The Limitations of Women's Opportunities in "Babette's Feast" Brynn McKay 10th Grade

Throughout the text of "Babette's Feast," Martine and Philippa are described only as beautiful and fair, unlike their father who is portrayed as a dean and prophet, acknowledging his accomplishments directly to his worth, where as the sister’s worth is determined solely by their looks. Babette’s feast has many elements of sexism, that causes the two main characters to have a hindered world view. Given a different and more generous set of opportunities than they were, Martine and Phillipa’s lives could have been drastically different.

Achille Papin and Lorens Lowenhielm both exclaimed to have fell deeply in love with the women and upon first glance, wanting to be with them forever, purely based on their appearance and simple mannerisms. This shows just how little men of that time thought of their wives, showing them off as prizes rather than a woman to be respected.“...prizing the maidens far above rubies and had suggested as much to their father.” The Dean describes his daughters as merely an appendage off of him, rather than their own persons. “But the dean had declared that to him in his calling his daughters were his right and left hand.” In this quote, their father means to say that Martine and Philippa are such a large...