The Manticore Essays

  • Symbolism In The Tiger's Bride

    728 Words  | 3 Pages

    The white rose in Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride is a metaphor that represents the female protagonist throughout the story. The story also had some other themes of the superiority of masculinity. The father was heavily addicted to gambling, and continued to bet all his money and possessions away. The daughter had to watch her sick father deal her life anyway for the pleasure of possibly winning big. The beast hands her a white rose when she and the father enter the house. She starts tearing apart the

  • Comparison Of Society In Fifth Business By Willie Dunny

    402 Words  | 2 Pages

    The society portrayed in the novel Fifth Business is a far cry from the society of today in terms of medicine, gender roles, and religion. While there may be many differences between the two societies, there are some similarities as well. One of these similarities being that both the society of today and the society in the novel have war. Dunny enlists when he is two years too young, having “no difficulty in being accepted” (Davies 58). Today, while the war may be being fought elsewhere and for somewhat

  • Similarities Between Fifth Business And The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night

    1322 Words  | 6 Pages

    Throughout my reading of the novels of Fifth Business and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, I have been able to analyze many characters and visualize their personalities. The two main characters are Dunstan Ramsay and Christopher John Francis Boone. These two characters portray two similar yet different personalities, since their roles and behaviours change throughout both novels. Dunstan Ramsay, the main character in Fifth Business, is a small town boy from Deptford, Canada whom

  • Gender Struggle Over Ideological Power In A Doll's House

    1129 Words  | 5 Pages

    A wife who sacrifices everything that she likes, wants, aspire and dislikes in order of maintain the image of the perfect family. One of the crucial moments of the plot is when Torvald found the letter that Krogstad left on the letterbox. After reading the content of the letter, Torvald refers to Nora as “she who was my pride and my joy- a hypocrite, a liar-worse- a criminal. Oh, the unfathomable hideousness of it all! Ugh! Ugh!” (Ibsen, p. 39) Nora was ready to come out with everything in order

  • Mary Dempsster And Diana's Influence On Dunstable

    402 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dunstable encounters many influential female characters in the novel fifth business. Each one has a distinct influence on his life. Three of these characters are liesl, Mary dempster and Diana. Liesl plays the role of dunstables own personal devil who teaches him of evil. Mary dempster has a major influence on Dunstable’s life as well, she teaches him of love. Lastly Diana influences Dunstable to begin a new life. To begin with Liesl acts as dunstables person devil and influences him to be

  • Examples Of Guilt In Fifth Business

    708 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Guilt is to the spirit, what pain is to the body.” Elder David A. Bednar. This full time missionary has done a good job in effectively and efficiently scratching the surface of the topic of guilt and its inner workings, causes, and effects. Guilt is any feeling of remorse or responsibility for wrongdoing. Similarly, both myself and the characters in Fifth Business experience guilt. The main cause of this guilt, experienced by the characters, would be them displaying a different archetype than the

  • Summary Of Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate

    884 Words  | 4 Pages

    Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life’s relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flower on the window- panes, which vanish with the warmth. (Soren Kierkgaard) Vikram Seth’s first novel, The Golden Gate(1986) is a survey of contemporary love relationships in an urban society and the search for harmony with or without love relationships when situations are adverse. Love and survival are the central themes in Vikram Seth’s novels. The present chapter

  • Who Is Paul Dempster's Guilt In Fifth Business

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

  • Conflict In Fifth Business

    402 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most significant conflict that Dunstable faces in Fifth Business occurs right at the beginning of the novel with the snowball incident. Dunny and Percy argue about who’s sled is better and Percy later throws a snowball attempting to hit Dunstable, but instead, the snowball hits Mrs. Dempster who is pregnant, which results in Paul’s premature birth. This is the most crucial conflict in the novel because, throughout the rest of the novel, Dunny carries the guilt of Paul’s poor health and fragile

  • The Pardoner In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chaucer’s The Pardoner manages to be a much debated and highly controversial character of The Canterbury Tales, criticized by Chaucer himself in the way he was described. From his ambiguous sexuality and fluid gender representation to his questionable lifestyle of abusing the name of the Church for his own purposes as well as his overall defiance of the social norms of his time, the Pardoner is one character that can be explored from various angles. The Pardoner is first introduced to be travelling

  • Fifth Business Guilt Quotes

    1265 Words  | 6 Pages

    Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines guilt as “the fact or state of having committed an offense, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law” (Merriam-Webster). In the novel Fifth Business by Robert Davies, he explores the topic of guilt. Published in 1970 (Goodreads), the book goes into detail of a man’s life story and how he finds the deeper meaning of life. One of the main messages of this novel is that a person’s life is dependent on how they make decisions and how they deal

  • Adversity Character In Hamlet

    810 Words  | 4 Pages

    Adversity often comes as a surprise to us, yet it is something we all will likely experience. During the course of dealing with hardship, our personality develops and evolves to match the new circumstances. In Hamlet, Shakespeare examines the way in which adversity takes us through a range of emotions that result in our becoming more balanced individuals. In the play, we see how young Hamlet changes after his father’s death and meeting the Ghost. In particular, Shakespeare displays how Hamlet’s identity

  • Examples Of Spiritualism In Fifth Business

    2554 Words  | 11 Pages

    An important theme in the novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies is materialism vs spiritualism. As defined by Dictionary.com, “Materialism the preoccupation with or emphasis on material objects, comforts, and considerations, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values” (“The Definition of Materialism”1). Spiritualism can also be defined by Dictionary.com as, “The belief or doctrine that the spirits of the dead, surviving after themortal life, can and do communicate

  • Fifth Business Character Analysis

    1397 Words  | 6 Pages

    The novel, Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies addresses the importance of life by investigating Jungian beliefs. In the beginning of the novel, Boy Staunton puts a stone inside the snowball which he then throws at Dunstable Ramsay. Dunny who had a feeling that the snowball was coming at him, quickly ducks behind Mrs Dempster who then gets hit on the back of the head. Mrs Dempster who is pregnant gives birth on the scene to a premature baby called Paul Dempster. This defining moment becomes like

  • Fifth Business By Robertson Davies: Character Analysis

    802 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the course of every individual's life their experiences help in the overall understanding of themselves. In the novel fifth business Robertson Davies uses characters experiences to shape their self-knowledge. Davies uses the themes of career, religion, and relationships to aid in their journey of finding themselves. The first theme that fifth business utilizes, is career. Many people choose their careers based on their personality and characteristics, sometimes these characteristics

  • Fifth Business Guilt Quotes

    1511 Words  | 7 Pages

    Guilt is a powerful and complex emotion that can have a profound impact on one's mental health and wellbeing. In Robertson Davies' novel "Fifth Business," guilt is a central theme that is explored through the experiences of the protagonist, Dunstan Ramsay, and other key characters. Throughout the novel, guilt is shown to have the power to consume one's sanity, govern one's emotions, and demolish one's life. In this essay, I will examine the theme of guilt in "Fifth Business," and explore how the

  • Greek Mythological Beasts

    275 Words  | 2 Pages

    Greek mythology is a very fascinating subject and it is very interesting to read about the various beasts and how they became one. Greek mythology is full of stories about gods and goddesses and heroes. There have been several Greek mythological creatures whose nature and behavior is captivating to read about. There are so many popular beasts like Centaur, Minotaur and Nemean, the lion. Today, these beasts have become very popular and also people use these names for products and various other marketing

  • How Did The Salem Witch Trials Dbq

    340 Words  | 2 Pages

    dogs and many creatures/ I mean the Devil.” the things that she usually sees are dogs and creatures for the underworld. The dogs were actually hell hounds and the creature are just creatures. For example, she might have seen a minotaur, furies, manticores etc.

  • Two Ways People Come To Limbo

    1155 Words  | 5 Pages

    forests. They explore the forest and alot of rabid animals suddenly attack and they fight them off and are greeted by a mysterious demon woman named Aura whos controlling the animals and brings forth a manticore to take care of them before she leaves. the two fight and manage to kill the manticore barely making it out alive(as alive as they

  • How Did Shakespeare Use Cupid's Reference To Her

    654 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was a little overwhelming to be in the presence of so many incredible books. I glanced at many of them, but I spent the most time with The Noble Arte of Venerie and its counterpart on falconry, as well as the miniature of Portrait of Elizabeth I after Jan de Critz. I was interested in the miniature because of the reading’s association of the queen to the goddess Diana and Shakespeare’s reference to her in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the target of Cupid’s bow and arrow. In MND, Cupid aims at