Fifth Business

Fifth Business

Author: Robertson Davies is one of Canada’s best known authors. He was a schoolmaster for a residential college associated with the University of Toronto, a background which can be seen in Dunstan’s career as a schoolmaster. His father was a senator, and he converted to Anglicanism from Presbyterianism.

Setting: It is set in the early 1900s through the mid 1900s, through the course of the two World Wars and the Spanish Influenza outbreak. The first setting is Deptford, a small village in Canada, and the plot follows Dunstan’s journey from Canada to the battlefields of Europe, back to Canada, and on his journeys to research saints.

Plot:  The novel starts out with the account of Boy’s throwing of the snowball that leads to Mary Dempster’s simpleness, and Paul’s premature birth. Then it is revealed that the book is a letter from Dunstan to the headmaster.  Dunstan details his journey from Dempster to Europe to fight in World War 1, his affair with Diana and his relationship with Boy and leola, and his search for saints. He meets Paul, now known as Eisengrim, and Leisl. This results in his epiphany that his life’s role is as Fifth Business.

Characters:

Dunstable Ramsay– He is the narrator of the work, and his journey is detailed above. His reliability is questionable at times, and he omits details that he claims to have forgotten and highlights others.

Mary Dempster– Dunstan believes that she is a saint after seeing her bring Willy back to life, and seeing her in a vision in the battlefield. She has sex with a tramp, which changes his life and causes him to seek salvation in religion. She eventually goes crazy, and then dies.

Amasa Dempster–He is a preacher and the wife of Mary, he refers to her indirectly as a burden he has to carry, but seems to sincerely love her, or perhaps just devotes himself to her? He eventually dies from Spanish Influenza.

Paul Dempster– He is Mary’s son, and was born prematurely. It seems that he is supposed to be portrayed as a Christ figure, but his Christ-like characteristics and actions are slightly off, suggesting that Boy is the cause for his deformities as a Christ Figure. He runs away, joins the circus and undergoes a name change.

Boy Staunton– He seems to be portrayed by Dunstan as the hero in his life story, and undergoes a name change, just like Dunstan and Paul. He aspires to fit the role of a prince.

Leola Cruikshank – Leola is the wife of Boy, and was part of the love triangle between Boy and Dunstan. She attempts to commit suicide, and later dies.

Point of View : The speaker, Dunstan is recounting his life to the headmaster, trying to prove a point. Thus, he is a biased narrator who is unreliable since he can omit and highlight facts as he chooses.

Symbolism: Mary and Paul act as symbols for the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, respectively, but share some differences that highlight the strange twists on conventional religion.

Narrative: The novel is structured in the form of a long letter from Dunstan to the headmaster. Thus, the details and diction in the novel are biased in favor of Dunstan.

Imagery: The imagery in this novel is especially thick in events that Dunstan chooses to highlight for their significance. One of the events is his near death experience on the battlefields of World War 1, where he gives a vivid and dramatic account of his journey to the church and his vision of Mary Dempster.

Theme: Everyone casts people in their lives, including themselves, in roles that they need them to play.

The narrator, Dunstan, is obsessed with the roles that he has played in the lives of others. He describes himself as “Fifth Business” and gives detailed accounts of the various forms in which he plays that role, calling himself a polymath, a Charlie Chaplin-esque figure, and a war hero, among other things. He explicitly states his own views about the theme when he discusses the mentality of a public figure, in which he uses a stage player metaphor.