared to face the world in the daylight for fear of how she will be judged or persecuted. But her feelings for Henrik keep her coming back and draw her farther and farther out of her shell, with love giving her courage.
Themes
On the third night, Henrik and Lili stay out well past midnight, kissing luxuriously in the shadows of houses. Lili is surprised when she arrives home and Greta is already in bed instead of waiting up for her. In the morning, Greta tells Lili that she should stop seeing Henrik. She says she’s worried about what might happen if Henrik learns who Lili really is. But Lili isn’t ready to let Henrik go. She continues meeting him, secretly, during afternoons when Greta is occupied elsewhere and won’t notice her absence.
It's certainly possible that Greta has mixed motives for interfering in Lili’s relationship with Henrik. Every night Lili spends with him is a night with Einar that Greta loses. However, she’s also being more realistic than Lili, realizing that Lili isn’t just risking heartbreak but being outed and treated as a sexual deviant. But by now, Lili isn’t willing to go back into hiding ever again.
Themes
One night, Greta attends a reception at the American Embassy. Lili is excited because it means she and Henrik can go on a proper date at last. When they meet in the park, she says she has “something to tell him.” He answers that he “already knows” everything and doesn’t care. Lili doesn’t know for certain what Henrik means. Suddenly she’s back in Einar’s consciousness, acutely ashamed to see himself in a dress flirting with a younger man. Lili stands up abruptly, telling Henrik that she can’t see him again. Henrik reiterates that “it doesn’t make any difference to him,” but Lili still rushes home to transform back into Einar, who waits anxiously for Greta to come home and soothe his worries away.
Themes
