A lot was made about Mr. Blake (the twisted protagonist of John Cheever's The Five-Forty-Eight) in class today, but very little was said about the only other major character in the story: Miss Dent. I, for one, thought her character interesting enough to warrant further investigation. After some pondering, here are some of my conclusions.
Firstly, it seems that Miss Dent, in addition to being to story's antagonist, also acts as a foil to Mr. Blake. While Blake's character can best be described as being confident and well put-together on the outside and rotten on the inside, Miss Dent is the exact opposite. It is made relatively clear throughout the story that she is suffering from some sort of mental illness-- one that was present before the events of the story, though probably aggravated by the arrival of Blake into her life. Despite this, her words and contemptuous tone at the climax of the story makes the reader think that, as she claims, she really may know more about love than our disconnected narrator. There are more subtle clues about their contrasts in the text as well. Blake appears confident, if not cocky, throughout the story, while Miss Dent clearly has low self-esteem and openly longs for Blake's life. And, although it is not readily apparent, there is a contrast between Blake's emphasis on appearance and Miss Dent's claw like handwriting. The fact that Miss Dent acts as a foil to Blake accelerates the plot of the story and gives a level of deeper meaning to its climax.
Secondly, it appears that the two characters, so different yet completely interconnected within the story, end up switching roles following the climax of the story. Blake seems to be completely broken and shocked by the experience, not even bothering to dust himself off after putting his face in the dirt. Miss Dent, on the other hand, appears to be fortified by the experience and it is easy to understand her thought process. Lost in the story because Blake, rather than Miss Dent, is the narrator, is her emotional arc after he takes advantage of her and fires her. She slipped into a state of sickness and insanity. By her own description, the only that kept her going was her plan to exact some measure of revenge on Mr. Blake-- revenge she extracts during the climax of the story. The final confrontation was a bizarre scene, to say the least. The first time I read it, I felt a distinct sense of anticlimax at the end. However, I eventually concluded that something significant had taken place after all: both characters left the confrontation somewhat differently than they had arrived. Blake received the humbling blow to his arrogance that he desperately needed, and Miss Dent gained, in addition to confidence to stand up to her former tormentor, a sense of closure that may allow her to move on with her life. Miss Dent puts it simply at the very end, "Now I can wash my hands of you." This she does, putting to an end the emotional arc that plagued the most fascinating character in The Five-Forty-Eight. (522)
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2 comments:
Amway--I agree strongly with your central point here. The moment when she does NOT shoot him is the climax of the story, because at that point she rises above both him and her earlier self and, as you point out, achieves a closure which completes what you call the "emotional arc" of her character's role in the story.
Nicely said.
Hey there,
I just wanted to point out that, in my opinion, you have misinterpreted the final scene of the short story. Although retribution did transform Dent, Cheever implies that Blake exits unchanged. Take a look at the last line. He simply picks himself up and leaves. Blake did not undergo any sort of transformation.
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