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World Literature Videos 44 videos
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2843 Views
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Description:
Lisbeth Salander is a tough nut to crack. Hero? Villain? Somewhere in the middle? We're not sure, but we're hesitant to accuse her of anything...especially after what she did to the last guy.
Transcript
- 00:05
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a la Shmoop. We all know what heroes are supposed to look
- 00:14
like in fiction. They fly through the air...
- 00:17
...or shoot arrows and catch fire...
- 00:18
...or take out He Who Should Not Be Named.
- 00:20
But what if a character's behavior makes it tough to tell if he or she is a hero?
Full Transcript
- 00:28
In Stieg Larsson's book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo...
- 00:34
...disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist <<meh-kale bloam-quist>> and troubled computer hacker
- 00:38
Lisbeth Salander <<liz-bith sal-in-der>> join forces to find a girl who went missing decades
- 00:43
ago...
- 00:43
...and end up on the trail of a serial killer.
- 00:47
Uh, wrong kind of cereal. While on the quest to find the missing girl,
- 00:55
Lisbeth shows that not only is she a brilliant researcher...
- 00:58
...but she also has a gift for using violence to get what she wants...
- 01:02
...which leads us to the question: Should Lisbeth be considered a hero?
- 01:13
While the abuse inflicted on her by her guardian was terrible, Lisbeth's decision to take the
- 01:19
law into her hands...
- 01:20
...in a very creative way...
- 01:22
...shows us that she's a ruthless individual.
- 01:32
Wouldn't a true hero use legal means to punish a rapist, rather than Lisbeth's more brutal
- 01:38
methods? Okay, so it's true that Lisbeth is violent
- 01:38
and willing to resort to criminal behavior in order to achieve her goals...
- 01:40
...but she also demands justice for herself and helps those she cares about.
- 01:46
Doesn't saving Blomkvist from death at the hands of a serial killer count as heroism?
- 01:51
If Blomkvist hadn't had Lisbeth's assistance, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would have
- 01:53
had a very different ending.
- 01:56
When all's said and done, it's really Lisbeth who saves the day.
- 01:59
So, which is it?
- 02:02
Should Lisbeth be excluded from hero-dom because she violently metes out punishment herself
- 02:09
rather than leaving it to the authorities?
- 02:14
Does she occupy a gray area, where some of her actions are heroic, but not others?
- 02:21
Or is Lisbeth the real hero of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, because the good things
- 02:23
that happen in the book happen because of her?
- 02:27
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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