Women In Dunstan Ramsay's Fifth Business

Fay Weldon’s ‘Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen’ (1984) through the form of an epistolic novel, serves to enrich a heightened understanding of the contemporary issues of Jane Austen’s cultural context. In doing so, the responder is inspired to adopt a more holistic appreciation of the roles of women inherent in Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813). Due to the examination of the shift of attitudes and values between the Regency era and the 1980s, the reader comes to better understanding of the conventions of marriage for a women and the role education had in increasing one’s marriage prospects. Weldon’s critical discussion of these issues transforms a modern responder’s understanding of the role of a woman during the 19th century.

The life of a lady in the 19th century is painted in a romantic light. Pictured in her parlor, the lady sips tea from delicate china while writing letters with a white feathered quill. Her maid stands silently off in the background, waiting for orders to serve her mistress. What is not typically pictured, is the sadness or boredom echoed on the lady’s face. Perhaps the letter is to a dear friend, not seen in ages, pleading with the friend to visit, in hopes that the friend will fill the void in the lady’s life made from years spent in a loveless marriage; or possiblyk20 the lady isn’t writing a letter at all, but a novel or a poem, never to be read by anyone but her. Edith Warton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, are 19th Century ladies who dare to share their writing with the world. Through their works, the darker side of a woman’s life in the late 1800’s is exposed. Gender politics in the 19th dictates that a lady is dependent on her husband for her financial security and social standing; that is if she is fortunate enough to marry at all. In Edith Warton’s The House of Mirth, Lily Bart is a beautiful woman in her late 20’s, who fails to marry a wealthy man. The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper slowly goes insane under her physician husbands misguided attempts to cure her of depression. The downfall of Lily Bart and the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is

The novel “Fifth Business” is written by Canadian Author Robertson Davies. It is about a man named Dunstan Ramsay, and his memoir that he wrote to the headmaster of the university that he taught at after he directed a disrespectful towards Dunstan. The memoir visits Dunstan’s child hood in Deptford, Ontario where, through a series of unfortunate events his life becomes entangled with Mary Dempster’s, and she has an effect on the rest of his life. Women play a large role in Fifth Business because of how they affect Dunstan Ramsay. Robertson Davies presents women collectively to fully develop the character of Dunstan Ramsay. These women help to shape Dunstan into the man he is through Mrs. Depster’s Miracles and Liesl revealing to him that he

Dempster, also known as Mary Dempster, is a typical example of the sacred feminine. Her presence explains why Dunstan is conflicted throughout his life. Through Dunstan’s point of view, Mrs. Dempster is a saint. Mrs. Dempster is seen through rose coloured glasses as Dunstan sees her differently than what one would normally see. In Dunstan’s eyes, she is capable of miracles, to which he names three. The miracles Dunstan refers to consists of saving his “dead” brother Willie, Dunstan’s memory of her face on the battlefield of WWI, and the transformation of Joel; the philanthropist who would have been a rapist. The third miracle only happened because she was willing to have intercourse with a vagrant solely because “he wanted it so bad.” Her archetype leads to her being painfully giving, often giving what any normal person would not. Dunstan is constantly conflicted by Mrs. Dempster’s presence, as he believes that she is a saint. Dunstan has grown too attached to her, enough for her to be considered a mother figure. Dunstan is constantly reminded of the snowball thrown by Boy that leads to the accidental premature birth of her child, Paul. Knowing this, Dunstan lives knowing exactly how this happened and is conflicted from her presence. Although this archetype is viewed only through Dunstan’s eyes, it is extremely visible. Mrs. Dempster plays the role of the saint in relation to Dunstan’s

The next requirement for being a “true woman” was submissiveness. According to society men were superior to women by “God’s appointment.” If they acted otherwise they “tampered with the order of the Universe” (Welter 105). A “true woman” would not question this idea because she already understands her place. Grace Greenwood explained to the women of the Nineteenth Century, “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependant; a perpetual childhood.” Even in the case of an abusive husband, women were sometimes told to stay quiet

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

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.

Dorothy L. Sayers states “Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him.” Man is a societal construct that is structured and molded by maternal influences and female insight. Typically one is a product of its environment, however Robertson Davies in “Fifth Business,” deliberately uses female roles to display the impact that women have on the psychological growth of a man. Davies chronologically traces the psyche of Dunstan Ramsay as he matures with the guidance of significant female characters in his life. In “Fifth Business,” Robertson Davies uses the characterization of Mrs. Ramsay, Diana

Thesis: A “true women” in the 19th Century was one who was domestic, religious, and chaste. These were virtues established by men but enforced and taught by other women. Women were also told that they were inferior to men and they should accept it and be grateful that someone just loved them.

In the early nineteenth century, women were expected to be, “‘angels in the house,’ loving, self-sacrificing, and chaste wives, mothers and daughters or they are… ultimately doomed” (King et al. 23). Women of this time were supposed to be domestic creatures and not tap so far into their intellectual abilities (King et al.). The role of women in the nineteenth century is described:

She thrived in an industry which was predominantly male-operated, challenging the limits of what a women could pursue. With her knowledge of the family business, Frances was considered “as good a judge of credits as any banker in the country.” (74) Frances Harling proved herself to be just as capable as any male banker, much admired for her capabilities by both old and new generations of the time. Among the women of Black Hawk, Mrs. Gardener also challenges gender norms by running a business. She runs a hotel, with primarily male visitors, with the help of her husband. Although it was common at this time for men to be in charge of their family’s business, Mrs. Gardener took this position in her family’s dynamic. It was in fact “Mrs. Gardener who ran the business and looked after everything. [...] [Her husband] was a popular fellow, but no manager.” (89) Although men were usually the breadwinners of their families during this time period, Mrs. Gardener showed that women could be breadwinners as well. Her skills and ambition provided her with a successful business opportunity that she took pride in. Additionally, her husband appeared grateful for her skills as Mr. Gardener realized “that without [Mrs. Gardener] he would hardly be more than a clerk in some other man’s hotel.” (93) Mrs.

Social standing, and moral values were vital elements in Victorian society, and the fundamental doctrine of establishing this ideology, began at home. The home provided a refuge from the rigour, uncertainty, anxiety, and potential violence of the outside world. (P, 341) A woman’s role was to provide a safe, stable, and well-organised environment for their husbands and families. However, change was on the horizon with an underlying movement of business and domestic changes both home and abroad, with industrialization, and the suffragist movement. Women were beginning to gain autonomy and began to grasp their opportunities, thus significantly curtailing male supremacy and the definable acceptable ‘role’ of the woman.

During the Victorian Era in 1837 the period that was ruled by Queen Victoria I, women endured many social disadvantages by living in a world entirely dominated by men. Around that time most women had to be innocent, virtuous, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. It was also a time associated with prudishness and repression. Their sole window on the world would, of course, be her husband. During this important era, the idea of the “Angel in the House” was developed by Coventry Patmore and used to describe the ideal women who men longed. Throughout this period, women were treated inferior to men and were destined to be the husbands “Angel in the House”.

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

The year was 1912 in London, England. Women lived at the mercy of their fathers, brothers, husbands and bosses; clearly a patriarchal society. Women’s lives consisted of keeping house and raising children and caring for their families. Those who worked outside of the home were limited to menial labor, earned significantly less than men, and surrendered their earnings to their husbands. Any inheritance of real estate or money a woman may have received was given to her husband and, most often, she had nothing to say about how it was managed or spent. A woman could not vote or run for office, and received little support, should she desire an education other than a ‘finishing school.’ (Clearly,