Character Sketch: Dunstan

By: Elsie, Belinda & Ravinder

Name Significance

Diana changes Dunstable’s name to Dunstan after St. Dunstan.

Allusion: "St.Dunstan was a marvellous person and very much like you-mad about learning, terribly stiff and stern and scowly, and an absolute wizard at withstanding temptation. Do you know what the Devil once came to tempt him in the form of a fascinating woman, and he caught her nose in his goldsmith’s tongs and gave it a terrible twist?” (83).

Faustian Bargain: Lisel tries to tempt Dunstan by forcing him to

have sex with her. St. Dunstan does not give into temptation when

the devil tempts him in the form of a woman and neither does Dunstan.

"she grasped the handle behind her but as she turned it I got a good hold on the bed head with one hand, and seized her nose between the fingers of the other, and gave it such a twist I thought I heard something crack. She shrieked, managed to tug the door open, and thundered down the passage” (210).

Physical Description

“My burns had been severe...so quite a lot of skin on my chest and left side was an angry looking mess, rather like lumpy sealing wax.... to keep the sheets from touching the stump where my left leg had been” (Davies 70)... “Yes, I have seen you have taken off your wooden leg” (209).

ArchetypeThe innocent:

Dunstan’s aspect of the innocence was that he seeks a sense of wholeness, purity.

Ways he tries to relieve himself of guilt: He befriended Mrs.Dempster when everyone in Deptford shunned her, He is the only one that visits her when she is at Mrs.Shanklin house He pays for her hospital bills He ultimately relieves himself of guilt and seeks wholeness when he

tells Paul: “Here it was. Either I spoke now or I kept silent forever... Yes, guilt.

Staunton and I robbed your mother of her sanity. And I told them the story of the snowball” (249).

Conscious & UnconsciousConscious Persona: metaphor-“The cloaks we had wrapped about our

essential selves were wearing thin” (228). True identity starts to resurface.

Unconscious Personal unconscious: the snowball incident Anima: Lisel represents this because she is able to pull out

Dunstan’s feminine side by allowing him to speak of his emotions.

Shadow: anything that involves pleasure e.g. lusting over Faustina & sex

The self: Dunstan is on his journey to self-actualization and realizes that he is Fifth Business.

Impact On Other Characters Takes blame for the snowball incident. Assists Leola in her suicide: “But well I knew that I had taken

leave of her, so far as any real feeling went, that Christmas afternoon when she had appealed to me for comfort and I had run away. Everything since had been a matter of duty” (181).

Tells Mary about Paul’s existence. Brings up repressed feelings: “But, Boy, for God’s sake, get to

know something about yourself. The stone-in-the-snowball has been characteristic of too much you’ve done to forget it forever” (250).