Juliane

Juliane, the mother of Isaiah, is drawn as a woman caught between her care for her son and the pressures of a society in which housing and money can be controlled by powerful officials. Her fear shapes what she can disclose, and her silence helps conceal the people connected to Isaiah’s death. For Smilla, however, that silence does not cancel their bond: after deciding to leave, Smilla recognizes Juliane as the only living connection she has left to Isaiah.

Identity and Circumstances

Juliane appears in the story through her ties to Isaiah and to the apartment where she lives. The account presents her as economically vulnerable: she depends on housing provided through an influential man, and her own account shows that the arrangement can be used to pressure her. The precariousness is part of a broader social landscape in which housing is scarce and access to money and opportunity is unevenly distributed.

Her fear is apparent before its causes are fully explained. When Smilla asks what Juliane has said, the response is that she is so frightened she is shaking. The detail gives her silence a context: it is not simply a lack of information or concern, but a response to circumstances in which speaking may threaten the security she depends on.

Motherhood and Isaiah

Isaiah’s needs are not always met at home. Smilla recalls occasions when he returned to find no food, while Juliane sat with friends amid drinking, cigarettes, laughter, and tears. Isaiah did not complain or confront his mother. Instead, he quietly looked for another solution, sometimes spending an hour or more at Smilla’s apartment without saying he was hungry.

That recollection complicates any simple judgment of Juliane as a mother. The evidence shows a household in which Isaiah could be left without food, but it also shows the narrator’s effort to understand the differences and hardships behind his childhood. Smilla’s attention settles on Isaiah’s patience and quiet self-reliance; Juliane’s difficulties are present through the conditions around him, not through an account that explains her fully.

Money, Housing, and Fear

Juliane tells Smilla that the Baron was taken to hospital every month for an examination. She received fifteen hundred kroner each time, always on the first Tuesday of the month, and the Baron was collected without her accompanying him. The regularity of the payment and the repeated collection connect Juliane’s financial circumstances to a wider arrangement involving Isaiah and the people who moved him.

Later, Smilla confronts Juliane about Ving, asking why she had not disclosed that he came to collect Isaiah. Juliane cries and explains that Ving had given them their apartment. He was influential in the housing authority and, she says, had told her that he could take the apartment away again. Her admission makes the cost of disclosure concrete: she had reason to fear losing her home. It also exposes how a powerful person’s control over housing could bind Juliane to silence even when the matter concerned her son.

Encounters with Smilla

A morning encounter reveals the continuing danger around Juliane. From the shadow of scaffolding, Smilla and her companion see Juliane emerge with a man from a lit doorway. He speaks to her; Juliane staggers and falls to her knees before he leaves by the outdoor stairs. Smilla cannot hear what he says, but the scene communicates the force of the exchange through Juliane’s visible response. It also places her in contact with a man whose departure and presence provoke suspicion, without establishing more than the scene itself reveals.

When Smilla later passes Juliane’s open apartment door, Juliane comes onto the stairs and tells her that she is going away. Smilla answers by asking why Juliane had concealed Ving’s visits to collect Isaiah. Juliane’s tears and explanation turn the exchange into a disclosure, but not a reconciliation without tension: Smilla says she hates her, even as she recognizes the pressures that had shaped Juliane’s choice.

Relationship with Smilla and Narrative Significance

Juliane and Smilla are connected first by Isaiah, but their relationship becomes especially significant after his death. Juliane asks what Smilla intends to do about the boy’s death, and Smilla understands the question as a plea for help from someone who has exhausted the routes available to her. Juliane has appealed up a hierarchy and been rejected; in her account, she has turned to prayer and now wants Smilla to act on Isaiah’s behalf.

Their bond remains conflicted. Smilla is angry that Juliane withheld Ving’s role, yet she promises she will come back. She understands that Juliane is the only thing left of Isaiah, just as Smilla herself is Moritz’s only connection to Smilla’s missing mother. The parallel gives Juliane a lasting place in Smilla’s life: she is not merely a source of information about the investigation, but the surviving link to the child whose death set it in motion.