Fulfillment

Isak Dinesen’s Babette’s Feast proves that people need religion to believe in something perfect outside of themselves. On earth everything seems incomplete and people are left not fully satisfied. The two sister’s Phillipa and Martine, although beautiful never gets to be with their lover. It seems to bother the men more than the sister’s whom view we do not really see. Even though General Loewenhielm had everything he wanted, he still began to worry about his immortal soul. Phillapa’s lover states in a letter, “As I write this I feel the grave is not the end, in paradise I shall hear your voice again” (30). In heaven he is reunited with the thing he desires the most. Heaven brings people full circle and satisfies their needs and desires.
The general declared in his noble speech, “In our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite...But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize grace is infinite” (52). Only in heaven can a person feel complete and truly satisfied. When we get caught up in the world, we can’t see beyond the physical. The two old ladies for example hated each other for so long but somehow forgot their differences while at the special dinner for the late Dean’s birthday. The dinner somehow for a moment brought the satisfaction of heaven in the small yellow house of the two generous sisters. The general thinks, “This woman is now turning a dinner into …a love affair of the noble and romantic category in which one no longer distinguishes between bodily and spiritual appetite or satiety” (51) The general, the man who felt spiritually hungry, felt fulfilled when eating the food prepared by Babette. The Dean’s, father of the two sisters, saying goes, “The only things which we may take with us from our life on earth are those which we have given away” (51). The things we give away is our talent and that is the only thing we are allowed to take with us to heaven. This is why Babette is able to use her talent to create a sort of heaven on earth. Phillapa’s lover desires most to be reunited with the sound of her voice. Just to hear her special talent again will satisfy him.
The general tells his lover as he parts, “In this world anything is possible” (54). People must believe this because it is comfort to the sadness of never seeing a loved one again. The general said this to his beloved Martine as he left and promised that he would be with her if not physically, spiritually. Being with her in spirit and therefore believing in God makes their reunion possible.