preview

Motherly Archetypes In Fifth Society

Decent Essays
Open Document

The quote ‘Behind every great man is a great woman’ (unknown) sums up all of the women that had an impact in Dunstable ‘Dunny’ Ramsay’s life. In the nobel Fifth Business, author Robertson Davies gives Dunny three different women, each of which play a significant role in his life and help him become a better man. Mary Dempster played the role of a mother when Dunny’s own mother could not. Diana Marfleet showed Dunny how it felt to be loved and nurtured. Liesl Vitzliputzli shows dunny the importance of being Fifth Business and letting go of your demons. In the novel Fifth Business, Robertson Davies’ uses the women in Dunstan’s life to teach him lessons and help him become a great man.

Dunny’s mother, was definitely not the picture …show more content…

Diana nursed Dunny back to life after being hit with a flare. Although Dunny never loved Diana, he liked the love that she had for him. Dunny had never really had anyone genuinely love and nurture him the way that Diana had. “I liked having her in love with me.” (Davies, 71) Although Dunny introduced her to the idea of sex and relationships, he could never love her because in his eyes, she was just a motherly figure in his life. “She was too much of a mother to me, and as I had one mother, and lost her, I was not in a hurry to acquire another...” (Davies 79) Diana also gave him a new outlook on life and teaches him the importances of life. By giving Dunstable the new name ‘Dunstan’, it allows him to open up to a new way of living. “I liked the idea of a new name; it suggested new freedom and new personality.” (Davies, 90) Diana put new ideas about life in Dunny’s mind which helped him have a new outlook on life and introduced the idea of change.

Although Liesl Vitzliputzli is Dunny’s devil, she teaches him a valuable lesson of the importance of Fifth Business. Author Robertson Quotes Fifth Business as “Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player

Get Access