Violence Quotes in The Girl Who Played With Fire

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The injuries were hard to interpret. The pathologist had offered the suggestion that a wooden club wrapped in cloth had been the weapon used. Why a killer would wrap a murder weapon in cloth could not be explained […]. (9.124)

This little puzzle is never explicitly revealed, but by the end of the novel, we know that the murder weapon in question is probably Ronald Niedermann's arm, and the cloth is probably his sleeve! Paolo Roberto even describes Niedermann as having a "clublike blow" (25.93).

Quote #5

Bublanski: "Lisbeth Salander has been in and out of psychiatric units since she was a teenager. […] She was declared incompetent. She has a documented violent tendency […]. […] And you and Armansky talk about her like she's some kind of princess." (14.178)

It's true that Salander is violent. This violence enabled her to save Blomkvist's life. We haven't seen her use violence without herself or another innocent being attacked. Still, each reader decides whether her violent acts are justified, or whether she could have solved her problems through non-violent means.

Quote #6

He had a state endorsed mandate to tie down disobedient little girls with leather straps. (21.37)

Salander is thinking about Peter Teleborian who pretended that Salander was violent against everybody in order to justify her restraints. Do you think Salander is right, and he actually enjoys this, or is something else going on?