Babette Gets The Last Laugh

When Babette arrives at the home of spinsters, Martine and Philippa, in the small remote fishing village of Berlevaag in Norway, she hands them a letter of introduction, then collapses with exhaustion at their feet.

“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story.” ~Isak Dinesen

There is a place for preaching, teaching, and debating…but story too can be a theological act.

The letter is from Paris and written by Achilles Papin, an opera singer and  former suitor of Philippa. Martine reads the letter (it’s in French!) and they learn Babette Hersant begged Papin to send her to some “good people” because she had been arrested as a Pétroleuse (a woman accused of using petroleum to set fires during the Paris Commune of 1871)…but escaped and had to flee for her life from Paris. Her husband and son had been shot; she’d lost everything and was destitute and desperate.

...it is more than a meal—it is a love affair!

I can’t help but think that the author of Babette’s Feast, Isak Dinesen, was pouring some of her own life story into the character. We find out later that Babette was the head chef of the most renowned restaurant in all of Paris, the Café Anglais, a favourite dining spot of princes and princesses, of opera stars and generals alike. This was a formidable achievement for any woman of the time.

In the same way, Dinesen, as a young adult managed a large coffee plantation in Kenya during WW1. Like Babette who risked her life for the cause of the Communards in civil war, Dinesen risked her life during several adventures in Africa. Babette lost her husband and child in the course of her activism, while Dinesen lost her husband and paramour to adventures in Africa—both author and character experience deep sorrow and grief.

...she gathers herself with a dignified appeal to their religious consciences to grant this prayer from the depth of her heart.

Dinesen was a master storyteller and once wrote: “All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story.”

So, with this inciting incident, the story in Babette’s Feast takes off as she throws herself on the mercy of the two sisters whom, ever faithful to their Lutheran piety, take in this stranger into their foreign land—how kind, how generous (especially considering Babette’s “papist” catechization)—with an act of self-sacrificing love. 

However, Babette, despite her suffering and sorrow, refuses to take advantage of their hospitality and insists she be hired as their household servant for meagre wages, room and board.

During the next 12 years, we follow Babette who first appears to be a beggar then turns out to be a conqueror. While the heaviness of grief never really leaves her, she integrates into the local community by fulfilling her household duties, such as bargaining in the market for food and supplies. Although she never learns their language, they count her in their prayers, especially when she grieves but also as a blessing on the sisters and the wider community.

Through Babette’s Feast, Dinesen shows how beauty, truth and goodness can be made visible not through rational argument but through imagination.

The story takes a dramatic turn when another letter arrives from Paris containing 10,000 francs that Babette has won in a lottery. The sisters and villagers are astounded when she decides not to return to Paris but, instead, requests their permission to use all her winnings to cook and host a feast! Because it goes against the grain of their ascetic lifestyle, they refuse until she gathers herself with a dignified appeal to their religious consciences to grant this prayer from the depth of her heart.

And so, for the first time since her arrival in Berlevaag, Babette can show who she really is—a chef extraordinaire, an artist! And with great energy and enthusiasm, she orders all her supplies from Paris and for weeks prepares food and drink until the day arrives, the guests assemble in the sisters’ home, and Babette remains in the kitchen cooking a meal unlike anything the guests have previously tasted. But it is more than a meal—it is a love affair!

“Their consent in the end completely changed Babette. They saw that as a young woman she had been beautiful.  And they wondered whether in this hour they themselves had not, for the very first time, become the “good people” of Achille Papin’s letter.”

And it is the kind of love affair that makes you want to stand up and cheer—to cheer for Babette who finally fulfills what she was created for, for each of the sisters and guests who find peace and reconciliation through the meal.  

You can almost hear Dinesen laughing with joy as she writes these final scenes. Interestingly, her pen name, Isak Dinesen, is a combination of her maiden name and the name Isak, which means “laughter” or “he will rejoice" and is a variant of the Hebrew name Isaac. It has roots in Hebrew, but is also used in Scandinavian cultures, and signifies joy and happiness. 

"Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist:  Give me leave to do my utmost!" ~Babette

Like Babette the cook, Dinesen the storyteller—both are artists. Through Babette’s Feast, Dinesen shows how beauty, truth and goodness can be made visible not through rational argument but through imagination. There is a place for preaching, teaching, and debating…but story too can be a theological act.

In a life filled with chaos caused by war, or sin, or pride, a story can bring meaning—a redemption through imagination—a revelation of divine grace!

---

GEORGE DUTCH is a writer, performer, dramaturge, and Associate Artistic Director for 9th Hour Theatre Company. Babette's Feast plays November 6-15th, 2025 at The Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa, Canada.