SOURCE: Gossman, Ann. “Sacramental Imagery in Two Stories by Isak Dinesen.” Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 4, no. 3 (autumn 1963): 319-26.

In the following essay, Gossman describes the use of the theme of destiny and the search for human identity in three of Isak Dinesen's short stories.

Many stories by Isak Dinesen explore a pattern of destiny against which the individual must search for his identity, or else abandon his hope, his risks, and his distinctive humanity. Such a theme is evident in some of the stories in Dinesen's first published collection of short stories, Seven Gothic Tales (1934), especially in “The Dreamers.” It reappears in her next-to-last book, Last Tales (1957), which contains some unfinished work and a section entitled “New Gothic Tales.” This same theme is of central importance in all of the stories in Anecdotes of Destiny (1958), Dinesen's last book.¹

Frequently the character in search of identity is an...