Fifth Business Quotes

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The role of women in Robert Davies’ novel Fifth Business, is crucial to Dunny’s search for his authentic self. These women also influence him for the better and sometimes for the worse as can be seen in Dunny’s relationship with Mary Dempster, Diana Marfleet and Liesel.
The first person mentioned in the novel is Mary Dempster to whom Dunny constantly refers to as ‘Mrs Dempster’. She is arguably the most influencial character in Dunny’s life and this is even more evident as the first chapter of the novel, ‘Mrs. Dempster’, is named after her. Mrs Dempster is a gentle, caring woman and she might have acquired these attributes as a result of being married to a Baptist parson. Dunny’s lifelong involvement and obsession with Mrs. Dempster began …show more content…
Some of the effects of this unfortunate plague that Dunny would come to bear throughout his life begin to have a strong influence on Dunny’s personality. This can be seen when Dunny sais "And left Deptford in the flesh. It was not for a long time that I recognized that I had never wholly left Deptford in the Spirit." (Davies 105). This passage shows that although Dunny has physically left his small hometown of Deptford he has not truly left psychologically and this is due to his guilt.It was also Mrs. Dempster who was the inspiration for Dunnys lifelong persuit of saints and mythology. It was Mary’s second miracle that truly sparks Dunny’s persuit of mythology and saints. Her second miracle is when she had supposedly raised Willie from almost certain death. Because of this Dunny honestly believes that Mrs. Dempster was in fact a saint and this was one of the three miracles she had performed. This is evident when Dunny sais “For me, Willie’s recall from death is and will always be Mrs. Dempsters second miracle” (Davies 56). Later in life Dunny would again encounter Joel Surgeoner and end up discussing the miracle Mary had performed on Willie. At this point in time Dunny was under the impression that this was Mary’s first
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