A Fifth Business

What is a Fifth Business? “And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero’s birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody’s death if that is part of the plot.”(Fifth Business, page 214) said by Robertson Davies, in the novel Fifth Business. I believe this quote is “The Quotation of the Book”, because it captures the story’s essence and this passage should be saved if the book were ever lost or destroyed.

The quote, “And you must have Fifth Business because…the cause of somebody’s death of that is part of the plot” captures the true meaning of the novel, Fifth Business by defined the meaning of the title of the novel and gives a explanation of who was the Fifth Business in the novel. It makes the whole novel more understandable to the readers and makes the readers start to understand the significance of the title and how it applied through out the whole novel. After the readers read the passage, they will compare and contrast between the qualities of Dunstable Ramsay and the qualities of the Fifth Business. This makes the readers understand the whole point of the novel.

Since the quote is very important, so it should be saved if the book were ever lost or destroyed. As I previously mentioned, this quote defined the meaning of the title of the novel. Although the novel’s title is “Fifth Business”, but the word “Fifth Business” had never been mentioned until this quote. This quote is the first time and the only time the word “Fifth Business” has been mentioned and explained. It was the whole point of the novel, without this passage, the whole novel will not make any sense. Therefore, this passage should be saved even if the book was lost or destroyed.

Also, there is another reason why this quote should be saved if the book were ever lost or destroyed, which I have also mentioned before, it gives an explanation of who was the Fifth Business in the novel. Since this quote happened when Liesl was having a conversation with Dunstable and saying that she thought he was a Fifth Business. This tells the readers that who was the title of the novel referring to and how the title connects to the novel. Because as a reader, I did not feel any connection between the title and the novel until I read this passage. Therefore, this quote should be saved even if the book was lost or destroyed.

In conclusion, the quote, “And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero’s birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody’s death if that is part of the plot.”(Fifth Business, page 214) from the novel Fifth Business was “The Quotation of the Book”. Because it captures the story’s essence and this passage should be saved if the book were ever lost or destroyed.