flattered seek immediately to show that themselves as being very hard-headed, to conceal the fact
they have taken the bait. I am one of them.” (pg. 212 ln 31) At the end of the chapter Dunny will
find his morals and spiritual value in the clutches of Liesl.
Liesl confronts Dunny with the truth about life and about his function as “Fifth Business”,
and she also leads him to his conscious and recognition of his spiritual life. These actions cause
Dunny to fill his “spiritual and emotional void,” and as a result he brings Boy and Paul together to
finish unfinished business, causing the book to unfold and end. These are one of the confirming
reasons why Liesl plays such an important role in the novel because without her, Dunny would
have not developed into his final character and there would have no reason for the novel to be
written. Dunny leads a double life that seems to be outwardly ordinary and normal. What he
symbolizes is the journey that one sometimes takes in order to find ones inner self. It is Liesl that
makes Dunny realize his flaws, and it is Liesl that gives him the initial push which ultimately helps
finally complete his journey. The difference between Jordan and Liesl’s approach are that Jordan
does it naturally and Liesl just comes out in the open and splurges it out. As a result Dunny was
quickly pointed out to his problems, and given a little nudge in the right direction of his fate as his
character, and becomes “Fifth Business”. “I wanted to tell you that you are human, like other
people…You make yourself responsible for other peoples troubles.” (pg. 229 ln 11) “But every
man has a devil, and a man of unusual quality, like yourself, Ramsay, has an unusual devil. You
must get to know your personal devil.” (pg. 230 ln 10) Thus making Liesl’s job complete because
as a result of Liesl bringing forth these truth’s about life, it brought Dunny to the last stage of his
characters development. Even though Dunny’s character development bean with Faustina, this
also shows that Dunny plays a vital role in bringing forth the characters repressed guilt that brings
Boy’s death as well as the end of the novel.
Dunny’s character development begins when he falls in love with Faustina. Dunny is first
shocked when he encounters Faustina and Liesl in the dressing room. “I saw Faustina naked – she
was always changing her clothes – in the arms of Liesl, who held her close and kissed her
passionately;” (pg. 224 ln1) Dunny was devastated by this and went almost into a shock and rage
because he believed that he was in love with Faustina. It was this that began Dunny’s character
development. He first begins to feel for what he has just seen, “I never knew such a collapse of
the spirit even in the worst of the war. And this time there was no Little Madonna to offer me
Courage or ease me into oblivion.” (pg. 224 ln 7) Dunny finds himself upset because his morals
and values came crashing down when he saw Faustina and Liesl, but he quickly and bluntly
confronted by Liesl. “That is you privilege, watching life from the sidelines and knowing were all
the players go wrong. Life is a spectator sport to you. Now you have taken a tumble and found
yourself in the middle of the fight, and you are whimpering because it is rough.” (pg. 225 ln 25)
This quote helps strengthens Dunny and also gives him that initial push towards his way on
developing his character into the vital role, otherwise the novel would not have ended the way
that it did.
Throughout The Great Gatsby the characters values are exposed for the reader and
because of this, the readers are hence allowed a great insight into what a true nature of the
character really is. At this point of the novel Jordan seems to be growing on Nick, and Nick is
still not bothered by Jordan’s dishonesty. It is important to know that Jordan is not dishonest in
the sense that she sleeps around and is immoral in regards to her sex-life. This is important
because Nick begins to feel tender towards Jordan’s behaviour, but he comes to discover that her
affections are a result to conceal her dishonesty. “At her first big golf tournament there was a
row that nearly reached the newspapers – a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie
in the semi-final round.” (pg. 65 ln 33) “Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men.”
(pg. 65 ln 3) Jordan avoided clever men because it made here secure and she could not stand it
when she was at a disadvantage. Nonetheless, assumptions can be made that she was taught this
at a very young age in order to keep or maintain her image. Unlike Dunny, Nick take a little
longer to develop, and unfortunately realizes in an inopportune moment. This results in Nick still
not being bothered by Jordan’s morals because he is approaching a state where he is almost falling
in love with Jordan. “Dishonesty in a women is a thing you never blame deeply – I was casually
sorry, and then I forgot.” (pg. 65 ln 12) Nick seems to be going through a gradual process of
moral decay, because in the later stages of the novel, Daisy begins to have an affair with Mr.
Gatsby behind her husbands back. Yet with such high morals Nick avoids telling Tom and
becomes part of the cause, when he helps organize meetings between Daisy and Mr. Gatsby, and
he and Jordan are the only ones who know about the affair.
The women in Fifth Business and The Great Gatsby both shape Dunny Ramsay
and Nick Carraway into the same person. In the novel Fifth Business, the development of
Dunny’s character begins when Dunny falls in love with Faustina. It is Liesl that allows Dunny to
understand his function as “Fifth Business.” Jung’s theory suggests that the conscious part of
Dunny’s personality is brought out by Liesl. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the “American
Dream” will never be a failure if Jordan does not develop Nick into his final character. Nick
Carraway’s realization of the equality of man altered through his origin sets him up as a morally
sound standard, until confronted by Jordan Baker. Men and Women seem to be in constant battle
for certain right but in the end, it is obvious that society has a real difficult time dealing with such
issues. It is the job of society to understand this, and come to a realization about themselves.
“She lived by a light that arose from within; I could not comprehend it.”
Fifth Business(pg. 52)
Work Cited
1)Bevington, David. Hamlet Bantam Books New York, New York 1988
2)Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business Penguin Book 1996
3)Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby The Bodley Head 1975
(All the following quotation will be taken from these texts)
*Note: Jung Theories and themes taken from class notes