Eat, Drink, and (Don't) be Merry: A comparison and contrast of Babette and Sophie
Food and drink are two of the great pleasures and reliefs of life's cares -- along with love. So suggests the character of Babette from Isak Dinesen's short story "Babette's Feast" and Sophie from the novel Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham. But food ultimately has the power to sustain the soul, while drink, although it may provide a temporary respite, ultimately can only kill what is good inside of a person. Both Babette and Sophie are symbolic and minor, rather than fully fleshed out characters, which enable different characters in the novel to establish connections between one another that they otherwise would not have been able to. For instance, Babette's decision to have a feast brings together the elder sisters whom she serves with the rest of their surrounding community. She creates a sense of community and love with the grace of her meal where before there was no such community. Sophie's tragic death brings together the American ex-G.I. Larry and the mendacious Isabel, out of a mutual sense of guilt. But the means by which such connections are established are positive in Babette's sense, and negative in Sophie's, and this is reflected in the nature of the relationships the sacrifices of both women spawn.
Babette of Dinesen's "Babette's Feast" begins the tale as a woman acting as a servant to an ascetic and repressed family of unmarried women. She is a Frenchwoman, an alien to the community both in her nationality and in her spirit. But...
One might assume she would use this inheritance to escape. But she does not. Rather, she uses it to educate the family in what a real meal tastes like. For too long she has been forced to serve poor food, not because the family is financially impoverished, but because they wish to deny the needs of the body out of spiritual convictions.
These spiritual convictions are unnecessary, suggests the more sensual French Babette. Babette brings joy to the household, because of her financial largess, rather than joy to herself. For, as a result of her financial windfall, Babette makes a shocking request -- she asks to cook a sumptuous meal for the family, in defiance of their usual religious protocols. On this one feast, Babette squanders all of her money, and also all of her hopes of leaving the town and returning home. But by lavishing so much on a transient yet nourishing substance, Babette's act of gift giving in time, funds, and food essentially heals the hearts and souls of all the sisters of the house, and all of those in the surrounding community.
In contrast, Sophie of Razor's Edge creates a negative connection between two spiritually bankrupt people, after she exists the novel, as both commiserate in guilt over her death. In some sense, Sophie is an emotional and sensual creature like Babette. She similarly makes use of an intoxicating delight, that of the drink of alcohol. To fund her habit, she later becomes a prostitute. But…
