fifth businesssearch for self identity

Fifth Business: Search for Self Identity 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 people of consequence. All in some way take on a new identity.
Imbedded in this transformation is the assumption that one's original self,
especially one's small town origins, must be discarded before one can
become significant in the world. Firstly, Paul Dempster grows up as an
outcast in Deptford, his mother's 'simpleness' leading the tight social
world of the town to cast out his whole family and force's Paul to leave the
town and create a new image for himself. Paul runs away to the circus in
his early teens because of the mental abuse he took from the town
because of his mothers incident with the tramp. Dunstable comment's,
"Paul was not a village favorite, and the dislike so many people felt for his
mother - dislike for the queer and persistently unfortunate - they attached
to the unoffending son," (Davies' 40) illustrates how the town treated Paul
because of his mother's actions. Paul leaves his past because of the
actions displaced by his mother and the guilt he feels because his "birth
was what robbed her of her sanity," (Davies' 260) explains why Paul left
Deptford. However, while Boy merely tries to ignore his Deptford past,
Paul tries to create a completely new one and Paul asks Dunstan to write
an autobiography that "in general terms that he was to be a child of the
Baltic vastness, reared perhaps by gnomelike Lapps after the death of his
explorer parents, who were probably Russians of high birth." (Davies'
231). The scenery of this autobiography seems significantly Canadian,
but Paul does not want his book to represent his past life in Deptford.
Therefore, Paul Dempster is a troubled child because of his mother's
actions in Deptford which in turn force Paul to leave Deptford and to

create a new identity for himself. Secondly, Dunstable Ramsey is
haunted by the guilt of Mary Dempster over his entire life and he must
create a new identity for himself. After a rock has hit Mary in the head (in
a snowball thrown by Boy Staunton meant for Ramsay), and her preacher
husband is crying over her, young Ramsay's only thought is that he is
"Watching a 'scene', and my parents had always warned against scenes
as very serious breaches of propriety." (Davies' 39) The actions of Mary
bewilder Dunstan because Mary committed a serious crime in Deptford.
Later in life Dunstan falls in love with his nurse named Diana who
renames him after Saint Dunstan, who is "Mad about learning, terribly stiff
and stern and scowly, and an absolute wizard at withstanding
temptation." (Davies' 93) His new name does not replace his old identity,
but rather makes him double-named and double-identified. Therefore,
Dunstan changes his name to set forth on a new identity and he never
forgets his Deptford past and in fact he becomes obsessed with it,
particularly with Mary Dempster, mainly through guilt about his role in
Mary getting hit by Boy's snowball. Thirdly, Percy Boyd Staunton is
at the center of the snowball incident which is the prime mover in the
action of the novel which force's Percy to allow the incident to suppress
his memory and leave Deptford to create a new identity for himself. He
moves to Toronto and inherits the family sugar business and drops a
letter from his middle name, becoming "Boy" Staunton, and begins to
build a new ruling-class identity for his renamed self. "As Ramsay
explains, "he was always the quintessence of something that somebody
else had recognized and defined," (Davies' 147) his new identity allows
Boy to start a new life and leave Deptford in the past. Also, Boy brings
with him into his new life his Deptford wife Leola, whom he tries to
change into "the perfect wife for a rising young entrepreneur in sugar."
(Davies' 151) She cannot lose her small-town background as well as
Boy, and she falls by the wayside, eventually committing suicide.

Although, Boy is the antagonist character of the novel, his new identity
embraces him as one of the most powerful men in Canada, but he will
always hold the guilt from the snowball incident which occurred in
Deptford. To conclude, the actions that occurred in Deptford change
the whole basis of the novel. Thus while Boy and Magnus have taken on
new identities and tried to displace their old ones, Dunstan takes on a
new identity that complements the old. All three leading characters leave
Deptford to change their life, but the spirit of the little town in Southern
Ontario remains with them forever. BibliographyDavies, Robertson.
Fifth Business. Canada: Penguin Books, 1977.