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The contradiction of conformity and questioning is exemplified through the medium of the novel, Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies. The character of Dunstan Ramsay unknowingly conforms to the greater workings of Destiny by serving as the supporting role, or fifth business, in the lives of his "friends". Inwardly, he begins to question and assess his ability to control his life as he is confronted by his primal desires and individuality. Throughout Dunstan's journey to transcendence, Davies makes a point that in order to take the control from Destiny's grasp, we must cast aside our supporting roles to society and acknowledge and take action upon the dichotomy of the individual's moral compass.
Over the course of half a lifetime, Dunstan plays the lackluster role of fifth business in the opera of life. Fifth business by definition has only one purpose. This purpose is to help along the mythology of the other characters and provide key elements of the story which are vital to its plot. Dunstan unknowingly conforms to this role, and it is not until he is confronted by it that he is able to break through its boundaries. Dunstan serves as the confidante of his lifelong friend and nemesis, Percy (Boy) Staunton, even from the very beginning when he failed to reveal who threw the life-altering snowball at Mrs. Dempster (it was Percy). He also manages to keep a monumental detail, that the snowball that Percy threw contained a rather large stone, from the reader, thus emphasizing his inability to contribute to the plot as anything more than fifth business. He remains this partial character until he confronts Boy Staunton and Mrs. Dempster's son, Paul, late into their age about the stone. In effect, Paul murders Boy out of revenge. Perhaps Dunstan knew what may have happened if he revealed the secret of the snowball, but in acceptance of the darkness of the situation as well as the consequences of such action he is able to be reborn again as a new main character.
Although Dunstan is rebellious in nature and never assimilates to the expectations of society, he is not able to deliberately take action on behalf of his personal judgement until he is encouraged by Liesl and Padre Blazon. The sit-back-and-listen attitude he radiates throughout his interactions with the other characters brew contradiction. Dunstan's ill repute toward Boy's capitalistic fervor and ambition is hypocritical in nature, because he takes advantage of Boy's advice in the stock market and reaps the financial rewards in the same ways. Likewise, Dunstan wholly despised the absolute power and influence that religion holds over society (such as the pious culture of his hometown), yet is obsessed with the canonization of Mrs. Dempster as a Catholic saint. Padre Blazon is the first to encourage his to actively challenge and question these notions set by society by insisting that Mrs. Dempster could be a saint if Dunstan would only allow her to be significant as one in the mythology of his life. Additionally, Liesl presents to him that he is fifth business and encourages him to embrace his unconventional and primal yearnings. He eventually complies to this request and makes love to the bearded lady. From then moment on, Dunstan continues to question his world and develops into a character who is able to take action upon the value of his moral beliefs.
Dunstan finds transcendence at the end of the novel by exploring his moral compass as well as his role by fate's standards, thus casting aside the formality of the supporting role to which he conformed to in the past and learning how to question the world effectively. The role of fifth business along with the rigid structure of roles in the opera, introduced by Liesl, represent how society provides specific roles for the masses to be confined to. In these roles, the people can not act upon their desires or explore their moral preferences. To live a life in a role which serves merely as support is to not live a life at all, and when Dunstan becomes aware of this he is able to emerge as the hero in his own story and begin to live his life in greater individuality and truer meaning.
*We didn't discuss Fifth Business at all in class at the time of writing this essay. I probably shouldn't have used this work but I couldn't help myself to the challenge.*
Over the course of half a lifetime, Dunstan plays the lackluster role of fifth business in the opera of life. Fifth business by definition has only one purpose. This purpose is to help along the mythology of the other characters and provide key elements of the story which are vital to its plot. Dunstan unknowingly conforms to this role, and it is not until he is confronted by it that he is able to break through its boundaries. Dunstan serves as the confidante of his lifelong friend and nemesis, Percy (Boy) Staunton, even from the very beginning when he failed to reveal who threw the life-altering snowball at Mrs. Dempster (it was Percy). He also manages to keep a monumental detail, that the snowball that Percy threw contained a rather large stone, from the reader, thus emphasizing his inability to contribute to the plot as anything more than fifth business. He remains this partial character until he confronts Boy Staunton and Mrs. Dempster's son, Paul, late into their age about the stone. In effect, Paul murders Boy out of revenge. Perhaps Dunstan knew what may have happened if he revealed the secret of the snowball, but in acceptance of the darkness of the situation as well as the consequences of such action he is able to be reborn again as a new main character.
Although Dunstan is rebellious in nature and never assimilates to the expectations of society, he is not able to deliberately take action on behalf of his personal judgement until he is encouraged by Liesl and Padre Blazon. The sit-back-and-listen attitude he radiates throughout his interactions with the other characters brew contradiction. Dunstan's ill repute toward Boy's capitalistic fervor and ambition is hypocritical in nature, because he takes advantage of Boy's advice in the stock market and reaps the financial rewards in the same ways. Likewise, Dunstan wholly despised the absolute power and influence that religion holds over society (such as the pious culture of his hometown), yet is obsessed with the canonization of Mrs. Dempster as a Catholic saint. Padre Blazon is the first to encourage his to actively challenge and question these notions set by society by insisting that Mrs. Dempster could be a saint if Dunstan would only allow her to be significant as one in the mythology of his life. Additionally, Liesl presents to him that he is fifth business and encourages him to embrace his unconventional and primal yearnings. He eventually complies to this request and makes love to the bearded lady. From then moment on, Dunstan continues to question his world and develops into a character who is able to take action upon the value of his moral beliefs.
Dunstan finds transcendence at the end of the novel by exploring his moral compass as well as his role by fate's standards, thus casting aside the formality of the supporting role to which he conformed to in the past and learning how to question the world effectively. The role of fifth business along with the rigid structure of roles in the opera, introduced by Liesl, represent how society provides specific roles for the masses to be confined to. In these roles, the people can not act upon their desires or explore their moral preferences. To live a life in a role which serves merely as support is to not live a life at all, and when Dunstan becomes aware of this he is able to emerge as the hero in his own story and begin to live his life in greater individuality and truer meaning.
*We didn't discuss Fifth Business at all in class at the time of writing this essay. I probably shouldn't have used this work but I couldn't help myself to the challenge.*
Abby,
ReplyDeleteGood essay. I think that your thesis is good and does a good job of answering the prompt. I think that as a whole your bodies were good and you did a good job of going into detail. You come full circle in the conclusion which is also good. Nice work!
You wrote one heck of an essay! I would worry that you wouldn't have enough time to write this much detail on an actual exam though. Typing is at least 3x as fast, but I have no clue how much time you actually on this assignment. Either way, great job. I definitely don't have any criticisms on this one.
ReplyDeleteHi Abby,
ReplyDeleteHaha, I feel like I'm being repetitive here and it looks like I'm being lazy but really I can't think of anything you need to change, this essay is amazing and I feel it would definitely get a top score on the AP Exam, kudos to you on a great essay and hopefully you can do this again for the AP. The body paragraphs have tons of textual evidence and the theme is well supported, the concluding paragraph also brings some nice closure to the overall essay.