The Ring | Babette Can Cook: Life and Art in Three Stories by Isak Dinesen
Bassoff is Professor of English at the University
of Colorado. In the following excerpt, he contends
that Lovisa’s (here called Lise) encounter
with the thief—and the ‘‘real world’’—results in a
dramatic change in her character.
Structuring [‘‘The Diver’’] are plot elements that we find also in ‘‘The Ring’’ and ‘‘Babette’s Feast’’: a desire for transcendence (represented by the motifs of birds and angels); a fall (or its refusal) caused by the ‘‘real world’’ in which ‘‘dreams are tested’’; and either new knowledge or resignation, true art or its simulacrum. In ‘‘The Ring’’ Lise, a young, wealthy newlywed wife, muses over her happiness. Unlike the Softa, who wants to transcend everyday life through converse with an angel, Lise feels like the angel herself: the...
[The entire page is 619 words long]
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