The Five-Forty-Eight

John Cheever’s “The Five-Forty-Eight” is a captivating story that shines light on the struggle to create a facade of perfection in order to cover up one’s true inner turmoil. Blake’s stalker, a mentally ill and emotionally unstable woman, becomes the object of Blake’s deception. Blake is a well-off businessman, who feeds on those who are weak, confident that there will be no dire consequences. When his stalker gets the job as Blake’s secretary, it is her chance to recreate herself, and overcome her mental illness. Instead, Blake messes with her mind, and leaves her jobless, alone, and more frail than ever. In the end, though, it is not Blake’s stalker who works to cover up her inner conflicts, it is Blake. Despite the fact that the reader is meant to see the stalker as the psychotic character, it is Blake whose deep-rooted problems begin to seep through his phony exterior.

When the reader is first introduced to Blake, he is overly confident and distracted. He notices his stalker as he leaves his office, and wonders why she is following him, but seems preoccupied by the recent construction and window displays to worry about her for more than a moment. And for that moment that he does worry, he reassures himself with the fact that, “She was not clever. She would be easy to shake.” (4) Blake is completely oblivious to why the woman, whose name he has not yet taken the time to remember, would be following him. Maybe she was “misled, lonely perhaps.” (4) Despite this false sense of comfort, Blake takes a detour into a men’s bar on his way to the train, believing that his stalker was too simple-minded to wait for him. While in the bar, Blake tries, unsuccessfully, to remember his stalkers name-“Miss Dent, Miss Bent, Miss Lent”. It then becomes obvious to the reader how Blake can live with himself after the way that he feeds on women. He picks women who have a lack of self esteem because to him, they are not people. He dehumanizes them to the point where they are all nameless, each a star on the wall.

After realizing he has missed the express, Blake leaves the bar in order to catch the local five-forty-eight. He is sure that he has lost his stalker, boards the train, and uses the evening paper to “avoid speculation or remorse about her.” (16) “Mr. Blake”, he hears her voice from above him, and suddenly he remembers her name. Miss Dent. While, to the reader, Miss Dent is becoming seemingly more dangerous, her timid voice gives Blake some relief. He still feels as though he has the power to manipulate her, and instead of being worried about what Miss Dent is capable of, Blake looks around to make sure that none of the people on the train that he knows are watching them. But it doesn’t take long for Blake to realize that Miss Dent is serious. She tells him she has a pistol, and that she is not afraid to kill him. This scene shows that there has been a role reversal between Blake and Miss Dent. Blake is now the weak one, the one who is being dehumanized and messed with. The consequences of his actions have finally come back to torment him. He is now the coward, for once he does not have the upper hand of being the tabby in this cat and mouse game he often plays. Miss Dent, although mentally tormented, has found the strength to stand up to the man who has caused her unwarranted trouble and pain. She has realized that she has a problem, and found Blake to be the principle source. Miss Dent uses the train ride to share with Blake how he has made her feel, and instead of listening and trying to fix what he has done to Miss Dent, Blake is distracted by the ads on the walls of the train stations, and who is getting on and off of the train.

Miss Dent is a symbol of Blake’s past. She symbolizes all of the women that Blake has manipulated and used in the past. Instead of confronting the women, Blake has always avoided them-after sleeping with Miss Dent, he fired her, and refused to allow her into his office building. When Miss Dent first met Blake, she had imagined his life to be “full of friendships, money, and a large and loving family.” (6) But once Miss Dent sees Blake’s weaknesses and heartlessness, and once the train stops in Shady Hill, she realizes Blake’s life was not what she had imagined. She says that she ought to feel sorry for him, and that despite what she has been through, she is still better than him. This is ironic, because most of the story, the reader sympathizes with poor Miss Dent, a troubled woman, so desperate for the adoration of such a man as Blake. In the end though, it is Blake whose tormented soul is visible and pitied. It seems as though he is past the point of being cured, whereas Miss Dent can now wash her hands clean of Blake, and finally find peace of mind. After having just been held at gunpoint with his face down in the dirt, Blake, who realizes that Miss Dent has left the station and he is safe, “got to his feet and picked up his hat from the ground where it had fallen and walked home,” and unchanged man. (63)

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Discussion Questions:

1. Do you believe that Blake or Miss Dent had a revelation in the end?

2. Why do you think that Blake was always distracting himself with everything that was going on around him?

3. In your opinion, were either Blake or Miss Dent likeable characters?

4. What is the significance of Miss Dent’s handwriting?

5. What mental problems do you believe that Miss Dent suffers from?