The Fifth Business Essay, Research Paper

Fifth Business Dunstan

Lots of people in our society can be dubbed as ^neutral^ in their

behavior. They dont take part in the events occurring around them but

rather just observe them. This characteristic can be called a

beneficial characteristic as it may keep them out of disagreements. In

the book Fifth Business written by Robertson Davies, Dunny can be

called a neutral person. He tells us about his life story and through

various incidents, it is clearly evident that he is indeed a neutral

person. For instance, the snowball incident and Dunny^s relationship

with Diana show the reader that he is indeed a neutral person who

doesn^t want to get involved deeply in anything at all. Dunny starts

his story from his childhood. He tells us that when he was ten, he had

a fight with Percy Boyd Staunton and during this fight, Percy threw a

snowball at him. He dodged the snowball and it struck the pregnant Mary

Dempster, who was the wife of Reverend Amasa Dempster, on her head.

This led to the premature birth of the baby. Dunny felt responsible for

that incident and spent many sleepless nights but he didn^t tell Mary

what had happened or who threw the snowball. He remained neutral in the

situation despite the fact that he felt guilty and responsible for

Mary^s loss of senility and the premature birth of the baby. These

strong emotions led him to help Mary in every way possible. Although he

knew that he had not thrown the snowball, he imagined that since it was

meant for him, he shouldn^t have dodged it. Also Paul had told Dunny

that he wasn^t responsible for the snowball because it was Dunny^s

dodging it which led to Mary Dempster labor. So Dunny was sure that!

he was to blame but still he didn^t confess it to anyone, neither did

he ever talk to anyone about it. Being neutral he just withdrew and did

not take a stand in the situation. He took care of Paul when he (Paul)

was quite young and also was protective of Mary which further served to

isolate him from the rest of the society who thought of Mary as a bad

influence. Though this incident occurred in an early stage of Dunny^s

life, it still shows his neutrality which remained a part of him until

his death. Dunny^s relationship with Diana is another example which

shows his neutrality. When Dunny was wounded in the war, he was put

under Diana^s care until he got back on his feet. During this time, he

developed a liking for Diana. In fact, the feeling was mutual. They

became very close and a relationship formed between them. This

relationship progressed to a point where Diana wanted to marry Dunny.

This was not what Dunny had in mind. He didn^t want to get trapped by

marrying Diana. His opinion was that she was too much caring and would

treat him the way his mother did when he was young. Through Diana,

Dunny learned what physical love meant but when the question of

marriage emerged, he stepped back and took a back seat. Despite Diana^s

tremendous love and care for Dunny, he dismissed the suggestion of

marriage because of his neutral qualities. He can be Diana^s lover but

he cant be directly involved and thus be Diana^s husband. His neutral

character forbade that from happening. Th! is relationship clearly

shows the reader that Dunny is in fact a neutral person. As the story

progresses, it becomes quite evident that Dunstan Ramsey is a neutral

person. The way Dunny is emerging into a neutral character is clearly

shown by the two examples given in this essay. There are, however, lots

of other examples in the novel showing us this same characteristic. The

interesting thing is that Dunny thinks that he is very much involved in

whatever is going on around him. he thinks that he is playing a major

part in all of his friends life. This makes the novel all the more

enjoyable to read.