Darcourt
In The Lyre of Orpheus, Robertson Davies writes about a character named Simon Darcourt who is a Professor of Greek and Latin and is on the board of Directors of the Cornish Foundation. He is also a self-diagnosed "boozer" who hopes to help a young woman's dream come true by giving her a scholarship. Right away the character Darcourt shows a contradiction in the way he conducts himself publicly and how he conducts himself personally. This woman, a Miss Hulda Schnakenburg, is very talented in the arts and wants to finish an opera that a man named Hoffman began. Her main problem is that she does not have the proper funding she needs to finish this project. In short, she will most likely be forced into illicit illegal acts just to make ends meet. In this short passage, Darcourt is interviewing Miss Hulda Schnakenburg, a.k.a. "Schnak" for a scholarship, and Schnak isn't very amiable.
Canadian writer Robertson Davies, author of The De...
Abattoir Blues+The Lyre of Orpheus
A Mixture of Frailties, by Robertson Davies; cover...Darcourt's multipersonalities are very much on the contrary.
Darcourt admits to himself that he is an alcoholic or "boozer" and in realizing his problem he denies it with great pessimism: "Wouldn't the Cornish Foundation drive a saint to the bottle?"( Darcourt ). Another example of Darcourt's pessimism is when he is trying to decide whether to accept Schnak for the scholarship, "and as someone on whom large sums of money were to be risked she struck chill to his heart" (Darcourt). He seems to have very little trust in the average person, seeing them through a cynical eye. Darcourt is the type of person who will speak his mind first without thinking of the consequences of his speech, he is also very upfront about the way he presents information even if it pertains to himself: "he was drinking to much, no doubt about it"(Darcourt).