Who Is Dunstan Ramsay's Obsession In Fifth Business

From Obsession to Failure

In literature, a character’s obsession with key events in their life can lead them to either success or failure. Obsession is defined as an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind. In Robertson Davies novel, “Fifth Business”, the central character’s intruding thoughts bring him to failure. Throughout the novel, it is evident that Dunstan Ramsay’s obsessions are what cause his slow, tragic, exclusion from society. Dunstan’s involvement with Mary Dempster, his appetite for magic, his unnecessarily kept secrets, and his queer admiration for saints all affect his character in a way that prevents him from forming relationships with the people around him; ultimately leaving him
in isolation and bringing him to total failure.

Throughout Dunstan's life, his obsession with Mrs.
Dempster not only separates him from society, but greatly damages his social life. From the beginning of the novel, Dunstan’s role of the Dempster family’s caretaker affects his popularity. He says, “Being unofficial watchdog to the Dempster family was often a nuisance to me and did nothing for my popularity" (Davies 22). This reveals that Dunstan willingly chooses to be separated from society due to his obsession with Mrs Dempster, seeing that he can easily criticize and shun her family like everyone else. Also, after realizing that he is falling in love with her, Dunstan focuses all his attention Mrs. Dempster. Liesl tells him, “You despise almost everybody except Paul’s mother. No wonder she seems like a saint to you; you have made her carry the affection you should have spread among fifty people” (Davies 221). This explains why Dunstan cannot form a meaningful relationship with other women in his life because he fills Mrs. Dempster with the love that is intended for fifty people, leaving no room for others in his life. This leads Dunstan to be unable to connect with anyone except Mrs Dempster and it commences his exclusion from
society.

Dunstan’s obsession with magic and his magician persona in a highly religious town causes him to be isolated from the religious community. He teaches card tricks to Paul Dempster even though he knows that the town refers to cards as the “devils picture book”. By doing this he greatly increases his chances of being regarded by the town as a queer. Amasa Dempster eventually bans Dunstan from interacting with Paul once he realizes that Paul knows magic. Dunstan says that, “[Amasa] had lost the fight, so he took refuge in banishing me. I was never to set foot in his house again, he said, nor to speak to any of his family, nor dare to come near his son” (Davies 36). This shows that Dunstan continues to pursue his obsessions even after he is expelled from the Dempster residence. He stops at no lengths to feed his magic obsession and this hinders his ability to form a relationship with the one friend he created in Paul. This magic craze also separates Dunstan from his mother after the egg incident when he says, “Instead of sickening me of magic, this incident increased my appetite for it. It was necessary for me to gain power in some realm into which my parents—my mother particularly—could not follow me” (Davies 30). Even though Dunstan yearns for his mother’s love, his obsession with magic causes him to spoil his relationship with her. Since Dunstan cannot connect with even his mother, he thinks that his obsessions are bringing him more joy than making friends and lasting relationships. This results in the failure to create connections and leaves him in isolation.

Dunstan’s determination to keep secrets adds to his inability to make meaningful relationships. From the beginning of the novel when Dunstan does not inform anyone that Boy threw the snowball, one can witness his uncanny ability to keep everything a secret. After Leisl realizes that Dunstan has spent over fifty years of keeping secrets, she tells him that people who keep secrets, “…grow very queer indeed; they pay a high price for their secrecy. You have paid such a price, and you look like a man of secrets --- grim mouthed and buttoned up and hard-eyed and cruel, because you are cruel to yourself. It has done you good to tell what you know; you look much more human already” (Davies 220). This quote directly describes the situation in which Dunstan resides and Liesl says that this is the result of secrecy. This means that Dunstan’s bottled up secrets and emotions negatively affect his ability to express himself to others. Dunstan also realizes this fact himself when he says, "But had not Paul edited his memories so that only pain and cruelty remained? I began to wonder what I had erased from my own recollection." (Davies 267) At this moment in his life, Dunstan realizes the negative effects of bottling up emotions and how they can modify one's experiences. Another instance is when Dunstan realizes that Boy is mistreating Leola and keeps it to himself. He says that, “If [he] spoke up for her [he] might find [himself] her champion, and a man who champions any woman against her husband had better be sure he means business." (Davies 154). Dunstan keeps the secrets of Leola and Boy’s from everyone else and never fights for the woman he once loved. He allows himself to be conquered by his obsession of secrecy and therefore is unable to have the relationship with Leola that he always wanted. Through keeping many secrets in his life, Dunstan prevents himself from opening up completely to people and therefore prevents him from having healthy relationships.

Dunstan’s obsession with saints leads him to be more introvert and to disregard the people around him. His adventure leads him around the world and, in time, into his own world where he ignores the comments and warnings of others. Even Boy Staunton, Dunstan’s theoretical enemy, offers advice when Dunstan says, “My preoccupation with saints was such that I could not keep it out of my conversation, and Boy was concerned for me. ‘Watch that you don’t get queer, Dunny,’ he would say” (Davies 127). This demonstrates that Dunstan’s obsession with saints literally takes over his life to the point where others notice this bizarre trait in him. In addition, Dunstan also values his hunt for Saint Uncumber, “the little Madonna”, more than everything in his life. He abandons Diana and also his hometown, Deptford, to search for a statue that he is obsessed with. He says that, “The little Madonna was a bee in my bonnet; I wanted to see her again and quite unreasonably, I kept hoping to find her.” (Davies 115). This shows how Dunstan’s obsession over a lifeless statue he saw in Flanders has an effect on his mind and leads him to make decisions that exclude him from society; his biggest failure.

In conclusion, Dunstan Ramsay’s obsessions do, indeed, bring him to failure in Davies’ novel “Fifth Business” by hindering him from creating bonds with anyone in his life. The reader may find evidence of this by examining Dunstan’s various obsessions throughout the novel and how they negatively affect his overall character. These obsessions play a negative role on the character of Dunstan Ramsay causing him to near the final stretch of his life in isolation and loneliness, unaware of the love and joy he can be experiencing. Only Dunstan can change this destructive characteristic in him and Davies demonstrates that he fails to do so and therefore he predominantly leads himself to his own demise.