Archetypes In Fifth Business

1. The situational archetype of “Rebirth” relates very well to the novel Fifth Business. Throughout the entire novel, the protagonist, Dunny, considers the part of his life after he served time in the war to be his second life. During the war, he was badly injured from a bomb which resulted in him entering a coma. Nobody thought that he would survive it, but he did wake up some time later. In a sense, he was reborn as he believed God had given him a second chance. Another scenario where Dunstan can be considered to be “reborn” happened with Diana. He had just broken up with her, but established that they would still remain friends. Before he departed, she told him he was in need of a new name - Dunstable was not cutting it. There, she officially named him “Dunstan”, a name he stuck with for the remainder of his life. This name gave him a brand new start on life, and helped to erase some of

The symbolic archetype of “heaven vs. hell” relates to the novel as the whole story circulates around Dunstable’s guilt from having hit Mrs. Dempster with the snowball (even though he did not actually do it). Mrs. Dempster’s husband was a religious man, being a preacher, and basically told Dunstable that he would go to hell if he did not stay away from his family. Dunstable spent the entire novel trying to make amends with the Dempsters, and became a religious man himself. It appears that his character was convinced that he was not going to heaven unless he repaid his debt to Mrs. Dempster.

3. The character archetype of “maiden in distress” relates to Mrs. Dempter’s character. She was always a very simpleminded lady. Ever since she was hit by the snowball, and bore her child prematurely, her life had spun out of control. She needed help with caring for the baby, and was also mistreated by her husband. He had literally tied her to their house so that she could not wander away. Due to her simple-mindedness, as she just did not know any better, she was constantly in