fifth business

FIFTH BUSINESSCharacter: Boy Staunton

Jastyn and Daniel

Why Boy?• “He was now Boy Staunton, and it suited him admirably”

(Davies 99)• “Just as Childe Rowland and Childe Harold were so called

because they epitomized romance and gentle birth, he was Boy Staunton because he summed up in himself so much of the glory of youth in the postwar period.” (Davies 99)

Why Boy?• It also connects to chapter 1 when Dunny defines a boy:• “A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may

sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain—in short, a man.” (Davies 7)

Physical Appearance• “He gleamed, he glowed; his hair was glossier, his teeth

whiter than those of common young men. He laughed a great deal, and his voice was musical. He danced often and spectacularly; he always knew the latest steps, and in those days there were new steps every month. Where his looks and style came from I never knew... Boy seemed to have made himself out of nothing, and he was a marvel.” (Davies 99)

Archetypes:• Villain:

• “It is the stone you put in the snowball you threw at Mrs. Dempster…” (250)

• Ruler:• “So much so indeed, that Boy was fast becoming one of the truly

rich, by which I mean one of those men whose personal income, though large, is a trifling part of the huge, mystical ho of wealth that stands behind them and cannot be counted, only estimated.” (Davies 137)

• Possible Anima for Leola

Conscious:• Consciously Boy believes

that he is exactly what his image suggests.

• Persona

Unconscious:• He doesn’t connect to his shadow• Guilty, Wrathful, Unfaithful

Significance:• Effects the lives of his children• Ruins the Dempsters’ lives• Changes Dunny’s life• Destroys Leola’s life

Faustian Bargain:• Sells his soul for material success and his image• Leadbeater• Denyse Hornick