The Five-Forty-Eight

According to the story ‘The Five-Forty-Eight’, the writer John Cheever tells us about Blake’s stalker Miss Dent. A woman, whose psychological and emotional instability, becomes the aim of Blake’s dishonesty. Blake is a successful businessman, who preys on people who are weak. He is very confident that there will be no serious penalties. When Miss Dent gets the job as his secretary, it is her chance to re-form herself, and get over her mental sickness. Instead, Blake took advantage of her mind, has sex with her and fires her from being his secretary, alone and more fragile than she was before. Miss Dent was right when she tells Blake “she knows more about love than him” because, she knows what he has is not love, she has the capacity to love in her, and she still has hopes about love, clearly she is better than him.
Firstly, Miss Dent is a reflection of Blake’s past.
She signifies all the other women who was manipulated by him. Blake always avoids confronting them after sex. Just as Miss Dent which he fired after having sex with her, and restricted her from entering his office building. Miss Dent finds out that he is a user, someone who disposes people after having sex with them. She can tell when someone expresses love, which was far from what Blake has shown towards her. When Miss Dent initially met Blake, she had imagined his life to be “full of friendships, money, and a large and loving family, But then she sees his weaknesses and heartlessness, when the train stops in Shady Hill, she realizes his life was far from what she
imagined.
Secondly, Rose signifies love. Miss Dent buying him a rose shows she has in her willingness to love and to extend it if given the chance. In her own way she, expressed her love to him with the rose which was tossed in the garbage. Additionally, her dreams about romance and her ability to write it down as a letter to him signify that she knows something about love, and has felt it, although, not in real life, and she knows, If given the platform, she has the ability ride to a higher place in love better than Blake. All she ever wanted from life is a little love and was desperate for the adoration of a man-like Blake. Her job in his company gave her hope of sanity; she felt it would help her recover from her instability.
Lastly, despite Miss Dent’s unfavorable experience with Blake, and her state of mind, one will expect her to close her heart to loving anyone else, rather she tells him she sometimes has good dreams, “dreams of picnics and heaven, and the brotherhood of man, and about castles on the moonlight and a river with willow trees all along the edge of it and foreign cities” (293) Her believe in love is quite strong that, not even one unpleasant experience will change her mind, and has hope that she will find love someday. With this feeling, Miss says, “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, readers were made to sympathize 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 walks home,” and unchanged man.
In conclusion, it is evident that Miss Dent knows more about love than Blake because she knows what Blake has is not love, rather a heartless heart that looks for people's weakness and takes advantage of them, she has in her capacity to love, and she still has hope about love despite her experience with Blake or illness; She will find love.