All the characters who come to Berlevaag, including Babette, Loewenhielm, and Papin, are looking for something. Babette is searching for refuge and fulfillment as an artist after she is separated from her craft by circumstance. Loewenhielm’s first visit to Berlevaag ends in shame, and on his second trip, he hopes to find spiritual peace and fulfillment amid his hollow life of earthly riches and achievements that have failed to ease the pain of lost love. Papin goes to Norway on a quest for inspiration and ends up finding it in Philippa’s angelic voice; but then he loses it when he is too impulsive and crosses a boundary that Philippa cannot forgive. He regrets that transgression for the rest of his life, even going so far as to express it in his letter to the sisters 15 years after the event:

When tonight I think of you [Philippa], no doubt surrounded by a gay and loving family, and of myself: gray, lonely, forgotten by those who once applauded and adored me, I feel that you may have chosen the better part in life. What is fame? What is glory? The grave awaits us all!” (13)

Papin’s letter is an example of dramatic

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now