Let the Right One In

“Håkan closed his eyes, breathed slowly in and out to calm himself and stop the impulse to get up and run far, far away from…all this.” 

Håkan wishes to pledge his allegiance to Eli, though he also wants Eli sexually. He struggles with killing for Eli’s sake. Despite his devotion, he understands how horrific his situation is and still hopes at times for the police to catch him and end his suffering. Håkan therefore represents the duality of good and evil within people.

“Better to have a little shit in the corners than a clean hell.”

This passage describes Tommy cleaning his basement hideout. It is also indicative of Tommy’s behavior throughout the narrative. Tommy would rather be a menace to society than face boredom by living according to someone else’s rules.

“Things were going to be different from now on. Of course you couldn’t kill people by hacking up trees. He knew that.” 

Oskar reasons here that his game of stabbing trees is unrealistic. He knows the killings taking place aren’t really because he willed them to happen. This passage, however, underscores his innocence. He knows he can’t kill through sheer willpower, but he also doesn’t know yet that a vampire is killing people.

“That he had been afraid of the coffin, sat staring at it the whole time, sure his dad was going to get up out of it and come alive again, but…changed.” 

This passage describes Tommy’s initial fear of his dead father returning as a zombie. The quote works as foreshadowing because Tommy will later face a zombie-like Håkan in an encounter that will traumatize Tommy.

“Dead is dead. […] Yes. At least that’s what we like to think.” 

Tommy and Oskar discuss the possibility of someone being dead yet alive. Tommy reasons that not everything in life is black and white, a realization that most of the characters in the narrative will have to discover when they face the supernatural.

“One thing he was completely sure of. He would never end up in the lowest circle […] The circle of traitors.” 

Håkan knows he will suffer in hell for his crimes. Despite all the horrible things done for Eli’s sake, he takes comfort in knowing he isn’t a traitor.

“Cooperate. Cooperate. Suddenly everyone wants to cooperate. I am no longer a person. I am a project. Oh my God. Eli, Eli. Help me.” 

This quote references Håkan’s view of himself once he’s captured and the police want to investigate him. It’s ironic in that Håkan views his relationship with Eli as objective and transactional, yet here he laments the police treating him like an object.

“[Håkan] was outside as much as possible. In some way he wanted ‘the people’ to see him die, day for day.” 

Håkan lost his job because of pedophilia. The public deemed him a monster. His public shaming is a way for him to ease his guilt as it inflicts judgment. Ironically, he spends the rest of his human life protecting a “monster” (Eli) from public judgement.

“Don’t let them inside. Once they’re inside they have more potential to hurt you.” 

Virginia uses this reasoning to help feel better about Lacke being rude to her. This is right before Eli bites Virginia, and Virginia begins her transformation towards vampirism. The quote is also a foreshadowing in that vampires must receive an invite inside. Once they do, they can harm those who have shown them kindness.

“She showed her true face.” 

Oskar feels something is off with Eli, and he finally realizes what this is when Eli turns into his vampire form in front of Oskar. Oskar never stacked the clues up together until seeing the truth: Eli is a vampire, and the vampire is perhaps his true self (Oskar will later learn that this is not the case).

“Seek and thou shalt find, sure. But then you probably also had to know exactly what you were looking for.” 

Lacke attempts to take comfort in a Biblical message about seeking and finding. Lacke takes a logical approach, however, by suggesting that things are not as easy as seeking and finding. Most of the time people don’t know what to look for. 

“The delicate upside-down cone of glass was filled with transparent liquid. It was so little and fragile in Dad’s hand. It almost disappeared […] And still it ruined everything. Everything.” 

Oskar’s father turns into a different person when he drinks. The narrator juxtaposes the delicate, small glass with the rough, overbearing person Oskar’s dad becomes when he drinks and makes his family unhappy.

“The person his dad became when he drank had no connection to the person he was when he was sober. And so it was comforting to think about Dad being a werewolf. That he in fact contained a whole other person in his body.” 

Oskar nicknames his drunken father a werewolf because his father changes so drastically when drinking. This quote also foreshadows Oskar’s acceptance of Eli, in that Eli is a different person when he’s a vampire and drinks blood.

“Which monster do you choose?” 

Oskar thinks his father’s drinking is monstrous. Likewise, Oskar doesn’t know if he should accept Eli after he finds out that Eli is a different person entirely, one who drinks blood. The quote suggests that not all monsters are bad. Oskar must choose one.

“But then that other thought came out, the terrible, frightening one. That Eli was just pretending. That there was an ancient person inside of her, watching him, who knew everything, and was smiling at him, smiling in secret.” 

This frightening quote underscores much vampire or monster folklore; namely, the monster who preys on innocence and then pounces when someone lets his or her guard down. The narrator adds this here to add an element of horror and suspense, and a feeling of distrust toward Eli’s true intentions.

“No feeling of suffocation, no lack of oxygen. She didn’t need to breathe anymore. That was all.” 

Virginia realizes that she’s becoming a vampire. Her transition is initially very traumatic, but by the end, she accepts her life as a vampire more naturally than it seems she should. She’s perhaps the most logical character in the narrative.

“He tried to think. Hard. And he didn’t get it. That he could somehow accept that she was a vampire, but the idea that she was somehow a boy, that could be…harder.”

Oskar accepts that Eli is a vampire, yet he can’t bring himself to accept that Eli is male. This quote underscores peer pressure and social conformity. Oskar would rather believe in monsters than believe that he might be gay.

“A little light always gets in.” 

Vampires die when sunlight hits them, making light dangerous. Ironically, light symbolizes hope for many people. This irony plays out later when Virginia kills herself by exposing herself to sunlight. She wants to die, and she gets her wish.

“It’s a search for the archetypal Monster. This man’s appearance, what he’s done. He is The Monster, the evil at the heart of all fairy tales. And every time we catch it, we like to pretend it’s over for good.” 

A news reporter mentions this in a piece about Håkan. The quote underscores just how often humankind likes to posit something as evil and foolishly believes that it can contain or banish said evil.

“To be separated from everything. Leave. His mom, dad, school…Jonny, Tomas…To be with Eli. Always.” 

Oskar finally comes to the realization that he wants to choose Eli. He doesn’t feel like he belongs—or truly exists—in his present reality. Despite wanting to be with Eli “always,” he doesn’t want to become a vampire.

“[Lacke] threw himself on his knees next to the bed, grabbed the metal tubing, and moved his face close to hers as if to will her soul back into her face, from her depths, by the sheer force of his presence.” 

Though Lacke began as a character who didn’t seem in love with Virginia, he transitions into a lover who genuinely cares for his beloved. This quote also hints at how split Virginia’s self is. There is the self she feels, and the monster within. Lacke, without knowing it, attempts to reach her human self—her soul.

“Then [Eli] pressed a kiss on Oskar’s lips. For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was…himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger, than what he thought of himself. Seen with love.” 

Eli shows Oskar the world through Eli’s eyes several times. In this encounter, Eli shows Oskar the version of himself that Eli sees and believes in. This is a literal example of seeing an image of oneself projected through a loved one’s eyes.

“When Gunnar told the crime scene photographer […] about this angel he had said: ‘Hardly one from heaven, in that case.’” 

Eli decapitates Jonny and Jimmy. The crime scene photographer’s mention of him not being an angel from heaven points to Eli’s dual nature: He is angelic in that he’s powerful and loves Oskar fiercely and innocently, yet he’s a supernatural being that kills.