Fifth Business

A detailed Summary of Fifth Business


In the novel "Fifth Business", the author Robertson Davies is successfully able to relate both the themes of magic and religion throughout. He achieves this relationship between the themes primarily through the characters and their actions. Dunstan Ramsay, Paul Dempster, Mary Dempster and Liselotte Vitzliputzli all help to illustrate the close relationship between magic and religion.

One of the characters that Davies uses to relate the theme of magic and religion is Dunstable Ramsay. Dunny was brought up in a Scottish Presbyterian family in Deptford, Ontario. While in the war, he kept himself busy by reading the New Testament and states "Arabian Nights and the Bible were getting pretty close", referring to both magic and religion. After servicing in the war, Dunstable is renamed Dunstan by Diana after Saint Dunstan. Dunstan's study of saints becomes his passion and he later travels


Liselotte Vitzliputzli otherwise known as Lisel is introduced midway through the novel, but still plays an important element in the theme of magic and religion. The theme of religion is demonstrated when she asks Dunstan "...do you know what my name really means?" Lisel's last name is the demons name in the play The Vision of Dr. Fautus where Faust was a magician who sold his soul to the devil. During a fight between Lisel and Dunstan, Dustan twists her nose, reliving the story of Saint Dunstan where he twisted the devil's nose when he came to tempt him in the form of a beautiful woman. Lisel is Dunstan's devil and companion who adds to the relationship of magic and religion.

Mary Dempster, who is named after a saint can be considered to be a saint in this novel. She is the mother of a famous magician and the wife of a priest. This freely displays the relationship between magic and religion. Accor

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Approximate Word count = 613
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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