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 to her the "good people" of Achille Papin's letter (38).
The two sisters, Martine and Philippa, in Babette's Feast, are seen by their town as good people. They themselves see themselves in this light as well. "...they were poor and that to them luxurious fare was sinful. Thier own food must be as plain as possible...(32)." This is how they justified denying Babette to indulge in the artistry for French cooking she posessed. They claimed that French luxury was near sinful. The sisters do in fact give to chairity and never turn down anyone that ends up on their doorstep. Babette is a good example of their goodness. They do not know her, yet they take her in when Achille Papin recommends the sisters to Babette as good people that can help her. Babette accepts their offer and submits to the sisters' requests.
When Babette wins the lottery, the sisters' attitude change toward her. They are afraid that they will lose her, meaning they will be losing a servant that they are not paying at all. This makes the sisters selfish. Although it may be best for Babette to leave, they don't want her to because it will be inconveniencing them and they feel that Babette owes them for taking her in, although that is not really being a good person. When Babette makes the simple request to cook a French dinner for their benefit and decides to spend her money for the feast the sisters give in grudgingly. This is when I realized that the sisters are not truly good. This goes back to my argument in Good Woman of Setzuan: No one can be purely good. Eveyone has their flaws, and Babette brought out the flaws of the sisters in this novela.
Work Cited:
Dinesen, Isak. "Babette's Feast." Babette's Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny. New York: Vintage, 1988. Print.
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I definitely agree with your overall point of the sisters not being perfect and that no one's perfect. I also agree that the Babette brought out the bad things in the girls. Just to add on to what you said, I would go even further to say that the girls are jealous of how artistic she is. I feel that that even though they are raised to be simple because they think it's a sin to be showy, they are jealous of the fact that she has the ability to be showy because she has the skills to cook better than them. I feel like they were skeptical about the dinner that they had because they felt that people would like her food better than the food that they make. I feel that because they are female they act like girls and start and hatin' on the things that she can do instead of being happy for her like you said with the lottery. Those are just some ideas I had about the issues you discussed in your blog.
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