Fifth Business Essay Outline

Thesis Statement: In Robertson Davies’s Fifth Business, the reaction of certain characters to conflicts in the novel shows that the morals and values taught in childhood can affect how one responds to and acts when faced with guilt.

Directional Statement: Boy, Paul and Dunstan’s different principles and values taught to them in childhood all change how they act when involved in conflict, as well as how they respond to the guilt associated with Mary Dempster.

1) Boy is not taught proper morals by his parents, and does not take responsibility for his own actions, leading him to not acknowledge the guilt he should feel.

When Dunstan talks to Boy a little while after throwing the snowball, Boy blatantly denies that he is at fault, and pretends he doesn’t know what Dunstan is talking about. He says “I threw a snowball at you, and I guess it gave you a good smack” (Page 27). This shows how Boy does not take responsibility for his actions and was not taught that he should be honest. He simply denies the guilt and tries to pretend he has none.
Boy does not feel guilty when he cheats on Leola after they are married. Even after she finds a note from his mistress in his coat pocket and begins to cry, he does not apologize or feel guilty. His only comforting words to her are “There’s no reason to carry on like that, your situation is perfectly secure”(Page 190).
After Boy is caught in the sexual act with Mabel Heighington, he does not apologize to anyone, even his girlfriend Leola. Instead, his father simply deals with the matter by paying off Mabel’s mother to not involve the law in the situation. “Some said fifty dollars, and others said a hundred. Mrs. Heighington never revealed the precise sum” (Page 60).

2) Paul has a different upbringing than other children, and he is taught by his father that he should “do whatever was possible to make it up” (Page 264) to his mother, who lost her sanity. This results in him being unable to feel guilt anymore.

When he first meets Dunstan at Le grand Cirque forain de St Vite after many years, Paul feels no guilt that he ran away from his mother and does not want to tell her he is safe. He tells Dunstan that he sees no point in telling her and that “she is a part of a past that cannot be recovered or changed by anything I can do now” (Page 152).
After meeting Paul again while in New Mexico, Dunstan “wrung from him a promise to contribute to the maintenance of Mrs. Dempster” (Page 234). Paul’s reluctance to help his own mother reveals how truly affected he was by his upbringing – he feels no more emotion for his mother, nor any guilt for leaving her on her own in Deptford. He even “swore that he owed her nothing” (Page 234).
When Paul, Dunstan and Boy meet and have a conversation in Dunstan’s room, Paul tells the other men about his upbringing. His father blamed him for his mother’s loss of sanity, and tries to use guilt as an educative tool on Paul. Paul says that this only makes him unable to feel guilt because “I was too young for the kind of guilt my father wanted me to feel” (Page 265).

3) Dunstan is taught and influenced by his mother to fear all sins and to fear God. As a result, he fears to reveal his mistakes to others and becomes consumed with guilt he faces.

After ducking the snowball that hits Mary Dempster and robs her of her sanity, Dunstan feels horribly guilty, but cannot bring himself to tell his parents about his involvement in the incident. His containment of this guilt makes him obsessed with it and changes his life forever.
Dunstan meets Diana, but when he realizes she wants to marry him, he doesn’t know how to deal with telling her that he made a mistake by leading her on. He holds all his guilt inside which leads to him dealing with the conflict badly.
When Dunstan meets Joel Surgeoner, he initially treats him rudely. He seems to want to treat him badly as a way to put some of his guilt on Joel. This shows how his mother’s influence of being a hypocrite had an effect on him, and how he is still consumed with guilt and is trying to get rid of some of it.

Conclusion: Throughout the novel, how certain characters deal with conflict reveals that lessons taught in childhood can affect how one handles guilt.