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Overcoming Guilt In Fifth Business By Robertson Davies

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In Robertson Davies' Fifth Business, guilt develops as the major theme that is connected to each significant occurrence in the story. Davies portrays the various ways a character reacts to the feeling of guilt. The story perfectly captures the human mind, how much impact an event can have on a person’s mindset. Davies shows the struggles Paul and Dunny deal with because of their guilt, while character’s like Percy, ignore the guilt and shift the blame towards someone else. The message of Fifth Business explains the hardships of guilt and how to overcome it. Davies displays progression towards character’s negatively affected while showing regression towards character’s who neglect it. Robertson Davies's Fifth Business explores how different …show more content…

As Dunny later on joins the Army to serve for his country, the guilt stays within him, following him like his shadow. The significance of Mary Dempster and Dunny’s guilt is used when Dunny loses his leg when fighting in the war. Near Death’s door, Dunny looks up to see a statue of Virgin Mary holding her child, which symbolizes Mary Dempster and her child Paul. After going unconscious, Dunny was shocked, stating “But what hit me worse than the blow of shrapnel was Mrs. Dempster’s face (Davies, 68) ”. Davies uses this to show Mary Dempster's influence on Dunny is still holding on strong, his guilt carries on especially when close to death. Even after his time in the war and being awarded for his heroism and bravery, Dunny perceives the loss of his leg as an atonement for the sins he committed. After his time in the war, we see Dunny stumble across Mary Dempster again and her wealthy aunt Miss Shanklin. He started visiting them once a week for a couple of years, and after the news of Miss Shanklin’s death. Dunny is proposed with the idea of being Mary Dempster’s legal guardian, taking care of her again, just like he did when he was a child. The guilt Dunny had thought vanished after the loss of his leg, had gained its spark back. As his reaction to the news, he directly states “But the guilt had only been thrust away, or thrust down out of sight, for here it was again, in full strength, clamoring to be atoned, now that the opportunity offered itself.” (Davies, 148). The guilt had come back to haunt Dunny. Through the sacrifice of his leg, his relief of guilt was lies to convince himself. Davies proves the guilt returns as Dunny accepts the offer, being the protector of Mary Dempster, still feeling guilty of his actions. In accepting the role of Mary Dempster's guardian, Dunny

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Who is Mary Dempster? what is her true role in the story? ; In fifth business she's considered as many things such as the wife of the priest, the kind woman, the victim, and the saint. , No one knows much about her past, it is only once her husband passes away that the Davies reveals that she indeed had an aunt. As an outsider looking in, I saw how much the guilt destroyed Dunstan with the passing years.

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In Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business, the author utilizes the characters to illustrate that a person’s guilt may become a deadly venom to their conscience if it is carried as a burden throughout their life. This only leads to the deterioration of the characters, themselves. Paul Dempster’s guilt begins as a child when his father, Amasa Dempster, starts to blame him for his mother’s simple behaviour. Being a gullible child, Paul’s father is able to strictly reform how Paul thinks of himself. The words of Amasa’s verbal abuse continue to form Paul’s life as he immerses himself with guilt over what his mother has become.

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One can see this by analyzing Dunny’s guilt about the snowball incident with Mrs. Dempster and how he carries that with him for his entire life. Right after the incident happened he says “I was contrite and guilty, for I knew that the snowball had been meant for me, but the Dempsters did not seem to think that” (5). This quotes shows the beginning of the lifelong guilt that he carries with him throughout the novel. At the end of the novel he finally confesses his guilt to Paul when he says “Staunton and I robbed your mother of her sanity” (253) after saying this he continues to tell the story about the snowball. As proof of his guilt he keeps the rock that he found inside the snowball for years after the incident.

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Irish author Oscar Wilde once said “It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.” This idea is clearly reflected in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart (1843), a short story about a man who attempts to convince the reader of his sanity after having confessed to an obsessive act of murder. Similarly so, Wilde’s statement on guilt can also be analyzed in Charles Dickens’ A Confession Found in a Prison in the Time of Charles The Second (1841).

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