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Essay about A Feminist Reading of Cheever’s The Five-Forty-Eight

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A Feminist Reading of The Five-Forty-Eight

The short story "The Five-Forty-Eight" by John Cheever concerns the issue of a woman scorned by the inhumane treatment she has received by men, most notably that of Blake, whose oppression serves as the turning point in her life. This generalization is often the focus of a feminist criticism. Feminists believe that women should have equal rights as men, and they seek to "correct or supplement what they regard as a predominantly male-dominated critical perspective with a feminist consciousness" (Meyer 2014). In this short story, using a feminist consciousness to read the text helps to understand the reasoning behind Miss Dent's need to defeat the idea that males dominate over women. Miss …show more content…

The next day, as soon as Miss Dent was "out to lunch, he called personnel and asked them to fire her. Then he took the afternoon off" (81). Blake is too much of a guilty coward to face Miss Dent after their affairs the night before. To rid himself of his newest problem, he simply fires her although he does not have the guts to fire her himself. As a direct result of the hurt and scorn Miss Dent has experienced throughout her life, mainly at the hands of Blake, she is permanently troubled. While confronting Blake she tells him, "you don't know what I've been through. I'm afraid to go out in the daylight" (88). Miss Dent's experience with a monster such as Blake has left her extremely insecure and hurt.

Blake is not alone in causing Miss Dent's destruction; although, in this story he is a stereotype of all the men in her life who have treated her the same hurtful way. Miss Dent views Blake just like every other man in her life. Blake acknowledges the fact that he is like all men because on the train he noticed that "he dressed like the rest of [them] as if he admitted to the existence of the sumptuary laws" (82). Every man on the train, with the exception of a few, dresses the same, in non-colorful clothes. The sumptuary laws refer to the Roman laws that regulate the type of clothes worn in public. Blake is in the majority of business class men

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