Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living... a bohemian artist’s life in 1920s Copenhagen. Gerda and her husband Einar share an apartment that also doubles as their studio.
Profession... a struggling portrait artist. While her husband’s career as a landscape painter is flourishing, Gerda has trouble generating much interest in her own work. Nevertheless, she continues to paint, hoping to one-day sell a portrait that gives her career legitimacy.
Interests... painting, pushing boundaries, and spending time with Einar and their beloved Jack Russell terrier, Teddy.
Relationship Status... happily married. Gerda and Einar are legendary among their friends for their stable and happy marriage. Theirs is a partnership of true equals and they share a bond that’s both romantic and intellectual. In telling the story of their first date Gerda explains, “I kissed him. And it was the strangest thing. It was like kissing myself.” Though Gerda longs to expand their family, so far she’s struggled to get pregnant.
Challenge... grappling with her husband’s shifting identity. After asking Einar to pose in place of a female model, he begins to spend more and more time as his female alter ego, Lili. But it soon becomes clear that Lili is more than just a game for Einar; she’s actually his authentic self. Gerda finds herself torn between fighting for the relationship she once had with Einar and supporting Lili’s right to exist.
Personality... creative, compassionate, and open-minded. Gerda is fond of her bohemian artist lifestyle and initially supportive of her husband’s experimentation with identity. But when it becomes clear that Lili is more than just an act, Gerda must balance her feelings of abandonment and betrayal with her desire to help the love of her life. Though she frequently feels overwhelmed and alone, she faces her unusual situation with strength and compassion.
Get to Know her in...
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When Gerda Wegener asks her husband Einar to fill in as a portrait model, Einar discovers the person she's meant to be and begins living her life as Lili Elbe. Having realized her true self and with Gerda's love and support, Lili embarks on a groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
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Now an Academy Award-winning major motion picture, starring Academy Award-winners Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander and directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Hooper
National Bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book * Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction * Winner of the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters * Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award * Finalist for the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award
Loosely inspired by a true story, this tender portrait of marriage asks: What do you do when the person you love has to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked by a wife of her husband while both are painting in their studio, setting off a transformation neither can anticipate. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, The Danish Girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of Lili Elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires. The Danish Girl’s lush prose and generous emotional insight make it, after the last page is turned, a deeply moving first novel about one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the 20th century.
