Fifth Business Essay AssignmentTracing the Influence of Women in Dunny s Life
Influence has a defying dark side in which lethal combinations may be a man’s utmost undoing. In Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, Dunny is influenced by women, which help shape his life and reach self-realization. These women make up Dunny’s anima. In Dunny’s life, Mary Dempster sends him on his journey; Diana Marfleet initiates him, and Liesl Vitzliputzli helps Dunny discover himself. Mary Dempster is the woman who first sends Dunny on his journey to self-discovery. She is the first important character that Dunny meets in his life because she “is a projection of some aspect of Ramsay’s unconscious world” . Dunny was immediately stuck with her as soon as that snowball hit her. She became a simple woman, and these simple qualities that Mary had, is what Dunny needed. Dunny is attracted to these qualities where his mother, doesn’t possess. ... Relating to Carl Jung’s theory, all these influences and qualities that Mary Dempster has builds up a perfect image in Dunny’s mind which is his anima. ... Yet his mother first sets up Dunny’s anima because even though she didn’t possess the qualities that Mary did, she was still a role model in the Deptford, and his anima was of his mother.