Robertson Davies
With a vision that reflects the experiences of Canadians, Robertson Davies achieved international renown as one of Canada’s foremost men of letters. Born in Thamesville, Ontario, on August 28, 1813, Robertson Davies was the youngest of three sons of newspaper publisher and Liberal senator William Rupert Davies and his wife, Florence Sheppard McKay Davies. With parents who were theatre enthusiasts, Robertson Davies was drawn to the theatre early in his life and acted in school plays.
At the age of five, Davies’ family moved to the small town of Renfrew in the Ottawa Valley; when he was twelve, Davies moved to the city of Kingston, where his father owned the local newspaper, the Whig-Standard. From 1928 to 1932, Robertson Davies attended Toronto’s Upper Canada College – the "Colborne College" of his novels Fifth Business, The Manticore, and What’s Bred in the Bone. Truly, these Ontarian towns shaped the geographical heart of Davies’ fictional works. At the Upper Canada College, young Davies was immersed in school dramatics and was the editor of the school paper.
Admitted to Queen’s University in Kingston as a special student because he was "hopeless in mathematics," Robertson Davies excelled at the university from 1932 to 1935. He was active in the Drama Guild at Queen’s and continued to be involved in the student theatre at Balliol College in Oxford. Here, he received his B.Litt. in 1938 for a thesis he published the following year, entitled Shakespeare’s Boy Actors. Upon graduation, Davies joined the prestigious Old Vic Theatre Company in London, where he married its stage manager, his life-long wife Brenda.
In 1940, Robertson Davies and his wife returned to Canada, where Davies became literary editor of Saturday Live, then a weekly review of politics, finance, and the arts. The first of his three daughters was born that December. In 1942, Davies became editor of the Peterborough Examiner – another of his father’s papers – and he was to hold this post for the next twenty years. Davies became an increasingly popular columnist, "Samuel Marchbanks," whose witty comments and humorous accounts of small-town American and Canadian life would later be published in three volumes between 1947 and 1967.
From 1955 to 1965, Davies was the publisher of Examiner. By this time, he had already written eighteen books, numerous plays, and produced many articles for various journals. His first play, Eros at Breakfast won the 1948 Dominion Drama Festival Award for best Canadian play.
Business, by Robertson Davies, is the first installment of Roberson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy. The novel is a memoir of Robertson Davies’ fictional character, Dunstan Ramsay, in the form of a letter to the school’s headmaster. Dunstan speaks of his childhood, being involved with the town fool, Mary Dempster, and his evolving interest in hieroglyphics. Fifth Business has been ranked 40th on the American Modern Library’s “reader’s list” of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. Robertson Davies is effective
It is a powerful force to overcome, and a majority of people collapse because of it. In “Fifth Business”, by Robertson Davies, guilt is the intended study that is portrayed throughout the novel and impacts a number of lives. Davies demonstrates this by having one character feeling guilt and tries to confront it, a second character ignoring it and a third who tries to run away from it. Davies introduces the reader with Dunstan Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton who are parallels in competition with each
Liesl Robertson Davies’ colourful novel “Fifth Business” outlines and describes the development of a lost and emotionally void man, Dunstan Ramsay. This is a man who carries the weight of Paul Dempsters premature birth on his shoulders his entire life. It portrays his quest for self knowledge, happiness, and ultimately fulfilling his role as ‘Fifth Business.’ This would not have accomplished without Liesl, an extremely graceful and intelligent woman imprisoned inside a deformed and gargantuan
The marvelous story of saints is one of the leading themes in Fifth Business. As the author Robertson Davies develops this theme through Dunstan’s journey into hagiology, he often uses certain saints such as Saint Dunstan, as allusions. Among the Saints that the novel refers to, Saint Paul is the perfect allusion that portrays the character of Paul Dempster since the two share strong similarities in their lives. Additionally, Saint Paul foreshadows Dunstan’s encounter with Paul Dempster. Saint Paul’s
Suicide is an unfortunate end of the life of a person who is undergoing great suffering. This person usually can no longer deal with his or her problems and falls back on what seems like the only way out: death. This is never the right choice as there are always other options. Although many options are drastic, they are better than death. In the novel Fifth Business, Leola falls into a deep depression as all the things that are keeping her together, in her not overly successful life seem to suddenly
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
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies In the essay Fifth Business, each of the main character traits is developed more and more clearly throughout their lives. Childhood characteristics are evident in the characters of Dustan Ramsay, Percy Boyd Stauton and Paul Dempster. All paranoia, and memories of the town of Deptford are resurfaced in each of them after they all had left to start lives on their own. It was childhood that scared or marked them as people and the fact that parents often have influence
necessary in explaining the world, and can be depended upon for guidance with one as reliable as the other. The idea of place, with its inherent myth and history, is an important factor in one's identity because place shapes character and events. Robertson Davies' Fifth Business, E. Anne Proulx's The Shipping News, Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, and Jack Hodgins' The Invention of the World use myth and lore to describe the obstacles which the protagonists and others must get over or confront
such an emphasis on personal ambition it causes some to push their loved ones away in order to achieve what they want. Within most people, unhappiness is a common feeling and in extreme results, it leads to death. In the texts Fifth Business by Robertson Davies and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it is evident when the strongest characters place power and ambition above all else they crumble. There is a saying that goes, “We ignore the ones who love us, and love the ones that ignore us”. This phrase fits
well. It is something that they cannot hide. It is more like a disease, however, it is better known as guilt. Along with guilt, comes dishonesty, shamefulness, peculiar behavior, and even suicidal thoughts. Guilt is a recurring theme in both Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Every individual will experience guilt sometime in their life, but it is how they cope and handle it that defines who they are. Humans must face the feeling of guilt, accept
"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do” said by Voltaire. Dunstan Ramsay from Robertson Davies’s “fifth business” life revolves around his inner guilt. Dunstan lives his whole with the guilt of the destruction of an innocent family. Ever since he decided to be "sly" and dodge the snow ball that was meant for the back of his head but instead hits an innocent pregnant lady, Mrs.Dempster. He was linked to that family for life from that moment as he describes “My lifelong involvement with
The novel Fifth Business written by Robertson Davies is about Dunstan Ramsay’s life. The novel begins from Parker’s newsletter that offends Dunstan and triggers him to write about his life to the headmaster. Davies uses Carl Jung’s archetypes to develop his novel Fifth Business which are the archetypal figures, archetypal hero’s journey, and fifth business. Robertson Davies uses wise old man, great mother, and wise old woman who plays significant role in Dunstan’s life. Firstly, the author portrays
Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business is a novel rich in interesting and unusual characters, whose names play an essential role in the progression of the story. When the life of a character takes a new turn, changing his or her name can help demonstrate that a character is undergoing a chance in identity. Characters change their names in order to reinvent themselves, escape from their pasts, and highlight internal desires. First off, the desire to reinvent oneself is widespread in this novel. Davies
analysis and identification of the main cause of distress and hysteria. They examine a person’s youth to see if influences develop from a person’s childhood. This can be related to the characters of Pandora by Anne Rice and Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. These two stories tend to focus on the psychological aspect more than anything else, mainly due to the fact that they are both fictional semi-autobiographies. The main characters in both books start off by telling the reader about their past
Fifth Business There are many different paths people can take throughout their lives. In the novel, Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, the main character, Dunstan Ramsey, takes the path of the Canadian hero. There are many different steps to be taken by the hero and Dunstan Ramsey follows his path by completing each step. Dunstan’s journey begins when he gets his call for adventure. The call for adventure lets the hero know that his or her life is about to change. Dunstan’s call for adventure