Babette's Feast

Karen Blixen uses figurative language to set Babette apart from the rest of the characters in the story in a series of images that move from the secular to the divine. When Babette first arrives on the sisters’ doorstep, she is described using a simile: “haggard and wild-eyed like a hunted animal” (14). This highlights Babette’s primal nature and the terrors that she experienced during the war. It also expresses the danger that the other characters perceive around Babette. Blixen then nuances this description with contrasting metaphors: “She had appeared to be a beggar; she turned out to be a conqueror” (14). This description not only implies a change in demeanor, but it also foreshadows her eventual reveal as a great chef.

Blixen uses a series of metaphors from various religious traditions to describe Babette: She compares Babette to Pythia, a Greek mythological oracle of Apollo, to emphasize her mysterious, powerful nature. The townspeople think of Babette as “the speechless stranger, the dark Martha in the house of their two fair Marys” (16). This metaphor is an allusion to the Gospel of Luke, in which Jesus visits two sisters named Martha and Mary; Martha is busy with household work and is distracted from Jesus’s teachings while Mary listens dutifully at his feet (Luke 10:38-42). The comparison reflects the sisters’ belief that, as a Catholic, Babette does not follow the Bible’s true teachings. However, the next Biblical reference equates Babette with Jesus: The “stone which the builders had almost refused, [had] become the headstone of the corner” (16). This is a description of Jesus found in the Book of Matthew. Following this analogy, Babette is compared to “the Black Stone of Mecca, the Kaaba itself” (16). The Kaaba is the holiest site in Islam, the House of God to which every Muslim must make a pilgrimage, or hajj, once in their lifetime. Thus, Blixen shows Babette’s transformation from a fleeing animal to a site of pilgrimage where others come to worship.

Flashbacks are the structural foundation of the story. The stories told in Parts 2 and 3 establish the history needed to understand the significance of Babette’s appearance and Berlevaag and the state of the main characters once she arrives. The flashback to Papin and Philippa’s brief romance in Part 3, in particular, is critical to Babette’s appearance in Berlevaag; Babette carries Papin’s letter of recommendation, which he uses to explain Babette’s origins and appeal to the sisters to take the French woman in as a maid. The significance of the rest of Papin’s message—about Philippa’s singing and his own failed career—also lies in flashback as do Philippa’s final comforting words to Babette at the conclusion of the story. The flashback to young Loewenhielm’s visit to Berlevaag in Part 2 gives his presence at Babette’s dinner thematic resonance, shows his character growth, and brings his relationship with Martine full circle.

The flashbacks also provide crucial information about the Dean, who is an important character even though he is long dead by the time the story takes place. As the founder of the Puritan sect, the Dean establishes the way of life to which the Brothers and Sisters of Berlevaag cling, even in his absence. He also determines Martine and Philippa’s pious lives and their renunciation of worldly passions. The importance of the Dean’s yellow house, which becomes the town’s gathering place, is only made clear by knowing the stories told in the flashbacks.