Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

In Robertson Davies' novel Fifth Business, the author uses the events

that occurred in Deptford as a Canadian Allusion to reveal character identity.

Three characters in the novel from Deptford: Boy Staunton, Dunstan Ramsey and

Paul Dempster, leave Deptford to embark on a new identity to rid of their horrid

past. The three main characters of the novel, all of whom to some extent try to

escape their small town background, change their identity to become people of

consequence. All in some way take on a new identity. Imbedded in this

transformation is the assumption that one's original self, especially one's

small town origins, must be discarded before one can become significant in the

world.

Firstly, Paul Dempster grows up as an outcast in Deptford, his mother's

'simpleness' leading the tight social world of the town to cast out his whole

family and force's Paul to leave the town and create a new image for himself.

Paul runs away to the circus in his early teens because of the mental abuse he

took from the town because of his mothers incident with the tramp. Dunstable

comment's, "Paul was not a village favorite, and the dislike so many people felt

for his mother - dislike for the queer and persistently unfortunate - they

attached to the unoffending son," (Davies' 40) illustrates how the town treated

Paul because of his mother's actions. Paul leaves his past because of the

actions displaced by his mother and the guilt he feels because his "birth was

what robbed her of her sanity," (Davies' 260) explains why Paul left Deptford.

However, while Boy merely tries to ignore his Deptford past, Paul tries to

create a completely new one and Paul asks Dunstan to write an autobiography that

"in general terms that he was to be a child of the Baltic vastness, reared

perhaps by gnomelike Lapps after the death of his explorer parents, who were

probably Russians of high birth." (Davies' 231). The scenery of this

autobiography seems significantly Canadian, but Paul does not want his book to

represent his past life in Deptford. Therefore, Paul Dempster is a troubled

child because of his mother's actions in Deptford which in turn force Paul to

leave Deptford and to create a new identity for himself.

Secondly, Dunstable Ramsey is haunted by the guilt of Mary Dempster over

his entire life and he must create a new identity for himself. After a rock has

hit Mary in the head (in a snowball thrown by Boy Staunton meant for Ramsay),

and her preacher husband is crying over her, young Ramsay's only thought is that