Fifth_Business

Fifth Business Fifth Business Guilt is defined as a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime or wrong committed. Guilt is a major theme in the novel Fifth Business. Dunny has been raised in a strict Presbyterian household which has encouraged him to feel guilt about many minor things. Even though Paul was not born at the time of the snowball incident, Paul Dempster still feels guilty towards his mothers simple mindedness. Percy Boyd Stautons repressed guilt does considerable damage and ultimately recoils on himself. In Fifth Business many characters feel guilt due to the snowball incident. Dunny Ramsay feels extremely guilty because he had anticipated that Percy, with whom he had been arguing, would throw one final snowball at him before he eats dinner. He felt Mrs. Ramsay’s pain when she was crying. “I had never heard an adult cry in pain before and the sound was terrible for me.”(Page 3) Dunny is still very young, and most likely, he has the perception that the adults should be the strong ones. To hear Mrs. Dempster cry must have been very emotionally difficult for him. The guilt Dunny experienced, will forever remain with him and his friend Paul Dempster guilt, percy, paul, dempster, dunny, stauton, snowball, ramsay, incident, boyd, novel, feels, business, through, responsibility, mrs, himself, fifth, feel, been, because, years, very, until, understand, towards, time, things, strong, simple, pain, mother’s, mother, minor, mindedness, lives