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.
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