“I was determined that if I could not take care of Mrs. Dempster, nobody else should do it. She was mine.”(Davies, p.180) What would you think when you first see this quotation? You might think that this is a quote from a boy to his girlfriend, or something like that. What if I say, this quote was from a little boy to a married women? Would you think that the little was insane? Some people might think that it is a quote from a son to his mother, but what if I told you that the little and the married women were just neighbours. The little had also said that he loves Mrs. Dempster clearly, but was it really what he means?
Mrs. Dempster was a young but pregnant woman. She got hit by a snowball when she was taking a walk with her husband on the street. A chain reaction had occurred, like when you were playing domino; one fell down and the others would fell down too. She was having a premature labour and little Paul Dempster was born. She was insane which was considered by the other people. Her husband beat her and tied her on a stake with ropes around her so she would not escape. These events happened only because Dunny dodged from the snowball that was meant for him. He felt guilt throughout his life and did not have a chance to release himself until the he was in his sixties. He finally told everything to Percy and Paul which had lead to the murder of Percy because Paul knew that it was Percy who threw the snowball.
After the snowball accident, Dunny had never forgiven himself. He did everything he can to help out in the Dempster’s throughout his life time. When he was young, he did chores for the Dempster’s every day after school. He was known with “the watch dog for the Dempster’s”. Percy was the only friend he had in school because he did not have the time to met new friends and play with them. The revivification of Dunny’s brother Willie had deepened his guilt. Mrs. Dempster had save his brother from death, but he did not save her from the snowball. When Dunny grew older and came back from the war, he had discovered that Amasa Dempster was dead in the flu when he was at war and Mary Dempster was brought out of the village by her aunt. Dustan was searching for her for a year, and he finally found her in Weston. After that, he was taking care of Mrs. Dempster again, and after her aunt’s death, Dunstan had become the guardian of Mary Dempster too. Dunstan putted her into a public hospital during the Second World War and transfers her back to a private hospital after he had come back to Canada. He told Mrs. Dempster that he had found Paul which pulled her from her dream to the reality. This news had made Mary Dempster’s condition worse and a year after, she was dead. Dunstan felt more guilt within himself. He thought he was the cause of Mary Dempster’s tragic life and he was the one that had pushed her to the cliff of death.
In the quote, “I was determined that if I could not take care of Mrs. Dempster, nobody else should do it. She was mine.” (Davies, p.180), Dunstan’s emotion towards Mary Dempster was not what it seem on the surface. He said no one should take care of Mrs. Dempster except for him because he wanted to expiate for his mistake. He wanted to make up for what he had done which had caused the down fall of Mary Dempster and her family. All he had done was dodged from a snowball; Mary Dempster’s life had changed just by this one small accident, and also Dunstan’s. Every time Dunstan wanted to give and do more things to Mary Dempster, his guilt was never decreased. The more he gave to her, the more that he wanted to do for her. He always thought that all the things he had done could be better. All the things he had given were not enough. He did not have enough time to expiate to Mary Dempster; therefore he did not want any other people to be good to her. He did not want to be compared with other people.
Dunstan had once said that he loved Mary Dempster. It was not love, it was his guilt that had made him said he love her. Love was just a put-off for Dunstan to be good to Mrs. Dempster. The other people did not know that Dunstan was the one who had dodged from the snowball and made it to hit at Mary Dempster. He feared that other people would notice his guilt and found out his sin. Therefore he claimed that he was in love with Mary Dempster because he wanted himself to believe in this. He wanted to hide from his guilt and at the same time expiate his mistake by the pretence of loving her.
Dunstan had taken a good care of Mrs. Dempster. He did not break his promise and had devoted his whole life for her. Even after Mary Dempster’s death, Dunstan’s guilt towards Mary Dempster was never ended until he had spoken the truth of what had actually happened in the accident to Percy and Paul. Even though Dunstan was released from the guilt which had tortured him throughout his life time, he was quickly stepped into another one, the death of Percy. Paul was a suspect of this accident. Dunstan could not indict him because he had owed too much for the Dempster’s family. Dunstan’s life was filled up with his guilty to other people. Was he really a “Fifth Business”?
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