Blog Entry #2

In Babette's Feast, the initial role of food in the Protestant congregation was to merely have enough to survive and be able to live off of. For example, before Babette arrived, the people in the village primarily ate ale-and-bread soup, not anything too luxurious or exotic for the townspeople to really sink their teeth into. This demonstrates that, for the small congregation of believers in this film, food is not anything more than a needs for survival, and is not seen as a form of culinary art and exotic taste. Due to this, the congregation have sacrificed their own senses of pleasure and enjoyment and have repressed their emotions for the sake of their religious beliefs, which is of more importance to them.

However, despite the congregation's agreement to remain indifferent about the feast that Babette prepares, the colorful, exotic foods eaten by the group (as opposed to the bland, plain soup they're used to eating) eventually succeeds in evoking repressed emotions from the group of believers, including pleasure and enjoyment in consuming the food, as well as expressing genuine love and affection for each other. This demonstrates how powerful the effect that Babette's lavish feast had on the Protestant congregation in the sense that it was successful in making the group of believers briefly put aside the ethics of their religion and allow them to indulge themselves in the feast and thoroughly enjoy the food they were served. Even though the congregation of Protestant believers initially ate the food because they had no choice, it becomes clear that, towards the end of the meal, the group is genuinely enjoying the food served before them, reversing their mannerisms from the beginning of the film; while the Protestant believers initially sacrificed their own pleasure for their religious beliefs, Babette's feast has caused them to sacrifice the ethics of their religion for their self-pleasure.

Cailles en Sarcophage (quail in a puff pastry shell), one of the foods served in Babette's Feast