Topic 1

Dunston Ramsay is twice warned about the fool-saint. Is Mrs. Dempster a fool-saint for Ramsay, or is she a saint? How does Ramsay tell the difference? How can we tell?

Topic 2

Dunston Ramsay’s development as a person within the novel tends toward the role of the fifth business, but how specifically does his character arrive at this role? What are the key events that lead Ramsay to play this part among the people in his life? What acts, words or gestures embody his role as the fifth business?

Topic 3

At the end of the novel, Percy Boyd Staunton’s errant snowball shot has been avenged, but how does his death avenge the childhood error? Is this a justifiable death? Does the novel propose that it is? Did Boy Staunton have a latent wish to die, which his death fulfilled? Was Eisengrim justified in killing him...