Robertson Davies' The Manticore mirrors the Canadian penchant for antithesis between the rational and the feeling, the bourgeois and the poor. The eighteenth century's love of reason finds its echo in the character of David Staunton, who appears to be modelled on that paradigmatic and therefore anonymous creature of reason. Staunton must encounter mysticism, passion, and dark psychological recesses in order to become more alive and humane. English Canada, like the character, loves Reason, and fears passion.
