The narrator states that he is ill-qualified to discuss the war
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- Colborne College
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| Deptford
Deptford is the quaint, old-fashioned Canadian village at the heart of this novel by Robertson Davies. Including Fifth Business, author Davies wrote three books centered on Deptford, which is reminiscent of his own childhood home. The village of Deptford has many of the sterling, moral characteristics associated with small-town living. However, in its heart lurks much darkness and evil as well, which the narrator explores throughout the novel. No matter how far from Deptford life takes protagonist Dunstan Ramsay, he is always called back in spirit to revisit the joys and the follies of his youth. Colborne College Colborne College is the name of the private men's college where Dunstan Ramsay spends his long teaching career. During the Second World War, Dunstan serves as acting Headmaster. Boy Staunton got his degree from Colborne, and later, as a prominent businessman, serves on the Board of Directors, making him, in effect, Dunstan's boss. A Hundred Saints for Travelers This is Dunstan Ramsay's first published book. As the title implies, it describes the statues of saints which can be found by journeying through the churches Europe. Hagiography The study of saints; hagiography is Dunstan Ramsey's chief passion in life. The Analecta A serial publication dedicated to hagiography, published by the Bollandist sect of Jesuit priests. The Bollandists and the Analecta are considered the foremost experts on the study of Catholic saints. Therefore Dunstan is thrilled when they first accept his work, and their continued approval of his scholarly writings about hagiography is the bar by which he measures his success as a student of the saints. The Stone Paperweight Not revealed until the end of the story, the stone paperweight which Dunstan keeps with him over the years is actually the very same stone that Percy Boyd Staunton put inside the snowball he threw at Mrs. Dempster when he and Dunstan were children. St. Dunstan's Tongs Dunstable Ramsey is renamed by his lover Diana after St. Dunstan, who, according to legend, once used a pair of silver tongs to twist the Devil's nose when the Devil appeared to him in the guise of a beautiful woman. The Little Madonna On the dark night during World War I when Dunstable Ramsay is at death's door, he sees a divine vision that he credits for saving his life. Bleeding from the shrapnel that burns in his leg, Dunstable seeks shelter in a ruin. When he looks up, he realizes that he is in the ruins of a church, and comes face to face with a statue of the Virgin Mary that bears the exact likeness of Mary Dempster's face. Dunstable spends years searching for the statue after the war. His growing knowledge of religious statuary teaches him that the statue is called a Little Madonna, and depicts Mother Mary with her holy son. But not until very late in his life does Dunstable, now Dunstan, find the actual statue. In reality, the Little Madonna does not look as much like Mrs. Dempster as it did on the night of his vision. The Brazen Head A clever mechanical stage prop designed by Liesl for Magnus Eisengrim's magic show. The Brazen Head act consists of Liesl's voice intoning predictions and revealing secrets about the audience members. This trick is accomplished by sending spies into the audience before the show, to eavesdrop on their conversations and to secretly rifle through their belongings. At the end of the novel, the Brazen Head's revealing answer to the question, Who killed Boy Staunton?sends Dunstan into cardiac arrest because - without naming names - the head implicates both Dunstan and Eisengrim in Boy's murder. Opera House This romantic, European-style Opera House is the principal assembly hall for the rural village of Deptford. It is here that the village gathers to celebrate the return of their war heroes, including Dunstan Ramsay. Fifth Business Social Concerns Fifth Business begins on December 27, 1908, in Deptford, Ontario. An incident occurs that sets off a chain of events that are not concluded until October, 1968, in Toronto when Boy Staunton, one of Canada's wealthiest men, dies mysteriously. The novel, which is written in the form of a memoir, traces the lives of the three people involved in the 1908 incident. One of the characters, Boy Staunton, has prospered materially, having embraced the gospel of wealth and materialism as preached by George Maiden Leadbeater. Seemingly never satisfied, Staunton continues to expand his economic domain and to raise the goals that define success for him throughout his life. His contemporary, Dunstan Ramsay, has lived a different kind of life. Becoming a history teacher, he stays in the same position for forty-five years. In addition to teaching, he publishes in his specialty, hagiography — the biographies of saints or other idealized individuals — being particularly interested in the connections between history and myth. Since his specialty lacks academic respectability, it always has something of the status of an avocation for him professionally. The third character involved in the incident is Mrs. Amasa Dempster, the wife of a Baptist minister. Her life is apparently changed radically by what happened in 1908. After the incident people in Deptford regard her as simple-minded, and she eventually winds up in an insane asylum where she dies in 1959. It is never completely clear whether Mrs. Dempster's emotional problems are the consequence of the incident. It is sufficient that for Dunstan Ramsay they are, and that he feels responsible for what has happened to her. This novel is not concerned with any particular social issues per se, but rather with an individual's understanding of himself and his place in the world. Each of these characters has his or her own way of getting through life. Boy Staunton apparently masters the world, but he never understands it, himself, or the people around him. Dunstan Ramsay has been cast in the role of Fifth Business, i.e., that player in a drama or opera who is essential for the working out of the plot but who is extra, outside the central core of action. Most people think of him as an observer, someone who watches the world pass by but does not participate. This novel, which is written in the form of Ramsay's personal memoir, serves as a correction to that misguided notion. Finally, Mrs. Dempster appears to have a clear understanding of what is going on about her, but her understanding differs from other people's, and she is regarded as mad by her neighbors. 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