In the novel Fifth Business, Dunstable Ramsay is Robertson Davies as a person. Robertson Davies grew up in a religious Presbyterian family and Davies' father was a lone newspaper publisher while his son Robertson was both a teacher and writer just as Dunstable Ramsay was. If you read any biography on Robertson Davies you are able to find proof of Davies' identity being almost exact to Ramsay's. It is made quite clear that the novel is a metaphor for aspects of Robertson Davies' life.

When Robertson Davies was growing up, his mother was a strict Presbyterian woman. His father, a Welsh was sent to Canada earlier on becoming a senator and a newspaperman. A strict mother figure was crucial as well as influential to the way Robertson Davies acted and viewed the world around him while maturing in such a time period. If R.D. was not raised...