Every man has his own personal idea of the "Perfect Woman-. This image comes within a man's unconscious self and follows with a set of standards he feels a woman should fulfill. Carl Jung psychology states that "The man who approaches psychic wholeness is he who, along with other things, has found a satisfying anima in one individual woman-. The anima being the traits or elements inside both men and women that permit reactions and understanding to occur between the two. The development of Dunstan Ramsay's life in Robertson Davies, Fifth Business can be traced back to the influence he receives from his mother, Mrs. Ramsay, Diana, Mrs. Dempster, Faustina and Liesl. .
Dunstable, nicknamed Dunny, is shaped and influenced by his mother Mrs Ramsay. He thinks of her "simply a woman of good sense and of kindness of heart.""(Davies 11) A woman "who had strong features and stood for no nonsense - (Davies 18) With a "lionlike spirit- (Davies 15), Dunstan's mother dominates the family. She places herself above God in Dunny's world, "my mother was the acknowledged high priestess- (Davies 12) Dunny's struggle with his mother begins over her attempt to punish him for the stolen egg used while practicing his magic tricks. His mother whips him and he becomes so discouraged that he thinks about hanging himself. He obtains his mother's forgiveness only when, on his knees, he begs her and God, to forgive him. Later that night she kissed him and calls him her "own dear laddie- (Davies 30) Dunstan is totally confused "how could he reconcile this motherliness with the screeching fury who had pursued me around the kitchen with a whip, flogging me until she was gorged with---what? ---Vengeance? - (Davies 30).This incidence increased Dunstan's appetite for magic. It led to his first attempt to assert his independence of his mother's possessiveness and authority.He did this by learning stage magic, and by enrolling in the war.
