Robertson Davies and the Alchemy of Adversity
Robertson Davies, the Canadian author, playwright, and critic, made the observation that “extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.” He was himself a living testament to this principle. Born in 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario, Davies lived through the upheaval of the twentieth century. Two world wars, the Great Depression, and massive social transformations marked his era. Yet he emerged as one of the English-speaking world’s most celebrated literary figures. His quote reflects a lifetime of observing how individuals respond to life’s crucibles. Though the exact date and context of this particular quote remain somewhat elusive in the historical record, it likely emerged during his later years. By then Davies had become a prominent public intellectual. He offered wisdom on literature, human nature, and the creative life through essays, lectures, and interviews.
The Origin of This Powerful Quote
Davies’s background was anything but typical for a Canadian writer of his generation. His father, Rupert Davies, was a newspaper owner and Senator. This provided the family with both intellectual stimulation and material comfort. It also exposed young Robertson to the complexities of public life and moral responsibility. His mother, Florence McKay Davies, came from Welsh stock. She infused the household with cultural refinement. This privileged upbringing might have produced merely another society figure. But Davies’s parents had enrolled him at Upper Canada College. They later sent him to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he studied at Balliol College. This education abroad was transformative. It exposed him to a broader intellectual and theatrical world than he might have encountered in Canada alone. Yet Davies harbored a secret artistic ambition that his respectable family background seemed to discourage: he wanted to be an actor.
What makes Davies’s life particularly remarkable is how thoroughly he rejected the conventional path expected of him. After Oxford, he briefly pursued acting in London. He performed with the Old Vic Theatre, a decision that shocked his respectable family. When that dream proved economically unsustainable during the Depression, he returned to Canada. He became a journalist and editor for the Peterborough Examiner. This position would have seemed like a retreat from his ambitions. However, Davies possessed what he called “a double life.” He continued writing fiction, drama, and criticism while maintaining his respectable journalism career. This duality became the foundation of his extraordinary intellectual range, not a compromise. He wrote plays for the Canadian dramatic movement, including “Eros at Breakfast” and “Fortune My Foe.” Simultaneously, he built a reputation as a sharp-tongued critic and editor. He held conventional thinking up to merciless scrutiny.
Extraordinary people survive under terrible circumstances
Davies’s philosophy of human nature underpins his statement about extraordinary people and terrible circumstances. His wide reading in psychology, mythology, and literature deeply influenced this philosophy. He was fascinated by Carl Jung’s concepts of the shadow self and individuation. Jung taught that human development requires integrating the hidden, rejected aspects of ourselves. The Romantic tradition in literature and philosophy equally influenced Davies. It celebrated the transformative power of struggle and passion. Rather than viewing hardship as something to be avoided or merely endured, Davies saw adversity as a crucible. Character could be forged in this crucible. This perspective was not naive optimism. Rather, it was a sophisticated understanding grounded in both literary tradition and psychological insight. His novels—particularly his celebrated Deptford Trilogy (The Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders)—explore precisely this theme. They show how trauma and difficulty can become the catalyst for profound self-understanding and spiritual growth.
The quote has resonated particularly strongly in contemporary culture. It offers a counternarrative to the modern preference for comfort and the avoidance of struggle. In an age of self-help literature that promises happiness through eliminating all obstacles, Davies’s wisdom suggests something more challenging. It is ultimately more true: our difficulties are inseparable from our growth. The quote has appeared in countless motivational contexts. Corporate leadership seminars, grief counseling groups, and educational institutions have featured it. Social media posts from individuals navigating personal crises have quoted it. Yet Davies would probably have found much of this popularization somewhat reductive. He was never interested in simple inspiration divorced from intellectual rigor. His point was not that suffering is good or that we should seek it out. Rather, when extraordinary people encounter terrible circumstances, they have a capacity. Through consciousness, imagination, and courage, they can transform that experience into wisdom.
How This Message Transforms Lives Today
One of the lesser-known aspects of Davies’s life illuminates this philosophy. He was deeply involved with Masonic symbolism and ritual. Davies joined the Freemasons in the 1940s and remained devoted to the organization for the rest of his life. He served in various leadership roles. For Davies, Freemasonry was far more than a mere social club. It represented a structured path toward self-knowledge and spiritual development through symbolic transformation. The Masonic journey of apprentice to journeyman to master mirrors the alchemical transformation of the self. Davies consistently explored this transformation in his fiction. This connection between ritual, symbol, and personal transformation gave intellectual substance to his conviction. Difficulty could be purposefully metabolized into growth. When he wrote about extraordinary people surviving terrible circumstances, he drew on a deeply held philosophical framework. This framework saw life itself as an initiation.
As Davies’s literary career progressed, he became increasingly willing to articulate his philosophical convictions in public contexts. The international success of his Deptford Trilogy and subsequent novels enabled this openness.