Dunstan Ramsey's Growth as a Product of His Relationships with Women in His Life

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In their own unique ways, Mrs. Dempster, Diana, and Liesl supported the positive growth of Dunstan’s character which contributed to the conservation of his happiness in addition to offering him a variety of temporary pleasures one may stereotypically attribute to happiness. Mrs. Dempster did so by providing him with childhood friendship, motherly love and sparking his interest in hagiography. Diana accomplished this feat by nurturing him back to health while at the same time giving him proper affection and partnership so as to help him develop a sense of freedom, dignity and independence. Liesl achieved this by letting him literally relive some of the aspects of his childhood in the carnival and by serving as a confidant and friend which ultimately led him to accepting himself and relieving some of the guilt he has held on to for his entire life. It is of upmost important that one recognizes that much of Dunstan’s happiness is derived from the relationships he has with others. In fact, this is true for everyone; we, as humans, are social creatures that not only rely on each other for mere survival, but for prosperity and happiness as well. If one were curious about the effects of total human isolation, one can simply do research on the topic of feral children to really learn how morbid a life without human contact can become. In any case, if the world clearly knows of this information, that happiness is, at large, dependent on relationships with others, and if every person’s goal on earth is to be happy, why then does there still exist conflict? Why are there people who are willing to sacrifice the goal of a utopian world for selfish ambitions? Happiness is not clearly not a competition, but success certainly seems to be.

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Work Cited

Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business. New York: Penguin, 2001. Print.