Robertson Davies", Fifth Business, consists of a network of multiple characters both closely related and nearly opposites. Davies uses the characters of Liesl and Padre Blazon to give Dunstan Ramsey new ideas to help guide Dunstan in his life. Although Liesl and Blazon are not main characters their role in the novel is essential in the development of Dunstan. In many ways both Liesl and Blazon are similar and at the same time different. .
Liesl is an unattractive large woman with male characteristics; she is Eisengrim's accomplice on stage during his world-renowned magic show. Davies describes her as having short hair and a little make up that could not hide "the deformed ugliness of her face" . As Dunstan first meets her he realizes that "Liesl is not nearly [as] ugly [and that she is mearly] a woman of captivating intellect and charm, cruelly imprisoned in a deformed body"(Davies 196). Liesl has a devilish presence that informs Dunstan of a devil in which every man has inside of them and it is necessary to know your personal devil if u have been renamed. Liesl comes to the conclusion that Dunstan is fifth business. Fifth business is a non-major character in, which is essential in bringing together the (story?).
Padre Blazon is a bolandist that gives Dunstan the more religious point of view. Blazon interests Dunstan with saints and the importance of them. Blazon tells many sides to a story by saying the good things about saints and the bad things to help Dunstan fully understand a situation and its importance. The most important thing Blazon says to Dunstan is that "we can only recognize saints when the plainest of evidence shows them to be saintly"(Davies 161-162). Here Blazon is talking about Mary Dempster. This interests Dunstan because he has felt enormous amounts of guilt towards Mary ever since went into premature labor. Blazon later goes on to advise Dunstan about Mary. Blazon says that Dunstan should not feel guilty because of the rock incident because if Mary is a saint she not only saved him in the battlefield but also saved him when she took the blow from the rock that was meant for Dunstan.