Dunstan Ramsay's Poem

Improved Essays
Dunstan Ramsay’s persona differentiated from various stages of his life, through self-identification and the assistance of others he continued to be genuine and did not let his façade take over. Due to his act of heroism in the First World War, Dunny is awarded the Victoria Cross a prestigious award given to the most courageous of soldiers. Once awarded the distinguished medal of honor he is viewed by his peers as a hero. However, Dunstan did not interpret his act of bravery as heroic and noted, “ … In the eyes of everyone here, I am indeed a hero, but I know that my heroic act was rather a dirty job I did when I was dreadfully frightened…” (Davies, 84). It wasn’t until his meeting with the King he realized that anyone could be considered heroic as it is in the eyes of the beholder. …show more content…
Dunstable was able to interpret the essence of this persona, and because of this, he did not lose sight of his true identity. Moreover, the ‘Cork’ is deeply offended by his public portrait of a typical dull schoolmaster given to him by Lorne Packer a teacher at Colborne College. As an educator, the perception of Mr. Ramsay by the faculty and students is an individual that lived a tame, eventless life. This is apparent as he pens, “… Packer unsustainably believed me to be—a senile, former worthy who has stumbled through forty-five years of teaching…” (Davies 6). This persona of a boring schoolmaster contradicts the truth that the novel’s hero is determined to dispel. His memoir’s purpose is detailing his fulfilling life, elaborating on who he is as an individual. C.G. Jung defines persona as a social façade that reflects the role of life an individual is

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In the stories and movies of today, heroes are portrayed and recognized as the powerful figures wearing capes and masks who save countless lives and who defeat a terrorizing enemy, yet not all heroes must look the part. Wikipedia defines a hero as a person who helps others by combatting adversity through feats of ingenuity, bravery, or strength, often sacrificing his or her own personal concerns for the greater good. Whilst visiting the small Canadian town of Deptford in the early 1900s, surely one would not imagine it could provide a home to such a hero as Dunstan Ramsay. From the beginning to the end of Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, the character of Dunstan Ramsay unconsciously demonstrates all the qualities that define a hero. Ramsay establishes his heroism in the novel during his childhood that leads up to the Great War; during his struggle throughout the war that leads to his return home; and after the return to Deptford until the end of the novel.…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My brain directly fixed on a son6e17:18 17/10/20153321g called 'Cleaver Redemption', which also became the title of the album and my imagination for torture be derived from this song. Not that the first track ' Epileptic Defecation' and other songs not affecting my brain to imagine a torture. However, these songs come across as a continuation of the torture phase of my imagination. I must feel this imagination from the riffs of brutal death created, before interested in hearing this album repeatedly and write a review.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bruce Dawe Poem Analysis

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dawe relies on common issues to form the backbone of his poetry, all of which are known to a much larger, or even global audience. Life-Cycle is arguably one of the most Australian poems, and tells the story of Australian rules football culture, by referring to common slang terms; such as “carn”, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (A.N.Z.A.C) pledge and “bludger”, that transforms the reader into the passionate and vocal audience of a football game. So yes, this poem, at surface level, is Australian - although, the main theme of loyalty is universal. The poem explores the stages of life that a child goes through, growing up supporting a team, which in this case is assumed to be AFL; although isn’t specifically mentioned, meaning it could relate to any sport.…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ron Rash Poetry Analysis

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Christian belief and practice in the poems by Ron Rash and Robert Morgan cause tension among human beings due to the human experience differing from how belief makes it out to seem. Belief causes the world to seem more perfect than what is understood through human experience and leads one to believe nothing bad can happen to a good person, although experience dictates that it happens daily. Tension can arise in many ways such as from experience dictating that earth’s vices are alluring and addictive, while belief interprets it as foul and rotten. Belief can also cause the world to seem much easier and just than what an individual may learn through human experience. One may too find tension in the ethereal and unseen aspects of belief that doesn’t…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hayden Carruth is an American poet who wrote during the twentieth century-modernism movement. He served in World War II and uses a lot of his personal experiences in his writing (Contemporary Authors Online). In “None,” Carruth is able to use many different allusions to show the speaker’s underlying regret for not showing his friend off properly. Carruth uses images, irony, and allusions to show the speaker’s remorse and regret to how his friend was treated.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel The New Sufferings of Young W. by Ulrich Plenzdorf the reader is presented with a complex character by the name of Edgar Wibeau. Edgar is a very abstract individual who has decided that the strict life he was thrust into by both his mother, and having to live in a boring town in East Germany has placed upon him were not in his future plans. After coming to this realization due to a work related incident, he packs up the belongings he finds most important to him and moves to Berlin. During his time in Berlin is where the reader is presented with the many personas that make up the character that is Edgar. Plenzdorf uses these many personas that he has written into Edgar’s character along with various interests as a way to speak out…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He did what he had to do to protect his people from the suitors and…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ¬¬Knowledge is Power and Ignorance is Bliss (Fahrenheit 451, 1984) What does true happiness consists of? Is ignorance bliss, or does knowledge and learning provide true happiness? In Fahrenheit 451 main character Guy Montag, believes knowledge reigns and fights a futuristic city that celebrates and honours ignorance.…

    • 1980 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Victims Poem Analysis

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Upon initial reading, “The Victims” by Sharon Olds seems to be a poem that paints the picture of a life of abuse; starting from the dawning of the exploitation and arching over into the life of the abused following the maltreatment. In the work, it is made to be believed that the clear victims of the poem are the speaker and their family—which is a rightful and obvious assumption—but there is another victim that is not as prevalent as that of the speaker and their family: the speaker’s father. After a second read, it is made evidently apparent that although the work does focus on the speaker and their family as the victims of the poem, the ideal that the father is also a victim is explored. Since the father is depicted as an abuser, it is seen…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poets use intimate stories to express broad concepts that relate to us and the world around us. The first of two poems I’m going to show convey this message is John Foulchers poem ‘HARRY WOOD’ he shows survival, sacrifice and regret survival through an anecdote of an old retired miner who started his life in poverty and struggled to give his family a better future. The second poem ‘Joanna’s bedroom’ by Steven Herrick shows concepts of unconditional love, ups and downs and emotions through a couple’s destructive battle. Survival is human instinct. It flows through us, can force us to do terrible things and pushes some of us to do the impossible.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bruce Meyer describes that a poem “whether happy or sad, is driven by a profound sense of love”. Meyer commonly writes poetry following the themes of lost love, heartbreak, suffering from pain and nature. Through his various works of poetry Meyer describes the pain and suffering of love and connects it with nature. Meyer himself describes his personal affinity for nature, as he lives across from a botanical garden, as well as his description of “people watching” for inspiration. His natural affinity for nature sets many poems in nature, relating back to humans and love.…

    • 1061 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Brian Turner’s poem “Ashbah,” he focuses on the motif of ghosts, and uses it to describe the American soldiers that were victims of the war in Iraq. Turner describes both points of view of the war, the American soldiers and the Iraqi soldiers. The Americans and the Iraqi soldiers are not explained using the same voice. In fact the Americans are described as lower on the totem pole as and further away from home than the Iraqi’s. Therefore, Turner allows this poem to be read in different ways, by describing the opposing sides of the war occurring in Iraq.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Corrie Lynn white poem, gravy depicts the speaker reminisce on the past events and how enjoyable they were. The poem is written with nostalgia provoked by the rummaging under the driver’s seat and the sudden thought of what the speaker was likely to find; one more quarter, a tampon, or a bottle of water. The rummaging under the seat triggers a flood of memory from when she met him, a strong hulk of a man who seduced her with lunch breaks of chicken salad on croissant. Back then, she thought that their encounter were just enjoying lunch and nothing more, however, the poem, without saying much, but the reminiscing is very graphic on how they spent time together, dining on plastic tables, taking a drive on Capital Boulevard, attending adult videos,…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The World’s Wife is a collection of poetry that successfully challenges society’s preconceptions of what it means to be a woman. While the female voice is often silenced, Duffy focuses on the women who were in the midst of male-centric stories in Biblical, mythological and fairytale narratives. Some may argue that the expectations of women are completely subverted in poems such as The Devil’s Wife, in which the maternal and nurturing image of a woman is replaced by the disturbing portrayal of the infamous child serial killer Myra Hindley. Alternatively, some feminine qualities are also explored in this poem, such as a woman’s dependence on men, as demonstrated by Hindley’s twisted, passionate love for Ian Brady.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In poems, “Stealing” and “Education for leisure”, Duffy uses a range of literary devices like colloquial language and short sentences. Duffy clearly portrays a sinister and lonely persona in both poems. In “Stealing” the persona is presented as lonely and isolated from society so they resort to stealing just for the pleasure of doing it. Similarly, in “Education for leisure”, an egotistical young adult is portrayed who is killing living things to undo his intense isolation. These poems were written by Duffy to show the terrible situation the UK faced in the 1980s.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays