Fifth Business

In Fifth Business, Robertson Davies lays out the story of a man named Dunstable Ramsay who writes a letter to the headmaster of an academic institution where he used to teach as an account of his life story. The book progresses from his life in the little town of Deptford in Canada, to a soldier in World War I, to a professor who travels the world to research saints, sprinkled in with many interesting interactions and associations that shape his life. Being the main character, Dunstan Ramsay can be described as an outwardly conforming yet inwardly inquisitive fellow who goes along with people's views but never really show disagreement against them when he does. Mrs. Dempster features significantly in the novel, a character with whom Dunstan has a great affinity and who serves more as a caring and motherly figure than Dunstan’s own mother. Percy Boy Staunton journeys with Ramsay through life first as a pompous rival and later as a arrogant billionaire who excels in his societal position and gains both financial and social significance. Paul, Mrs. Dempster’s son, is shown later in the story as a magician whom Ramsay taught him his first magic tricks and who now is a figure full of surprises for Ramsay himself. Liesl, the backer of Paul/Magnus Eisengrim, is the person who most understands Ramsay’s true personality and disposition, his role as fifth business, always staying on the sidelines and unwilling to embrace the unusual devil inside him.

The theme is not very detectable until the end of the novel. Related closely to the title, one of the major themes that develops in Fifth Business, relates to the role that Dunstan Ramsay played as fifth business in his life and the role that we as human beings play in our lives and how the choices of the past impact our own understanding ourselves.

The narrative voice conveyed in the novel is one of detachment and passiveness, as fulfilled by Ramsay’s role as fifth business. Even though Ramsay is essentially telling his audience his life’s story, he has a didactic attitude that is surprisingly detached to the events of his life. Consequently, the tone of the narrator is one marked by distance and aloofness, almost a disinterest in the content of the story. It seems as though Ramsay is merely pointing out the significant events of his life rather than truly commenting on them and reflecting on his life. Davies appeals to the reader’s senses in more than one way to most effectively convey the story of Dunstan Ramsay. For instance, the scene with the snowball and the falling of Mrs. Dempster is portrayed in vivid detail by Dunstan. The setting of a snowy night and the painting of Ramsay’s thoughts of holding himself guilty for Paul’s birth shows the extent to which Davies makes use of imagery. Later in the novel, the description of the events that go on in the gravel pit with Mrs. Dempster and the tramp relate back to Ramsay’s character and how every event in his life at Deptford and beyond as vividly seen by him have affected his thinking and outlook towards the world.

            Like all the other pieces of literary merit, Fifth Business contains various symbols and references throughout. Starting with the title itself and its relation to the book as an autobiography leads the reader to recognize the development of Dunstan's character and his inclination to remain on the sidelines, going with the flow of society yet questioning inwardly. Religion is another significant reference in the novel. Having grown up in close proximity to Christian beliefs and always having been instructed to adhere to these principles all through his life, Dunstan's exploration along the study of saints allowed him to further explore the nature of religion and people of belief more closely, giving him a chance to understand how and whether saints are viewed and involved. This is exemplified in Mrs. Dempster who Dunstan later refers to as his "fool saint". Lastly, Liesl herself is one of the most significant symbols in the novel, serving the role of a guide for Dunstan to understand his own character and personality better, giving way to embracing his inner devil, and recognizing his own individuality as it presents itself to him.

 

            Quotes:
          “You must get to know to know your personal devil.” - Liesel 
          This is the quote the concludes Liesel and Dunstan's brawl and disagreement. Liesel shows Dunstan how he has lived his own life thus far as the role of fifth business, how he has been prevented from truly living his own life through the guilt he feels over the events in his life.

Hamlet

In Hamlet, Shakespeare presents a tragedy for his audience, laying out the story of young Prince Hamlet. In the beginning of the play Hamlet is forced to return from his studies in Wittenberg to the royal house at Denmark to lament his father’s death and take part in the coronation of his uncle Claudius and his marriage to his mother, Gertrude only a month later. His loyal friends report to him that they saw a ghost of the now deceased king Hamlet and Hamlet decides to meet it. When the Ghost arrives, Hamlet is told the truth of the whole event, how Claudius had killed old Hamlet. Henceforth, Hamlet consistently looks for the opportunity to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius, continuously ruminating on the act and whether and how he should do it. His obsession with revenge turns him against his love Ophelia, giving the impression to Polonius, the king’s right-hand man, and Claudius that Hamlet is insanely in love with Ophelia and is thus heavily affected due to her withdrawal of her love for him. Claudius decides to send Hamlet away to England to be killed after Hamlet frightens him with a play telling a story of the true events. After returning from England, contrary to the king’s plan to get rid of Hamlet, Hamlet agrees to a duel with Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, because Laertes believes Hamlet to be the cause of Ophelia and Polonius's deaths. In the end, everyone is killed one way or another, leaving a question mark on the purpose of their lives.

  The theme can be mostly seen from Hamlet's rambling soliloquies. The whole series of events that occur throughout the play culminate in developing the theme of uncertainty and human curiosity and inquisitiveness where the human character is constantly faced with new situations that give way to more questions than answers, developing character to understand ourselves and view the world in a different light.

In Hamlet, even though the point of view of the characters differs based on their dispositions as portrayed by Shakespeare, the general perspective is one of longing to understand the complexities of nature and human society. Especially through Hamlet’s character, Shakespeare conveys inquisitiveness about what life constitutes and questions the purpose of man. The tone of the play relates closely to the point of view, demonstrating a questioning attitude that leads the reader to analyze the situation more closely and recognize an almost dragging outlook. Shakespeare incorporates a very dark and contemplative tone into Hamlet. A lot of this gets set up in the very first scene that takes place in the middle of the night as the watchmen and Horatio discuss all the strange events in Denmark. We see the contemplative tone come out during Hamlet's long soliloquies as he constantly tries to figure out what to do but ends up spending too much time thinking. We, as an audience of a play, are forced to decipher the events of the play due to Hamlet's unreliability as a narrator and even that becomes more confusing after Hamlet's madness is added in.

As in any other of his plays, Shakespeare presents a wide range of literary devices such as chiasmus, apostrophe, and many others. These techniques add a certain rhythmic flow to Shakespeare’s writing and give way to a more insightful interpretation of his work. Hamlet also uses symbolism extensively. Starting with the appearance of the ghost, the audience is forced to question Hamlet’s belief in the supernatural and the degree of faith which Hamlet and the audience can place in the ghost’s words. Throughout the play, Hamlet persists on questioning the prevalence and affects delivered by religion, especially in his attempt to kill Claudius as the king is in mid-prayer, opting out of killing him for fear of sending him to heaven. Ophelia’s madness and her flower-giving act is a nice representation of using her character to denote the characterization of the other characters’ dispositions, motivations, and inclinations. Yorick’s skull near the end of the play was another symbol that illuminated Hamlet’s questioning of the purpose of man in light of inevitable death. His careful analysis of the skull offered insight into his deeper consideration of life after death, the role of religion, and the purpose of the human character.

Quotes:
"To be or not to be, that is the question." - Hamlet
      "How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,/Seem to me all the uses of this world!" - Hamlet

These two quotes show Hamlet and the theme of the play on the purpose of human existence. Hamlet wonders - as he always does - about the reasoning behind actually being alive and how it would be like to die and why people actually stand life when death is there.

Pride and Prejudice

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays a classic Elizabethan society that rests on certain ideals that all members of society have to abide by, certain manners of courtship. The novel is centered around the Bennet family in the town of Netherfield with their five daughters on the brink of marriage. The course of the whole story progresses on various attempts by these spinsters to find eligible husbands who have a high enough social standing in society and who will elevate the status of these females. Even among these daughters the novel focuses on Elizabeth and Darcy's courtship the most. The whole course of the novel is marked by various social interactions and exchanges that illuminate the characteristics and views of the characters, indirectly showing how society functions and what society values in its members. The setting of the play varies, centering mainly around social gatherings where individuals interact and share the latest "news" (or gossip might be a more appropriate term) of society.

Austen shows us a variety of different characters. First Elizabeth is quick witted but is hasty to make impressions upon people she meets. This is shown in the turn of events when Elizabeth realizes and admits that she made a mistake in judging who Darcy was as a person. Jane is Elizabeth's older sister who is extremely kind but is sometimes weak emotionally. She is also overly trusting of people and can be persuaded easily. Mr. Bingley, later Jane's husband, is essentially the same character compared to Jane, only different in his gender. Darcy first comes through as a person who can be very harsh and very proud. His first impression serves as a mask under which the reader will later find a pleasant, generous personality as Elizabeth finds for herself.

The theme of Pride and Prejudice, is that true love can be discovered but only when one has removed all of his/her "pride and prejudice".

Throughout the majority of the play, the tone imagery remains consistent with the tone of the passage, conveying a very serene and overall harmonious picture, whether it be in relation to nature or among the society’s members. The focus of the text remains to be the people while the background set-up sheds light on a simple yet elegant world. Importantly, the title itself sheds light on the theme. While pride is present in each and every member of society, whether it be is a form of social standing due to financial capability or whether in terms of one’s views as presented by Elizabeth, the establishment of a social hierarchy inevitably gives rise to a prejudice and pre-conceived notions about an individual that are fed by the desire to set oneself apart in society. This is confirmed by Darcy's first failed proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. Both were too blinded to recognize how similar they are to each other and their pride was the source of their prejudice.

Quotes:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Narrator
"Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity to what we would have others think of us." - Elizabeth

Ceremony

In Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko lays out the journey of the central character Tayo through the various aspects of his culture and traditions to realize the contrast between the white culture and the reservation Indians. Tayo, the main character in the play, is drastically affected by his experiences in World War II and has thus lost his touch with what reality constitutes and what his culture contains. His brother Rocky is a classic representation of assimilating into white culture. A wise Grandma overlooks Tayo’s journey and introduces old man Ku’oosh and Betonie who guide Tayo on his path to revelation and knowledge. Emo and his entourage serve to represent those “lovers of war” who drive Tayo sick, reminding him of the tortures inflicted on the Japanese. Their presence also makes Tayo realize the distinction between whites and Indians and how a uniform from war is only a temporary transition to acceptance that will eventually be discarded and Indians ignored and hated as it used to be before the war. In order to cure himself, Tayo is brought to Betonie who is also, like Tayo, a child of a white and an Indian, showing Tayo the path to personal enlightenment. During his ceremony, Tayo encounters Blue Swan and T’seh who serve as milestones in Tayo’s progress towards completing the ceremony.

The theme in Ceremony is the contrast between the white and Indian culture and how increasing assimilation has led to a loss of connection to Indian religious practices and a loss of connection to nature that serves to give a person the key to self-revelation and self-knowledge.

The whole novel uses imagery extensively. Starting with the shooting of the Japanese reminding Tayo of his uncle Josiah all the way to the mountains and forests through which Tayo journeys shows his maturity level and how much he understands who he is. The spiderweb like narrating style serves as a connection to all the parts of Tayo's life. In terms of symbols, the yellow pollen serves to represent a symbol of fertility and how the Tayo is recognizing the cycle of life that is inherent in the Indian culture. Another significant symbol in the novel is the cattle, a hybrid breed who Tayo has to find. In essence, these cattle are like Tayo, hybrids between the Indians and the whites, who Tayo has to understand and gather back to set them in the right direction, serving as an important aspect of his self-knowledge.

Quotes:
“…leaned close to the earth and sprinkled pinches of yellow pollen into four footprints.” - Tayo
"It seems like I already heard these stories before - only things is, the names sound different." - Grandma

Death of a Salesman

     In Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller portrays a classic American home with a husband and wife with their two sons and their conflicts. It is, in my opinion, a little more relatable than our first play which was The American Dream by Edward Albee. Willy Loman, the protagonist, struggles with his professional life as a salesman and his family life with his wife Linda and his sons Biff and Happy. The play is centered around their home where the family struggles to overcome their internal problems and work towards a better future. The reader does not truly know the cause of the family's problems until Willy's frequent excursions shows them the events of the past. Willy is constantly reminded of his inability to be popular and successful unlike his older brother Ben who struck rich in the diamond industry while in Africa. Unable to fulfill his dream, he channels his desires into his son Biff who reveres his father as a person yet is also popular due to his athleticisim. When he fails in his academic endeavors, he visits Willy on one of his business trips and finds Willy with a prostitute. Utterly horrified, he loses his respect for his father for his disloyalty to Linda, leading to Willy’s eventual downfall. The play focuses on Willy's inability to deal with his recollections of what could have been and his comparison to what is. After many attempts to secure his relationship with his family, he eventually realizes his inability to sustain them and commits suicide in the hopes to provide the insurance money to his family.

      The characters in this novel are quite straightforward. Willy is a travelling salesman who has big dreams for his son Biff. He believes that for one to be successful, one must be well-liked and popular. Biff is Willy's older son who first idolizes his father and believes his father that he is truly special. He eventually realizes that he is not as special as he once thought himself to be and breaks from his father completely when he finds Willy with the Woman. Willy's other son, Happy also looks up to his father. Unlike Biff, he seems to be unable to please Willy despite his best efforts and is always overshadowed by Biff. Willy's wife, Linda is always supportive of Willy despite his peculiar behavior at times. She often gets frustrated with her sons for not showing love for their father and supporting him as they should be. And the last character is Ben who is Willy's older brother. He only appears in Willy's flashbacks and Willy regrets his decision not to go with him into the jungle where Ben got rich by starting a diamond mine. He is often seen as Willy's idea of success.

The theme in Death of a Salesman is the futility of the American Dream as Willy sees it. Willy realizes his inability to be “well-liked” and recognizes his eventual decline, coupled with the strained relationship with his family, in a society that progresses on competition and materialism and values traits such as ability and functionality more than popularity and personality.

The seeds that Willy sows near the end of play are symbolic of his inability to provide sufficiently for his family, coupled with the loss of his job, and his final attempt to grow food, representative of his helplessness in a difficult situation. Also the rubber hose is yet another symbol for one of Willy’s many attempts to kill himself in a desperate attempt to provide for his family with the insurance money after his death. Moreover, the rubber hose shows how Willy is even having difficulty providing his family with the most essential element of comfort, heat. Also, the frequent appearances of Ben serves to shed light on the theme and the values of the American society. The work of the title serves to reinforce Willy’s dedication to his job and his death as a salesman rather than his death as Willy Loman.

Quotes:
"Willy, when are you going to grow up?" - Charley, Willy's friend
"Pop! I'm a dime a dozen and so are you!" - Biff talking to Willy

The American Dream

In Edward Albee's The American Dream, Albee comments on society’s obsession with consumerism and materialism that leads in a superficiality within a typical American family. The setting throughout the play is centered around an upper-middle class American home that composed of three basic characters, Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma. In addition to the family there are two other characters, Mrs. Barker and the Young Man who serves as a representation of what the new American Dream is all about.

The plot itself is not very complicated. Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma first sit around in the living room waiting for a character to appear who later turns out to be Mrs. Barker. While Mrs. Barker eventually shows up, no one other than Grandma seems to know why she is there. While Mommy and Daddy are distracted, Grandma explains the situation to Mrs. Barker how Mommy and Daddy mutilated and killed their "bumble". However, Mrs. Barker still fails to understand why she is there and leaves the room. While only Grandma remains, the Young Man shows up looking for a job. While talking to him, Grandma realizes who the Young Man really is and also realizes he is the one "perfect son" who can bring satisfaction to Mommy and Daddy. Grandma successfully gets the Young Man integrated in the household and leaves the play only to stop it while everyone is still happy but with an ominous note about their future.

The characters in the play all have a distinctive voice. Grandma represents the old American Dream. She also serves as a director of the play seeming to know what will happen and is able to shape the story at her will and most drastically, breaking the fourth wall and interacting with the audience directly. She serves to directly contrast with the new American Dream’s superficiality as laid out by Mommy and Daddy’s characters. Mommy is the matriarchal head of the family and a slave to American materialism, illuminating the new American Dream that is valued for consumerism. Daddy is constantly emasculated by Mommy and seems to represent the pressures of feminism. Mrs. Barker represents society as a whole. At various points of the play she seems to everyone else in society and be in charge but at the same time have no idea what is going on in the family household. The Young Man is critical as he represents the new American Dream. He is introduced as the twin brother of the "bumble" Mommy and Daddy killed but is essentially the same character. He is strong and attractive but void of emotions which shows the superficiality of the new American Dream. 

The theme in The American Dream, are the various interactions between the characters that show how the old American Dream that values the unity of the family and deeper insight has been metamorphisized into the new American Dream that rests on a materialistic hunger and superficial conduct, degenerating society to a mere showcase for the world.

   At the beginning of the play, the distance between the two chairs in which Mommy and Daddy are seated is symbolic of the distance between them and the rift in family unity. The discussion of the hat bought by Mommy shows the consumerism in American society and Mommy’s strong desire to be a part of the higher social class. Grandma’s boxes further shed light on the distinction between the new and old American dream, where Mommy and Daddy solely focus on the nice outer wrappings and ignore what is on the inside, things that are attached to the old American Dream. This fact is later reinforced by the character of the Young Man.

Quotes:
"I no longer have the capacity to feel anything" - The Young Man
"You're the American Dream that's what you are" - Grandma to the Young Man

"I'll do almost anything for money" - The Young Man

Open Prompt - #4

1970 Also. Choose a work of recognized literary merit in which a specific inanimate object (e.g., a seashell, a handkerchief, a painting) is important, and write an essay in which you show how two or three of the purposes the object serves are related to one another.

     Many literary works use objects to represent greater meaning than what the objects actually are. For instance, the conch in The Lord of the Flies represents freedom of speech and order. In Edward Albee's play The American Dream, Grandma and her boxes symbolizes the values of the old American dream. Through language and stage settings Albee creates a mood of curiosity from the audience that leads the audience to understand the greater meaning of the boxes.

     Cluttering the stage, Grandma's boxes number among its more enigmatic objects. The play is empty of interesting objects and can only be followed by the characters' dialogue until Grandma comes in with the boxes. From then on, for much of the play, Albee toys with the audience's curiosity to discover what the boxes contain and what purpose they will serve. Although Albee has Mommy and Daddy continually complimenting the boxes' pretty wrappings, it is important that they do not consider its contents. Also when Grandma almost reveals the boxes' purpose and what they contain, Mommy silences her. Mommy and Daddy inadvertently shuts Grandma out of their presense and ends up never knowing the contents. Ultimately the audience learns that in reality, the boxes contain the haphazard list of objects that Grandma has accumulated over the course of her life. In a play where an outwardly perfect Young Man becomes the son who provides satisfaction, the boxes represent Mommy and Daddy's satisfaction with surfaces and their negligence of the old values by the American dream.

     The boxes also serve as a diversion when the household attempts to ascertain the purpose of Mrs. Barker's visit. They perhaps then also allegorize the composition of the play, which largely consists of apparent and perpetually surprising diversions that keep the audience from the heart of the matter. Just as every event in the story seems out of place and unimportant, the boxes function in the same way. The boxes are spatially referred throughout the entire play to provide distractions from the audience and perhaps remind them of their curiosity of why those boxes are even there. Because after the initial wave of curiosity has past, it is easy to forget about the boxes. Therefore Albee keeps referencing them through the characters dialogue to hint at their importance such as when after Mrs. Barker comes into play nobody knows why she is here, Mommy suddenly diverts the audience's attention to the boxes by suggesting that Mrs. Barker is here because of them. It is later shown that indeed Mrs. Barker has some relation between the boxes because of her association of the American dream. Therefore Albee's use of language in The American Dream hints subtly at the greater meaning and importance of the boxes.