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  • Essay / Fifth Affair The Archetypes of Carl G. Jung - 1235

    The novel Fifth Affair written by Robertson Davies is about the life of Dunstan Ramsay. The novel begins with Parker's newsletter which offends Dunstan and prompts him to write about his life to the principal. Davies uses Carl Jung's archetypes to develop his novel Fifth Business which are the archetypal figures, the archetypal hero's journey, and the fifth business. Robertson Davies uses a wise old man, a great mother and a wise old woman who plays an important role in Dunstan's life. First, the author describes Padre Ignacio Blazon as Dunstan Ramsay's wise old man because he seeks to prove that Mary Dempster is a saint. For example, when Padre and Ramsay first confront each other, Blazon morally lectures Dunstan: “I can't make saints, any more than the Pope can. We can only recognize saints when the clearest evidence shows that they are saints.” (165) Therefore, he suggests that Dunstan finds the answer “in psychological truth, not objective truth” (169). Furthermore, Padre thinks that Dunstan is “foolish to demand the agreement of the world” (165). However, he says, "miracles are things that people cannot explain...Miracles depend very much on time and place, and on what we know and do not know" (166). Accordingly, he teaches that Dunstan's saints are not objective and that all miracles depend on the situation and the facts. Because Ramsay considers Mary Dempster's actions toward Willie, himself, and the Tramp to be miracles, she is therefore a saint. Second, Davies uses the Jungian archetype of the Great Mother in the figure of Mary Dempster due to Dunstan's mother complex. Dunstan recognizes Mary's mental qualities due to her own mother's lack of miracles. For example, after Mrs. Ramsay spanks Dunstan because of the stolen egg, he says, “But what I knew then was that nob……in the middle of a paper……ss. Additionally, Dunstan is the cause of Boy Staunton's death. For example, Dunstan says to Boy in front of Paul, "That's the rock you put in the snowball you threw at Mrs. Dempster." 254,” which is the cause of Paul being a premature baby. For this reason, Paul kills Boy and puts the stone in his mouth. However, when Lies "at the top of the balcony" during "The Brass Head of Brother Bacon" publicly asks Paul who the murderer of Boy Staunton is, he replies "the inevitable fifth, who [is] the guardian of his conscience and the guardian of the stone. »256. In this way, Dunstan indirectly kills Boy mentally and physically. Robertson Davies develops the novel Fifth Business based on Carl Jung's archetypal figures, the journey of the archetypal hero and the fifth archetypal business. In this way, the protagonist Dunstan counters Parke's offensive "FAREWELL TO CORK (7)" through his letter to the director..