Lisbeth Salander

Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the heroine of Larsson's award-winning Millennium Trilogy, first appearing in the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor, or "Men Who Hate Women"). She is also featured in The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes, or "The Air Castle That Exploded"), the second and third installments of the author's bestselling series.

Profile

Larsson stated in interviews that he based the character of Lisbeth Salander on what he imagined Pippi Longstocking would have been like as an adult. Salander has red hair, which she dyes black. On her first appearance in the series, she is described as "a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She had a wasp tattoo about an inch long on her neck, a tattooed loop around the biceps of her left arm and another around her left ankle. On those occasions when she had been wearing a tank top, It is also observed that has a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder blade."

Salander was born April 30, 1978 to a Agneta Sophia Salander Née Sjölander. Lisbeth has a twin sister named Camilla with whom is she estranged. Salander's father is Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet GRU agent who defected to Sweden in the 1960s and was granted asylum and protection by the Swedish Security Service, the SÄPO. Zalachenko frequently subjected Lisbeth and her family violent psychical and psychological abuse, but because of his SAPO connections, his crimes were never reported. Following a particularly savage beating of her mother that left her with permanent Brain damage, the then twelve-year-old Lisbeth retaliated against her father by setting him on fire, throwing a gasoline-filled milk carton into his car along with a lit matchstick. Zalachenko was severely burned but survived the attack. Zalachenko's handlers in the SÄPO, fearing this event would lead to their exposure and recriminations of harboring a violent psychopathic Soviet spy, decided to silence Lisbeth by declaring her legally insane, locking her up in the St. Stefan's Children's Psychiatric Hospital and placing her under the direct surveillance of the head psychologist there, Dr. Peter Teleborian who in actuality was a member of the SÄPO.

After spending her formative years at St. Stefann's, she is released under the condition that she is legally incompetent and must have a legal guardian to supervise her affairs. By the time of the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo her legal guardian is Nils Bjurman, who becomes her new guardian, after her previous one, Holger Palmgren, is incapacitated by a stroke. Bjurman reveals himself to be a sadist who forces her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for money from her own trust fund, which he controls. He eventually rapes her, unaware that she had been taping his actions with a hidden camera. She exacts her revenge a few days later by incapacitating and torturing him with a taser and tattooing "I am a sadistic pig, a pervert and a rapist" on his stomach; she then forces him to watch the recording of the rape, and threatens to make it public unless he arranges for her to have permanent control over her money. He complies, but seeks revenge in the second novel, by calling her father, Zalachenko to find the recording and kill her.

In adulthood, Salander becomes a covert researcher. She is a black hat or "cracker"—a computer hacker who passes computer security passwords without authorization. Using the username "Wasp" she becomes a prominent figure in Sweden's Hacker community. She utilizes her computer skills as a means to earn a living, doing investigative work for a security firm. Through this firm, she meets and befriends Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist. Together over the course of the three novels, they form an important friendship as they together solve mysteries as well as uncovering criminal syndicates and corrupt elements within the Swedish government.

Her traumatic childhood has made her fiercely reclusive, solitary, and introverted as an adult. She never trusts anyone, has virtually no close friends and utterly refuses to even work with any members of authority such as the Police or Government. It is because of her past, that she is particularly hostile to men who abuse and mistreat women in anyway, as she takes special interest in exposing and punishing men that do. The embodiment of Larsson's personal views. [1] It is hinted in all three novels that she may have Asbergers syndrome which is seen in her apparent eidetic, or photographic memory, yet another asset to her skill as an investigator, as well as solving Mathematical equations as a hobby. She attempts to solve Fermat's Last Theorem in her spare time.

Salander is also bisexual. Her girlfriend, Miriam Wu, is a kickboxer and is probably the closest to emotionally-withdrawn Lisbeth. She also has a complicated relationship with Mikael Blomkvist throughout the three novels. She became attracted to Mikael Blomkvist while working together on a murder mystery and began having an affair with him. After Blomkvist abruptly broke off the affair at the end of the first novel, she angrily cuts off friendship and contact with him, although they ultimately reconcile after he wins her trust by fighting for her innocence when she is accused of murder in the second novel and third novels.

In film

In the Swedish film trilogy she is played by Noomi Rapace and as a child by Tehilla Blad. She will be portrayed by Rooney Mara in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation.

See also

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• The Girl Who Played with Fire
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

External links

• www.larssontrilogy.com from Quercus, publishers of Stieg Larsson Template:En icon
• The official Millennium site of Nordstedt Publishing Template:Sv icon
• The Girl Who Played with Fire Template:En icon