Fifth Business Quotes

There is a little bit of darkness in everyone, but if you accept it and learn from it, you can grow, but if you repress it and never deal with it; then there will be severe consequences. By examining Robertson Davies’ novel, Fifth Business, one can see that Dunstan’s perspective of the snowball incident, Boy’s encounter in the gravel pit, and Willie’s death, demonstrate Dunstan’s struggle with the psychological truth behind literal events, resulting in Boy and Dunstan’s dark desires to reveal themselves, because they were never accepted. These three incidents cause Dunstan lifelong internal battles that he has trouble shaking off.

One of the main characters in the novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies is Dunstan Ramsay. Throughout the first three chapters, Dunstan mentions that he often feels guilty for being part of the reason that Paul Dempster was born prematurely. Specifically, Dunstan states that “... I was alone with my guilt, and it tortured me” (Davies, 17). The image I chose is of a demon haunting a person. The person represents Dunstan and the demon represents his guilty conscience. Dunstan explained how “I was perfectly sure, you see, that the birth of Paul Dempster, so small, so feeble and troublesome, was my fault.

At the age of ten, Boy Staunton and his best friend Dunstan Ramsay, began to fight after a day of sledding. Boy accidentally hit a pregnant woman, named Mary Dempster, when Dunstan dodged his snowball and caused the woman to go into premature labour with her son, Paul. Dunny dealt with the guilt by supporting Mrs. Dempster whereas Boy ignored the whole situation completely. When Dunny brought up the snowball incident years later to Boy and Paul, Boy realizes that he is responsible and now has to deal with this guilt. When Paul said, “You have no recollection of Mrs. Dempster?” Boy responded with, “None at all. Why should I?” (Davies, 267) this quotation truly emphasizes how dismissive Boy is about the incident. Boy is motivated by self-distraction so he does not let his faults linger and get in the way of his success. As a child, his parents contributed to his success by building up his confidence so events like this would not destroy

Mary Dempster, who is named after a saint can be considered to be a saint in this novel. She is the mother of a famous magician and the wife of a priest. This freely displays the relationship between magic and religion. According to Dunstan, she is considered a fool-saint because she performed three miracles, but without being aware of it. The first involved the rebirth of Surgeoner by an act of charity. The second was the revival of Willie from the dead and the third was her miraculous appearance to Dunstan during the war at Passchendaele.

In Fifth Business, a novel by the Canadian author Robertson Davies, the role of the mother and the representation of “mother figures’ and “mother love’ appear in both obvious and subtle ways. While Dunstan Ramsay, the protagonist in the novel develops and grows in many ways as the story progresses, his journey from boy to man is significantly impacted by the women in his life and the manner in which he navigates his connections and bonds in relation to the women in his world. From Mrs. Ramsay, Dunstan’s overpowering mother, to Mary Dempster, considered by Dunstan to be a saint, to Diana Marfleet, his devoted nurse to Liesl who ultimately helps Dunstan shake hands with his shadow side; these women all represent important archetypes that enable him to navigate a complex journey of psychological and physical growth. Although Dunstan feels differently about each woman in his life, it is ultimately his complex relationship with Liesl, which allows Dunstan to find comfort. The most intriguing conversation that Dunstan and Liesl have is on page 217. Liesl states that Dunstan “should take a look at [the] side of [his] life [he hasn’t lived].” Ultimately, it is Liesl who highlights for Dunstan that he has lived his life in a supporting role while sitting on the sidelines. According to Liesl, Dunstan has never been the centre of his own life because he is overly concerned with the lives of others. Dunstan looks up to Liesl, and as a result of his relationship and connection to her he

There are both external and internal conflicts that Westley encounters. Some external conflicts such as man vs. man happen quite often to Westley. First he is

Mr. Green, Miss White, Mrs. Scarlet, and Ms. Peacock went to find him. Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum stayed to see if he came back. Once everyone met back up together, they decided that they couldn´t find him so they would leave. After everyone said goodbye, Miss White screamed. Everyone came rushing over. Mr. Green and Miss White was on the floor crying and saying that their brother was dead.

The novel entitled Fifth Business by Davies Robertson records the main character Dunstan Ramsay’s lifelong memoir. Fifth Business exhibits the process of the change of women’s role in the society and their relationship with men during different decades(from early 1900s to late 1960s). During these sixty years female's social status has altered prodigiously, which can demonstrate by five female characters in the novel- Mrs Dempster, Leola, Dianna, Lisel and Denyse. Women’s role develop from taking care of their children and husbands to work independently as the era progressed; female's’ position in the society had been rose simultaneously and become more equal with men.

“Lovienthal, get in!” Mary snapped at him and he did as he’d been told, still cheering at the realization that his friend was alive. The pain of his twisted ankle temporarily vanishing as adrenaline coursed through him.

Allow me to start off by saying that if you are in fact in the dark place, there is a way out. I made it out of the dark place. The life I described above is the complete opposite of the life I live today.

“Darkness hides a multitude of sins. It unleashes transgression onto the world under cover of night. It reveals the creed of the sinful that creep into the night to loose their collective demons upon the infirmed, easily defeated denizens that innocently stray into its dimension, its point in space and time to be sucked into bottomless voids with no way to return to the surface…” L Beckham

After seemingly having solved all his problems with no complications, the consequences of his previous actions and behavior come back to hurt him. Instead of facing the issues in his life, he manipulates everyone around him and takes a huge risk, which eventually leads to an even larger problem. By blackmailing Godfrey in an attempt to gain even more power, Dunstan singlehandedly ostracizes himself from his family and loses the little power he had. Furthermore, this one consequence leads to an even larger consequence as a result of his selfish, devious ways. Having accidently murdered the horse, Dunstan scrambles to find a way to gain back the potential money. Shaken by what has occurred, he is left with few options, when he stumbles upon the solitary cottage of Silas

There once was a story of a girl set apart, for inside her she carried a great light, so great in fact was this light that all who came in contact with it were changed, however because of this great light shining within her she was forced to see the world as it was. From a young age she understood to be covered in a powerful darkness with all the evil and the hate which that entails.

“Consumption and commercialisation has come in – it sells records, cosmetics, and has become a vehicle for capitalism. But it is still entrenched in racist meaning. Nowadays it may be less about social mobility and more about desirability.” ( Adewunmi para 10) meaning that darkness can only be desirable

Many people think the natural world is a dark place. What makes human beings think this? Is it that they were brought up as a child to think this way, or was it that as they got old they thought their lives had become worthless, therefore, they continued to not care? Similar themes are shown in the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne in their individual works “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Devil and Tom Walker,” and “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” Unlike the Transcendentalists who saw the purity of an individual, Dark Romantics saw people as unrighteous and damnable and their writings reflect that people suffer, they see nature as something mysterious, and people have guilt from sinning.