Canadian Author Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy

INTRODUCTION

The Canadian author Robertson Davies, born William Robertson Davies in 1913, has achieved much acclaim for his exceptional accomplishment as a director and for his numerous novels and plays. He has been recognized with many awards and honors. He was the recipient of the Louis Jouvet Prize for directing the Dominion Drama Festival. He received the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his novel, Leaven of Malice, and the Governor General's Award for fiction for The Manticore. Along with these awards he has also received innumerable minor awards for other works and for his critical essays written under the pseudonym "Samuel Marchbanks".

Davies' fictional works are satirical views of Canada. The protagonists in each of his novels achieve self-knowledge throught the mythic and miraculous experiences of dreams, religion, and illusions. Davies' entertains the theory that myth has a monumental influence on man, and this belief is manifested in his work. His theory is based on Jungian psychology, which revolves around the role of dreams on an individual and the influence of the ego, the innermost region of the mind, on the self.

Davies' Deptford Trilogy, set in the quaint Canadian village of Deptford, examines the phenomenal lives of three individuals who are linked through thier involvement in one seemingly insignificant incident, the throwing of a snowball. Each novel of the trilogy focuses on one character and develops him through his extraordinary experiences. Dunstan Ramsey, the eccentric history teacher of Fifth Business, comes to self-knowledge through miracles and religion. David Staunton, the drunken social outcast of The Manticore, attains self-enlightenment through dreams and the mythical. magnus Eisengrim, the renowned illusionist of World of Wonders, achieves familiarity of self through illusions and the forces of magic.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Canada in 1913 as William Robertson Davies, Robertson Davies was the son of a newspaper publisher and a housewife. His parents initiated his interests in acting and writing. The small towns in Canada which he resided, Thamesville and Kingston, Ontario and Renfrew, Ottawa Valley, are used as teh settings for his novels. After a relatively quiet childhood and a stable family life he graduated from high school in 1932 and attended Queen's University in Kingsdom. Later enrolling in Balliol College in Oxford, England, he became active in student theatre productions and wrote for university magazines, graduating with a degree in literature.

Davies pursued varied. He spent several years with the Old Vic Theatre Troupe in England. After his marriage he moved back to Canada and wrote controversial articles for the liberal journal, Saturday Night. In 1942 he established himself as editor of the Peterborough Examiner newspaper and four years later he became its vice-president and publisher. Meanwhile, he also pursued a career as an English literature professor at Trinity College in Toronto and later at Massey College.

During his years at Trinity and Massey colleges, Davies wrote many journalistic essays using the pseudonym "Samuel Marchbanks". In these he launched bitter attacks on Canadian politicians and criticized popular Canadian social movements. His plays were also popular at this time; he wrote and directed them, commonly using the theme of the relationship between art and life, reflecting his lifelong interest in psychology. This interest is also reflected in his three trilogies, all of which focus on the varying sides of self and the attainment of self-knowledge.

Davies' Deptford Trilogy follows its protagonists on the path to self-englightenment, guided by myth, illusion, and the miraculous. The trilogy reflects Davies' beliefs concerning the role of such abstracts in one's life. He has a strong admiration for individuals who are trying to fully understand themselves and are striving for self-knowledge rather than happines.. He believes that human nature is irrational; that individuals act on whim, motivated by dreams, visions, and hallucinations. He entertains the theory that the human race is employed in a perpetual search for identity, guided by religious myths or dreamlike revelations, and this theory is heavily evident throughout his works.

FIFTH BUSINESS

In Fifth Business, the first novel of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, the protagonist, a retired history teacher, Dunstan Ramsey, embarks on a life-long search to find himself. Ultimately, he reaches self-knowledge through his study of religious myth and miracles.

As a young boy, a miracle has a profound effect upon Dunstan Ramsey. His brother, Willie, is very sick and loses all vital signs one afternoon when only Dunstan is home. Rather than getting the doctor, Dunstan brings the village fool, his friend Mary Dempster, to help Willie.

What I do remember was getting back to Willie's room...and finding him just as I had left him, white and cold and stiff.
Mrs. Demptster looked at him solemnly, but not sadly, then she knelft by the bed and took his hands in her and
prayed...Willie sighed and moved his legs a little. I fainted. When I came round, Mrs. Dempster was sitting on Willie's bed,
talking quietly to him, and he was replying weakly but eagerly (Davies, Fifth 57).

Dunstan believes that Mrs. Dempster raised Willie from the dead, and this "miracle" profoundly affects the young boy. It initiates Dunstan's faith; he becomes intrigued by saints and miracles. Yet more importantly, this extraordinary feat by Mrs. Dempster allows Dunstan to gain an awareness of the omnipotent forces of life and death. Dunstan first denies the miracle by fainting, but when he finally accepts the marvel of his brother's resurrection he is at the commencement of his quest for self-knowledge.

The miraculous vision that saves Dunstan's life enhances his awareness of self. Exasperated at living under the constant scorn of Deptford's finest for his association with Mary Dempster, who is snubbed for engaging in an indiscreet relationship with a tramp, Dunstan joins the army and travels abroad. Wounded in World War II, Dunstan is at the brink of death. As he fades from consciousness the image of Mary Dempster appears to him and he is able to maintain a tenacious hold on life.

I had been wonderfully at ease and healingly at peace; through from time to time voices spoke to me I was under no
obligation to hear what they said or make a reply; I felt that everything was good, that my spirit was wholly my own, and that
though all was strange, nothing was evil. From time to time the little Madonna appeared and looked at me with friendly
concern before removing herself; once twice she spoke, but I did not know what she said and I did not need to know
(Davies, Fifth 75).

The miraculous visage of a Madonna, ironically the "indecent" Mrs. Dempster, that appears to Dunstan gives him the strength that he needs to heal his wounded body and psyche from the terrible onslaught of the war. The healing image guides him to peace and allows him to become intimate with his "spirit", or his inner self. This miraculous healing vision propels Dunstan on the path towards self-knowledge, guiding him until he has reached the point where he is entirely aware of his inner self and is ready to awaken from his coma and encounter his exterior self with the knowledge of his inner self.

Dunstan Ramsey's infatuation with the mythical realm of saints leads him to self-acknowledgment. After Mrs. Dempster resurrects Dunstan's brother from the dead, Dunstan is convinced that she is a saint. Determined to find a saint who resembles Mrs. Dempster, Dunstan embarks on a life-long, international search for such a replica. At one point in his life he finds himself in Mexico at a tiny shrine where faithful worshippers pray daily to the painted image of the Virgin Mary. Here he finds himself contemplating the faith of the worshippers and the intangible forces that shape people's lives.

Day after day I sat in the basilica for a few hours and wondered... What I was writing, slowly, painstakingly, and with so
many revisions that the final version was not even in sight, was a sort of prologue to a discussion of the nature of faith. Why
do people all over the world, and at all times, want marvels that defy all verifiable fact? And are all the marvels brought into
being by their desire, or is their desire an assurance rising from some deep knowledge, not to be directly experienced and
questioned, that the marvelous is indeed and aspect of the real (Davies, Fifth 192).

Intrigued by faith and religous zeal, Dunstan is contemplating the desire for things which defy fact. In contemplation he discovers that reality may indeed be composed of the marvelous and inexplicable. This discovery awakens the knowledge of his own reality. The religious myths of saints and faith induce his awareness of the bond between the marvelous and aspects of reality.

THE MANTICORE

In The Manticore, the second novel of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, the protagonist, David Staunton, is an emotionally unstable young man on the brink of alcoholism. Grief-stricken by his father's mysterious death, David seeks counseling from an acclaimed psychiatrist in Zurich, Switzerland. Searching for the true circumstances of his father's last moments, David reaches self-knowledge through vivid dreams and through myth.

David Staunton is guided toward self-enlightenment by an extraordinary dream. Unable to come to terms with his father's unexplicable death, David seeks psychiatric therapy. Following his preliminary session he begins having strange dreams which he is anxious to find the meaning of, in hope that he can resume his normal life without further psychoanalysis. "If I understand the dream, I cannot make head or tail of the gypsy woman with the incomprehensible conversation, and go back to my familiar world" (Davies, Manticore 276). Perplexed by his dream of a gypsy woman muttering unintelligible jargon, David is eager to delve into his subconscious to comprehend what elements composed the dream. This quest to discover the meaning of a dream leads to a complete analysis of his psyche. Compelled to search his soul for the purpose of dream interpretation, David is drawn into an inspection of his innermost thoughts that leads to knowledge of himself in entirety.

The interpretation of David Staunton's multitude of mystical dreams leads to an awareness of himself. During the course of his therapy David finds that he is having many strange dreams. In order to remember them he records them in a journal. Many of these dreams he shares with his psychiatrist, who helps analyze them, but he keeps some of his dreams veiled from her, in order to contemplate the meaning himself.

The dreams of someone undergoing such treatment as mine are numbered in tens and hundreds, and the extracting from
the mass is slow work, for dreams say their say in series, and only rarely is a single dream revelatory (Davies, Manticore
400).

David's statement on his compilation of dreams shows that he is aware that they have a deeper meaning than may be seen at first glance. The slow interpretation of his dreams is a slow revelation of his psyche. Through the fastidious analysis of his mystifying and disturbing dreams David is slowly gaining an awareness of himself, which heightens his self-knowledge.

David is led towards self-knowledge by a manticore, a mythical creature, that appears to him in a dream. David is disturbed by a dream of a creature with a lion's body, a man's face (his own), and a "sting" in the tail. Informed by his psychiatrist that the frightening beast is a mythical manticore, David tries to interpret what the animal could mean to him.

'Well, as he is an animal, I suppose he is some baser aspect of me. But as he is a lion, he can't be wholly base. And he
has a human face, my face, so he can't be wholly animal. Though I must say the expression on the face was fierce and
untrustworthy' (Davies, Manticore 406).

Intrigued by the concept of the mythical creature, David analyzes his dream. In an attempt to find the meaning of the beast he must first analyze himself to determine his similarities to the frightening manticore which bore his own face. The interpretation of the manticore and its inherent qualities in relation to David's traits allow David to unveil the secrets of himself, gaining the knowledge of who he truly is.

WORLD OF WONDERS

In World of Wonders, the concluding novel of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, the protagonist is the intriguing illusionist, Magnus Eisengrim. Born "Paul Dempster", the outcast in the rural Canadian town of Deptford, Eisengrim has persevered beyond his ignoble roots as the son of the village outcast and the victim of sodomy at the hands of the carnival magician. Receiving acclaim for his work on an international level, Paul/Magnus reaches self-knowledge through the miraculous forces of magic.

Paul gains insight into the depths of human nature by the potent force of magic. Intrigued by the "magic" of sleight of hand and basic illusions, paul visits a carnival and is captivated by the performing illusionist. "I could not take my eyes off him, nor did I try to still my ravening desire to know those secrets. I longed with my whole sould to know what Willard knew"(Davies, Wonder 541). Paul is enthralled by Willard's simple tricks and is eager to learn how to delight audiences with deception. To effectively deceive an audience, the illusionist must be intimately familiar with human nature and its perceptions. The art of magic teaches Paul about the concealed side of humanity, ultimately leading him to truths about himself.

Paul Dempster attains a tormented self-wisdom through practicing the art of magic. Performing in the carnival he learns the simple deceptions behind apparently grand illusions. Paul's job is to operate the robot, Abdullah, who is supposedly a mechanical card-player who has never lost. Hidden inside the metal body of Abdullah, Paul has sufficient time to observe everything that goes on around him.

That is how I became the soul of Abdullah, and entered into a long servitude to the craft and art of magic...I thought it best
not to be too clever in the beginning. This was intuition; I did not figure it out consciously (Davies, Wonder 563-4).

Locked inside his metal cell, Paul examines the art of "magic", and begins to discover things about himself and others unintentionally. As his servitude continues he becomes very perceptive, attuned to the quirks of human nature and subconsciously learning the irregularities of his own psyche. The marvel of magic enticed Paul into the carnival, where the disciplined drudgery of operating the "magical" Abdullah awakens his self-knowledge and where he learns that magic is merely an illusion.

The marvel of hypnosis brings Paul Dempster a sense of self-enlightenment. A fortune teller at the carnival, seeing that Paul is disillusioned with the carnival scene, teaches him the technicalities of her skill. By teaching Paul to "read" people, the woman gives him the ability to understand himself. "I had a teacher from who I learned without knowing... The woman who taught me the realities of hypnotism..."(Davies, Wonders 625). By enabling Paul to understand the reality behind hypnosis and the methodical means of crafting fortunes, she teaches Paul the skills he needs to understand himself without realizing it. Through the mystifying art of hypnosis and foreseeing the future, Paul reaches self-knowledge by embracing the realities behind illusion and learning the definitive methods behind evaluating individuals.

CONCLUSION

The protagonists in the three novels of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy reach enlightenment of self through encounters with the marvels of myth, dreams, and magic. Dunstan Ramsey, of Fifth Business, reaches self-knowledge through religion and miracles. David Staunton, the emotionally ruptured character of The Manticore, attains an understanding of self through dreams and myth. The young Paul Dempster, of World of Wonders, achieves self-wisdom through magic and becomes the eminent and arrogant illusionist, Magnus Eisengrim. All three of these incomparable characters illustrate Davies' theme of the achievement of self-knowledge through mythical devices.

Robertson Davies' literary efforts are a significant contribution to Canadian literature. His writing, mimicking the style of nineteenth century writers, deviated from the typical style of other writers of his time and was at first unpopular in literary circles. However, the theatrical aspects of his novels, and his dramatic flair, give his works lasting appeal with an ever-increasing audience. His untimely death late in 1995 instigated an abrupt demand for his writings, and thus this accomplished writer achieved the most recognition for his work posthumously.