Every piece of
literature that has been written uses words, which have concrete meaning
in everyday
life. As a result of that it cannot ever be completely
abstract. Theme is what sustains its
link with living, by giving it a topic or idea that extends it beyond the
aesthetic, and unites it with the preoccupation of humanity. A work can have one theme or many, and
Margaret Laurence's and Davies Robertson's essential humanism makes it very
inevitable that in this respect their novels are multifaceted. In their novels The Stone Angel and The Fifth
Business the main characters Hagar Shipley and Dunny Ramsay through the birth,
lack of feelings and escape from the family have undergone similar feelings of
guilt through their whole lives.
First of all, Dunny the main character of The
Fifth Business, for whom the snowball was intended, feels extremely guilty
because he knew that Percy Staunton with whom he had earlier a fight, would
throw one final snowball at him before he goes into the house for supper. To avoid the coming snowball he dodges around
pregnant Mrs. Dempster who at the same time gets hit on the head, causing her
great pain. Dunny is just reaching
puberty and listening to his mother's reports on the premature birth of Paul
Dempster gave him the sense that he is directly involved in it. Furthermore, he has been raised in a strict
Presbyterian household that has encouraged him to feel guilty about almost
every lapse of duty.
So at
the beginning of the two novels the reader learns that the first feeling of
guilt that the two main characters share is a birth of one of the characters
presented in the novels. In The Stone
Angel Hagar blamed herself for being born, because it was she that caused her
mother's death. She felt that it should
be her who should die not her mother. In
The Fifth Business the main character Dunny felt really guilty for dodging a
snowball that hit pregnant Mrs. Dempster.
He knew that the snowball was thrown by Percy Staunton at him. "I was perfectly sure, you see, that the
birth of Paul Dempster, so small, so feeble and troublesome, was my fault"
(Davies 22) Ramsay blamed himself for
not letting it hit him and a reader can receive the message in this quote said
by him, "I was contrite and guilty, for what I knew that the snowball had
been meant for me" (Davies 11)
Maybe this incident didn't have any similarity to Hagar's birth yet, but
later on in this novel it is known that it was the cause to Mrs. Dempster's son
premature birth. Dunny's guilt got
even greater that it had been. Now he
feels obliged to take care of Mrs. Dempster and her son, he decides to play with him and even teach
him his magic tricks. He was not able to
get over the snowball incident as Hagar couldn't stand the fact she was the
cause of her mother's death. Hagar
didn't like mentioning that subject and when she did she quickly changed to
another, "Auntie Doll...had been with us since my birth." (Davies
4) She didn't like to tell anyone about
her mom's death, "He did not marry after our mother died..."
(Laurance 14) Hagar was ashamed of it
and that's why the reader can figure out by going further into the book that
she felt guilty for what had happened.
That's why Mrs. Curie is not mentioned in this book so many times.
Secondly, both main characters blamed
themselves for being not able to express emotions to their family or their
friends. Hagar could not comfort his
dying brother Dan. She did not want to
put on her mother's shawl. Despite, her
brother, Matt's begging she did not do it, " 'Hagar-put it on and hold for
a while.' I stiffened and drew away my
hands. 'I can't. Oh Matt , I'm sorry, but I can't, I can't. I'm not a bit like her.' " (Laurance
21) Hagar did not want to play a person
whom she did not know and being her own mother was beyond her. Similar situation occurred to Ramsay when he
was in love with Leola Cruikshank, a beatiful girl who lived in the same
town. He was unable to show his feelings
towards her although he loved her very much.
She was the first girl that he turned his attraction to. She has "cork-screw curls and a great
way of never meeting your eyes." (Davies 30) However, like Hagar he never got the chance
to express his feelings towards her.
Soon after he enrolled into army Leola promised to love, but she quickly
turned her attention to Percy. On the
contrary, in The Stone Angel Hagar she did not get the chance to express her
feelings, because Daniel died and she could not get over it later in her life.
Both main characters could not also express their
feelings in relationships. Hagar, after
she married Bram Shipley was very happy, but after some time they couldn't
stand each other.
" 'It seems
to me that Lottie Dreiser was right about you" (Laurance 44) and then she
left him and went on with her life.
Ramsay had even bigger problems with relationships and the best proof of
that is the nurse that he met in England, Diana Marfleet, "She had fallen
in love with me because she felt she had made whatever I was out of a
smashed-up and insensible hospital case; but I don't think it was long before
she was just as sure as I that our marriage would never have worked."
(Davies 93) From these quotations the
reader can get a message that they didn't want to be in any relationships, they
were simply afraid of commtment and therefore abandoned their loved ones.
Moreover, Hagar and Dunny felt guilty for
abounding their families. They did not
want to be living with people who did not love them anymore, "He called me
"miss" when he was displeased, and "daughter" when he felt
kindly disposed toward me. Never
Hagar." (Laurence 11) Ramsay had the same feelings about his
parents as well, "I knew she had eaten my father, and I was glad I did not
have to fight any longer to keep her from eating me." (Davies 81)
Despite, her father's warnings about Bram,
Hagar quickly decided to marry him so she could be free from home that she
detested. Their marriage was her final
break between her and her father and it was all due to her. Ramsay's break up with parents begin the day
he enlisted into the army, " I was nearly two years under age, but I was
tall and strong and a good liar."
(Davies 64) He was ready to do
whatever it takes to be free of his family.
As time passed Ramsay met a nurse named Diana
in an English hospital. This
relationship was a turning point of his life, because she gave him a new name,
Dunston Ramsay and a new start in his life, "I liked the idea of new name,
it suggested freedom and a new personality." (Davies 93)
Another incident the the characters felt guilty
of was the fact that they never mourned their parents. Hagar was still angry at her father for what
he had done to her, "I hadn't much of a heart for this selection, being at
the time too angry with Father either to mourn his death or want the stuff from
his house." ( Laurence 55) She
blamed herself for not forgiving him while she could. Ramsay could not mourn his parents either, he
felt even happy that they were dead, "It was years before I though of the
death of my parents as anything other than a relief." ( Davies 81) He knew he
would never be his mother's laddie again.
In that way both main characters from the two
novel had had experienced similar feelings of guilt throughout whole their
lives. It took many years for them to
realize that what they did was often very inappropriate and when they wanted to
make up for what they did it was often too late for that. I think that the above mentioned facts prove
the fact that Hagar and Ramsay as well had lived through guilt and finally when
they get liberated from it they are too old to care anymore. Hagar would never realized that her mother
was too weak to survive the birth and that's she died if she herself was not
old and weak and Paul's premature birth wasn't Ramsay's fault either. He did not have to take care of Mrs. Dempster
to make it up, he never realized that it was just an accident. Finally, I guess that they felt guilty for being
not able expressing their feeling towards their families or friends, because
through all the time they had rejected the love that their parents wanted to
give them in their particular way. It
was also the cause for not having any luck in relationships with others.
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