Magnus eisengrim autobiography of a face

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However, several operations are unsuccessful and Lucy becomes convinced that she will never know love.

Throughout her struggle, Lucy finds solace in fantasies and in spending time with horses, creatures she values for their nobility and the fact that they do not judge her by her appearance. Gradually, the taunts begin to affect her, making her self-conscious and anxious about her appearance, something she had not considered before being exposed to the cruelty of other children.

Davies emphasizes the ways human beings are isolated from the knowledge of the risks they face by acting in the world—in the endless and endlessly interconnected chain of causes and effects—while they are simultaneously condemned to continue acting (with a play of words on “acting,” since all the world’s a stage and Davies began his career as a professional actor).

Identity is obviously important. The effects of this treatment worsen as Lucy grows older and becomes more convinced of her supposed ugliness. The snowball incident is seen from yet another perspective, since it was that event that brought about the special giftedness of Paul Dempster.

The three novels display the author’s erudition: he was a scholar and a man of letters as well as a novelist, dramatist, essayist, and journalist.

Many of the characters are trying to find out who they are. Staunton fils is continually try to establish an identity separate from his father while Eisengrim has rejected his parents and has established a completely new identity (he even has Ramsay write a spurious autobiography for him). Staunton goes on to marry the prettiest girl in town (and the one with whom Ramsay is in love) and to fame and fortune in business.

He feels attached to Mrs. Dempster, feels guilt for her condition, even considers that she might be a saint but is unsure how he relates to her and she to him.

In doing so, she adds her desire to be attractive to the list of suppressed emotions. She undergoes an operation to remove half of her jaw, which is followed by two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Staunton compares his place with that of Ramsay, a lowly schoolmaster, unmarried at that. Ramsay, the intended target, ducks the fateful blow and thereby finds his character altered by the suffering inflicted on Mary Dempster and on the child, Paul Dempster, born prematurely after she is struck by the snowball.

Canadian Fiction Studies 13. Ramsay ducks the snowball, which hits Mrs. Mary Dempster, wife of the local minister, causing her to go into premature labor and give birth to Paul, (later to become the magician Magnus Eisengrim) and, at the same time, causing Mrs. Dempster to become somewhat mentally unbalanced. It is, of course, best seen in the life of Eisengrim, whose life and art are both illusions.

Although Robertson Davies writes at a level of literary sophistication that is most fully appreciated by deeply educated and experienced readers, his absorbing plots and fully rendered characters also appeal to readers mainly interested in a good story.

Bibliography
Lawrence, Robert G., and Samuel L.

Macey, eds. This is, of course, the perennial artist-in-society theme, a staple theme of literature from Shakespeare via Dostoievsky up to Joyce, though perhaps less prevalent nowadays. She gains a number of close friends at college who also embrace the role of outsider and outcast and who, to Lucy’s surprise, actually enjoy her company.

The fifth business, in drama or opera, is “those roles which, being neither those of hero or heroine, confidante nor villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the recognition or the dénouement.” The fifth business is Dunstan (né Dunstable) Ramsay, the narrator of this novel and the best friend of Boy(d) Staunton.

But this issue is also important for others – Staunton père who is always trying to create an illusion of conventional harmony, Staunton fils who is trying to separate the reality and illusion in his criminal law practice as well as his life and, of course, with his lives of the saints, which may or may not be illusory, depending on your point of view.

One other theme strikes me – Davies’ anal obsessions.

With these new friends, she feels accepted by other people for the first time in her life.

Despite these developments, Lucy still feels deeply unattractive and desperately wants to develop romantic and sexual relationships. Sir John Tresize, the actor manager, who takes the young Eisengrim under his wing in the third book, specifically mentions the role of his theatre as creating this illusion.