Archetypes In Fifth Business

Character Archetypes are varieties of human beings who possess certain qualities, based on their ambitions, fears, and ways of life.

In Homers epic poem “The Odyssey” there are many archetypes, many of which were the origin of the archetype. An archetype is a character type, place, or symbol, every culture shares. In “The Odyssey” Homer uses archetypes to evoke meaning to the story. Some examples of archetypes in “The Odyssey” are the temptress, and the father-son conflict.

Throughout the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, classic storytelling through archetypes is reworked into a more modern time in order to create the unique gem that it is. Archetypes are a general persona of a character that is repeated many times through films and literature, they define the character and give meaning to their roles. Archetypes have been used ever since stories were made, from the Odyssey to even Percy Jackson. Archetypes tend to set the stage for the story, and get revealed throughout the story adding more life and energy to it. Three examples of archetypes expressed very well through characters in the movie are the hero, the alter ego, and the temptress.

Iridescent is a showing of luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles. The novel Fifth Business has many angles in which one can approach it. One of these is Marxism, the origins of Marxism come from Karl Marx who was a philosopher that created a definition of what is a perfect socialist society. This perfection would make both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat equal, this is not the case in Robertson Davies novel Fifth Business. Percy is a character in which is all that Marx views oppose. Elements of Marx ideology can be interpreted and used to foreshadow the fate of Percy Boyd Staunton. Percy’s first encounter with these elements will shape his life

Mr.Dempster lost his job,Mrs Dempster went mad and Peter was born premature which led him to live a life full of intimidation and bullying. Dunstan spent his whole life is driven by guilty he never recovered from his role in negatively affecting the life of many people.He spends his entire trying to appease his guilt; he takes care of Mrs Dempster and spends his life trying to prove that she is saint.Later on in the novel he learns to deal with the guilt but always carries the rock that caused it all as reminder of what he did.

	Robertson Davies’ novel, Fifth Business, revolves around guilt, competition, and two men who are foils of each other. Although Dunstan Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton are parallels to each other, they contrast in a great number of ways. Their awkward relationship plays a significant role in the number of elements which make Fifth Business such an interesting story.

The guilt felt by Dunstan altered the way he lives through his complete devotion for Mary Dempster. Dunstan’s guilt is the

     An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jung’s idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man.

In addition to his commitment to Mary Dempster, Dunstan felt responsible for the premature birth of her son Paul Dempster, which led him to also care for Paul.

In his account, The involvement which he mentions is in reference to when his friend, Percy Staunton, threw a snowball at him which accidentally hits Mrs. Dempster in the head and causes her to fall. To make matters worse, Mrs. Dempster is pregnant at the time and this incident causes her to enter labour early in which she eventually gives birth to a premature son. Even from the beginning of the novel, Dunstable is concerned about how this one seemingly minor event can have drastic impacts on not only the direction of his life, but also the effect everyone involved. As the novel progresses further, you begin to realize that Dunstable is essentially a spectator who explains accounts of other characters, eventually leading to his own discovery of his place in the hierarchy of life. From his innocent experiences as a child, to his enlistment in the Canadian military to fight in WW1, to his various ventures to Europe and South America to gain knowledge about saints and magicians, Dunstable is constantly an observer of others lives as well as his

Dunstan had always lived a life of structure and guilt, Liesl turns a new page for Dunstan, releasing him from guilt and opens a new world up to him. She proposes that he write the biography of Magnus Eisengrim, which proves to be another step in Dunstan’s understanding of himself. “In spite of her marred face her smile was so winning that I could not say no. This looked like an adventure, and, at fifty, adventures do not come every day.” (202). As Liesl allows Dunstan to unload his emotional baggage and uncover his darkest secrets, he is able to connect some of the events of his life and heal from them. Liesl teaches Dunstan that men who carry secrets pay a high price for it, as she describes him as “grim-mouthed and buttoned-up and hard-eyed and cruel.” (208). She helps him understand that the reason he has made Mrs. Dempster his saint is that she has received the affection and warmth that he should have spread amongst fifty people. Without Liesl, Dunstan could not have become his final character, which is a big part of his development and understanding of himself. After he and Liesl get into a tussle, she re-enters the room and leaves him with a conversation and advice that changes him. She tells him that he is human, just like everyone else, and he cannot take responsibility for other people’s troubles, as he did with Paul’s birth. Liesl ends the chat as she brings forth these truths about his life, bringing Dunstan to that

Finally, throughout the novel, Mary Dempster has an impactful role in the growth of Dunstan Ramsay. Mary teaches Dunny to disregard the moral rules of society, and to behave in a manner that is unselfish and for the betterment of others. Dunny admires Mary

In contrast, when we interpret Mary Dempster along Jungian archetypes, we see her in various roles and see her as a dynamic character who changes as much as Dunny does in the novel since she is arguably, one of the active agents for change in Dunny's life. Firstly, she is the mother figure, bringing forth a weakened child into the world. She then becomes a type of a savior figure, not only because of her appearance to Dunny as he crawls through the mud in World War I, but also because she gave of herself unselfishly to the drifter in the grave pit. After this incident she is not crazy, but distracted. She becomes the Jungian outcast in the novel since the small town mentality cannot accept why she would ever prostate herself to a drifter. Mary becomes other things through the novel. This is just a start. The point is

According to Carl Jung’s theory, the psyche has three parts to it; the ego, personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious (Golden, date unknown.) Jung believed that the archetypes were part of the collective unconscious; this is where psychological inheritance happens. “All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes” (Golden, date unknow.) Jung believed each archetype had its own unique values, meanings, and personality traits. It is possible that people display more than one kind of archetype, but there always seems to be one specific archetype that makes itself more apparent (Golden, date unknown.)

Archetype refers to a generic version of a personality. Archetypes are continually present in folklore and literature for thousands of years, including prehistoric artwork. The identification of archetypes in literature is to primarily find the behaviors and characteristics of the main protagonist, it is important to discover the ambiguity of how the traits change and develop throughout the rising