Calinga, Jancee S.

GED109 - A75

Film Analysis

1. Who is the main character in the film? Describe him/her. Make sure that you

will include the following details:

The name of the main character of the film, The Danish Girl is Einar Wegener

whose name would later be changed to Lili Elbe. The main character was born on

December 28, 1883. Though born as a male, lived as a male, and even having married

a wife (Gerda) , Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe felt his/her own calling as a female despite

having the body of a male, thus with determination and support of his wife (former) he

participated in an operation (surgery) and was sex reassigned into a woman being a

transgendered person. Lili Elbe is a well known painter who later on passed away at the

age of 48 on September 13, 1931 due to complications of his/her surgery.

2. What happened to the main character? What do you think is the main reason?

What are the triggering factors that led to his changes?

In the film, the main character of the story, Einar Wegener has stated that Lili

Elbe has always been with him, in fact he thinks that he himself/herself have two

identities which is Einar Wegener which is his male version and Lili Elbe, his female

counterpart. This further can be proven on some of his childhood clips shown where
some of them shows that he has been interested in feminine things and hobbies.

However be as it may, due to one accident where his wife made him wear a dress and

white long stockings to take her model’s place made her female counterpart Lili Elbe to

fully awaken deep within him. This awakening changed him into acting more feminine or

as a woman such as being graceful or doing things in a feminine manner. Later on her

female counterpart is becoming more and more apparent and this led him to fully

embrace this change and change his name to Lili Elbe making her male

counterpart/persona, Einar Wegener to slowly disappear. In this film I think that what led

him to change is when he realized his feminine side and the full blossoming of his

thoughts as a female such as dressing up as a female and acting as one. What led him

to this change are the standards of being normal and the realization of what he/she

really identifies himself/herself as.

3. Do you think that the main character has a psychological issue? How did you

say so?

Throughout the film, the main character is shown to have a gender identity crisis

which I think is a psychological problem in the main character part. I think that the main

character, Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe is being portrayed to have gender dysphoria, it is

because the main character is shown to have the uneasiness that is a result of the

feeling that his gender identity (female) does not match his own sex from birth (male).

Additionally, what made me think that he has psychological issue the fact that he
considers to have two people within himself which is Einar Wegener (male) and Lili Elbe

(female), that when he is Einar, he this that Lili is inside him waiting for her to take over.

4. Using some theories that we discussed in the class, explain what happened to

the main character.

Through the theories and concepts discussed in class, in a sociological point of

view that can be used in Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe’s story, according to this perspective,

gender is a construct shaped by society. It was also discussed that gender is a

spectrum and that it is not just about sex (male or female) thus, through this the

protagonist's pursuit of answer led him to this conclusion. We can say that the

protagonist undergoes something like gender gender transformation (figuratively and

literally) with the first stage of being confused or having a gender crisis to slowly

realizing and accepting his true self. We can also apply here the theory of the feminine

and masculine side and that gender is based on how much masculinity and femininity

that a person has. We can say that at first, the protagonist wanted to suppress his

feminine side by doing masculine things however, as time passes on, her feminine side

increases more thus having himself identify as a female and having his gender

reassigned into female as well.

5. Are you in favor of gender reassignment? Why or why not?

 For me I think that gender reassignment is a delicate matter and I think that I do

not have the right to say this for I am not one of the people involved. For me I think that

this will depend more on the opinion of the society as a whole rather than me myself.

However for me, I can somehow agree to gender reassignment because everyone is

free to choose their own path and identity, however this should come with some

restrictions which is the fact that if they deserve such treatment. This is because gender

reassignment costs a lot of things such as money and other people’s view on you. The

person who wants to have his/her gender reassigned must be prepared for such

consequences and not regret them or not use such reasons for the consequences that

they will experience in their life. In short the person who wants to do so must have the

responsibility to accept the consequence for his/her actions.

6. What are your learning insights after watching the film? Give at least three.

After watching the film, The Danish Girl, and after knowing that the film was

based on a true story which has the same name as the protagonist of the film, I was

able to gain some insights and learning regarding gender and one’s identity in the film.

One of the first insights that I have learned is the issues of gender to society, I was able

to learn that in this era where the film was set on, the concept of having a different

gender identity to their biological sex is not accepted. Through this I have learned that

compared to that, the society of today advocates more freedom to the people regarding

their desired gender. Next, my second learnings is that I have learned that gender
reassignment has been going on since back then, and that a small event can trigger a

person to fully realize one’s gender calling. Through this I learned that there are people

who are experiencing a gender crisis and also problems where people who are having

this crisis tend to treat themselves as having two souls or identities (male and female)

within themselves ‘till one such identity becomes more prominent than the other.