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Date Posted: 11:10:44 10/21/02 Mon
Author: Leah Elizabeth
Subject: Re: Fifth Business
In reply to: Anne-Marie Pion 's message, "Re: Fifth Business" on 14:00:11 01/15/01 Mon

>HELP!!! I need to write a critical essay on Fifth Business and I can't find any journals or scholarly sources that present info. that I can make a thesis out of! If you know of any, please write some! thank you!



>Hey there... I'm no teacher, but am writing an essay
>on FIFTH BUSINESS at the moment. I haven't edited it
>yet, so sorry for the lack of structure and all that
>junk. It's for my English 12A class... Anyway...
>just thought it might help you out...
>
>
> Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business has become an
>important part of Canadian literature, presenting the
>reader with new themes that he or she can relate to.
>From events that can alter your life’s direction, to
>finding your role in society, Davies has a way of
>making readers dive into the analysis of their own
>lives. This life analysis is exactly what the
>protagonist of Fifth Business does throughout the
>novel.
> Written with a strong narrative force, Fifth Business
>tells the story of the life of one man. The
>protagonist and narrator, Dunstable Ramsay, uncovers
>his life as a letter to a director; therefore, the
>reader. As the result of a condescending article
>about Ramsay’s retirement, the letter gives a sense of
>reality to the novel. Ramsay writes the letter to
>prove his own life was eventful while discovering the
>importance of his role in society.
> The plot of the entire novel revolves around one
>single event. Davies sets off Fifth Business with
>this life changing event. The outcome of the incident
>guides and dictates Ramsay throughout the his life,
>blinding him of any other possible paths. Ramsay’s
>life is thus a sequence of one single episode that
>happened at the age of ten.
> Ramsay’s guilt resulting in this occurrence is what
>guides him throughout his life. He and his long-time
>friend and enemy, Percy Staunton, aged of ten, had
>been arguing over a sled race. Ramsay had won, making
>Staunton angry and jealous, for Staunton had a new and
>expensive sled. Out of this bitter jealousy, Staunton
>throws a snowball within which he had inserted a rock
>at Ramsay. Keen as he was, Ramsay stepped in front of
>a couple, the Dempter’s, as they were walking on the
>street. The snowball hit the pregnant Mrs. Dempster,
>making her hysterical.
>I was sure that he would try to land one last,
>insulting snowball between my shoulders before I
>ducked into our house. I stepped briskly – not
>running, but not dawdling – in front of the Dempsters
>just as Percy threw, and the snowball hit Mrs.
>Dempster on the back of the head. She gave a cry and,
>clinging to her husband, slipped to the ground.
> Mrs. Dempster was immediately rushed to her home.
>Ramsay and Staunton also go home directly. Mrs.
>Dempster later that evening goes into labour. She
>delivers her child seven weeks premature. The child
>suffered deformities and health problems due to this
>prematurity.
> Ramsay, feeling immense guilt for this incident, will
>further on let himself be guided by it throughout his
>life. He will feel entirely responsible for Mrs.
>Dempster’s son’s health issues and deformities until
>he can find peace with all the people involved, and
>above all, with himself.
>I was perfectly sure, you see, that the birth of Paul
>Dempster, so small, so feeble and troublesome was my
>fault. If I had not been so clever, so sly, so
>spiteful in hopping in front of the Dempsters just as
>Percy Boys Staunton threw that snowball at me from
>behind, Mrs. Dempster would not have been struck. Did
>I ever think Percy was guilty? Indeed I did. But a
>psychological difficulty arose here.
> Although Ramsay is not altogether responsible for
>throwing the snowball, he deeply feels he is to blame
>for the consequences that resulted of it. Although,
>he never admits this guilt nor his part in the event
>to anyone but himself. Staunton, likewise, does not
>reveal to anyone his share in the incident, but unlike
>Ramsay, does not confess to any guilt.
> “You threw that snowball.”
> “I threw a snowball at you,” he replied, “And I guess
>it gave you a good smack.”
> I could tell by the frank boldness of his tone that
>he was lying. “Do you mean to say that’s what you
>think?” I said.
> “You bet it’s what I think,” said he. “And its what
>you’d better think too, if you know what’s good for
>you.”
> We looked in each other’s eyes and I knew that he was
>afraid, and I knew also that he would fight, lie, do
>anything rather than admit what I knew. And I didn’t
>know what in the world I could do about it.
> So I was alone with my guilt, and it tortured me.
> Looking for peace with the guilt he felt, Ramsay
>devotes his adolescent years to helping the Dempster’s
>any way he could. On his mother’s demand, Ramsay
>completed chores for the poor Dempster’s weekly.
>Ramsay also spent his days secretly visiting the poor
>feeble-minded, Mrs. Dempster. While working in the
>library in later years, Ramsay tutored the young Paul
>and educated him well.
> Directly resulting Ramsay’s focus on the Dempster’s,
>he became a social outcast, very much like Mrs.
>Dempster. Ramsay lost his sense of community with his
>family and his peers. Realising he did not fit in, he
>attempts to find his place in society by enlisting for
>the army, who was at the time participating in the
>First World War. Ramsay, in pursuing the search for
>his role in society, leaves his family behind.
> This aspect of Fifth Business supports Davies’ view
>on the parental bond and finding your role in society.
> To Davies, the parental bond exists as nothing more
>than an obstacle to an independent and successful
>life. Bringing up the issue of the coming-of-age,
>Davies clearly indicates that this bond can prevent a
>certain personality to find his or her place in
>society.
> The leading example, obviously being Ramsay enlisting
>for the war, demonstrates Davies’ view point.
>Ramsay’s escape to the war gives him freedom to live
>a more independent life, where he is free to succeed
>or to fail for himself. During his years of war,
>Ramsay kept no relationship to his parents, avoiding
>any form of communication with them. There is no more
>reference to Ramsay’s parents in the novel after this
>point, other than a mere mentioning of their death.
>“I was ashamed because I felt the loss so little.”
> Having not found what he was looking for during the
>war, Ramsay returns to Canada. He pursues his
>education at the University of Toronto, studying
>history. Achieving a Masters in this field, Ramsay is
>introduced to Hagiography : the biography concerned
>with the lives of saints. This study of saints
>becomes Ramsay’s obsession and new attempt to defining
>his place in society.
> Ramsay devotes his time to studying and researching
>the lives of these saints. Continuously trying to
>prove his life, Ramsay sees hagiography as his claim
>to distinction.
>As an historian by training, I suppose I should have
>begun at the beginning, whereever that was, but I
>hadn’t time. Scenes from the Bible gave me no
>difficulty; I could spot Jael spiking Sisera, or
>Judith with the head of Holofernes, readily enough.
>It was the saints who baffled me.
> Ramsay travels to Europe chasing these myths and
>legends. With time, his obsession results in a
>withdrawal from relationships, as he is constantly
>isolated from them. Through hagiography, Ramsay
>begins to reevaluate his life.
> Ramsay’s special interest in hagiography leads him to
>seeing life through them. Relating every one of his
>own life experiences to the legends of saints, he
>reviews them, fragmenting and analysing his entire
>life. Hagiography enables Ramsay to study his life
>from a new aspect : an objective point of view.
> Ramsay, unable to think freely and openly about many
>issues he has lived throughout his life, uses
>hagiography as his method of thinking. He finds
>comfort in these myths and legends of the lives of
>saints. Detaching himself from intimate life, Ramsay
>avoids personal conversations with other characters in
>Fifth Business. Instead, he cites legends about
>saints that correspond to the circumstances. Ramsay,
>in result, has few friends and lives an isolated life.
> Davies’ view of life and on society are as William
>Shakespeare quotes : All the world’s a stage, and all
>the men and women merely players : they have their
>exits and their entrances; and one man in his time
>plays many parts. The novel Fifth Business is
>written from this view point. In his life analysis,
>Ramsay comes to realise that he may not have had the
>leading role, but was regardlessly necessary in the
>development of the life-drama. It becomes clear to
>him that his place is not as the hero, but it is
>nonetheless important; he aids in completing the lives
>of everyone he is surrounded by.
> Davies begins the novel with the explanation of his
>theatrical inspiration : the fifth business.
>Those role which, being neither those of Hero nor
>Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were
>nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition
>or the dénouement, were called the Fifth Business in
>drama and opera companies organized according to the
>old style; the player who acted these parts was often
>referred to as Fifth Business.
> – Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads
> As Ramsay takes on the quest for his own role in this
>life drama, he finds that he is Fifth Business.
>Reading the condescending article about his
>retirement, Ramsay decides to write to the director
>and make him realise what he had realised : the
>importance of Fifth Business.
>Oh God! Packer, who cannot know and could not
>conceive that I have been cast by Fate and my own
>character for the vital though never glorious role of
>Fifth Business! Who could not, indeed, comprehend
>what Fifth Business is, even if he should meet the
>player of that part in his own trivial life-drama!
> The novel Fifth Business is truthfully a novel about
>finding your own identity and your own role in the
>drama of life. Davies intended to make his readers
>realise that in life, incidents may happen that can
>alter the outcome of your life. Presenting common
>themes, the reader embarks in their own life analysis
>reading along as the protagonist, Ramsay, does the
>same.
> Using a mixture of two literary devices to deliver
>to the reader a clear understanding of the purpose of
>this novel, Davies presents a rare form of romance and
>satire. Romance, being a protagonist’s quest for a
>certain distinction and his or her own place in the
>world while trying not to hurt others is intertwined
>with Satire : the differences between actual
>occurrences and what happens ideally. Throughout
>Fifth Business, Ramsay searched for this distinction
>and his place in society, as many people do today.
>The novel also demonstrates that in life, what is
>expected and planed on, may not exist tomorrow.
>Niccolo Machiavelli’s famous quote concludes it well,
>“Carpe Diem! Seize the day!”
> Davies’ Fifth Business is a novel about one man’s
>quest for his identity and role. In his life
>analysis, he comes to realise that although his life
>was not the most eventful, he played his role,
>completing the lives of everyone he was surrounded by.
> Davies teaches the reader that regardless of the role
>you are given in life; hero, villain or simply Fifth
>Business, you are nonetheless required to complete the
>staged play of everyone else’s life.

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