Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy as canadian myth

In The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies defines his versions of a Canadian myth.Essentially the trilogy tells and retells the tale of the quest for self-fulfilment.At first Dunstan Ramsay is firmly established as the authoritative narrator in Fifth Business, and his account of Boyd Staunton's personal history is the first full version of the myth.Then, the tale is retold in the stories of David, Liesl and Magnus.When Ramsay self-reflectively closes the trilogy, his own quest ends successfully in artistic immortality.Throughout. the minor characters in their roles as doubles reflect aspects of their more fully developed central counterparts.At the same time, Judeo-Christian and classic mythoi along with Jungian models of psychoanalysis accumulate to substantiate the various tales.As the work gradually unfolds, a superbly crafted entry into the Canadian conscience emerges.In the end we are given Davies' analysis of the nation's mind through his myth.The Deptford Trilogy brings together fiction, history and mythology.One must acknowledge that gothic (Suggars 2012), autobiographic (Braz 2009), and traditionally mythic (Grant 2009, Ryan 2011), are all valid views that are not necessarily competing but complimentary.(See Gamlin, 1992 for a more a thorough discussion of myth.)In Fifth Business, Ramsay, the hagiographer, self-reflectively announces -141-Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy as Canadian Myth that he is about to write The Saints: A Study in History and Popular Mythology (185).In The Manticore David mentions that Ramsay is currently working on "something about faith as it relates to myth" (353).Finally, in World of Wonders Ramsay declares outright that he is recording Magnus' experience to gain immortality:I deeply wanted to create, or record, and leave behind me a document, so that whenever its subject was dealt with in future, the notation 'Ramsay says .. : would have to appear.Thus, so far as this world is concerned, I should not wholly die.(569)The fiction before us is therefore mostly secular hagiography with an emphasis on the mythical element.According to Magnus, Ramsay's fictionalizing of those around him "is truer to the essence of [his] life than the dowdy facts could ever be" (528).Similarly, David agrees when Ramsay says, "history and myth are two aspects of a kind of grand pattern in human destiny: history is the mass of observable or recorded fact, but myth is the abstract or essence of it" (377).Ingestree later points out that "we cannot help falsifying [the past] in terms of later knowledge" (606).Lind then adds that art through the creation of myth can capture the subjective truth of the past: "[W]e would produce an Abdullah that would give the right effect.though it might be far, far away from the real Abdullah of 1918" (607).Thus, the trilogy sets out to create a web of myths comparable, perhaps, to Ramsay's Hundred Saints for Travellers.(See, for comparison, Grant 1995).Essentially, the myth of self-fulfillment is retold in variations, often with Jungian applications but always within the Canadian context.Ramsay himself acknowledges that most tales can be reduced to a few core myths.

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