Psycho Killer: Analyzing the Rationality of Miss Dent's Actions in John Cheever's "The Five-Forty-Eight"

In "The Five-Forty-Eight," the mentally-ill Miss Dent is a character of great dynamic and interest as she stalks and holds hostage her sexual abuser and former boss, Blake, and, through her actions, presents a question for the reader to take away with him or herself: were her actions in the story rational? or just a crazed fit produced by the synergy of her situation and her mental condition? While a bit inquisitive at first glance, a closer examination into the story answers this question, ultimately, revealing to us that, at the very core of her motives, her act of holding Blake hostage was quite irrational and purely a crazed fit caused by her unfortunate life situation.

To explain why this answer seems to be the correct one, one must first look deeper into retribution and the natural tendencies most people have when seeking it. For the majority of us, getting wronged or hurt in almost any way gives us a variety of negative emotions. Whether justified or cruel, that pain has an innate tendency to make us feel downtrodden or demoralized, as if we have failed and thus admitted our subordinance to whoever or whatever caused our suffering. But, as a result, our competitive nature, in turn, is ignited within us and thus begs us to seek out a manner in which we can punish our attackers and thereby regain a feeling of equality with them. For this reason, one can understand the motives behind Miss Dent's act and see how the will to seek revenge is simply human nature and therefore quite justified.

However, the irrationality--and thus insanity--of her crime comes into light upon investigating the execution of her plan to seek that retribution. Most of the time, the need to avenge our pains gives us a choice between two forms of punishments: violent punishment or emotional punishment. Those who choose violence often use anything from their fist to a gun to punish their enemy and, often times, are seeking to avenge a physical pain inflicted upon them. On the other hand, those who choose emotional punishment are usually much more moral in their actions and seek not to hurt their attackers physically, but to cause them to feel apologetic or bad.

With this in mind, the irrationality here becomes utterly limpid. First of all, the pain inflicted upon Miss Dent by Blake, while very evil and demeaning, is not physical at all. Emotional? yes. Sexual and physical? no, especially when one takes into account that Miss Dent slept with Blake voluntarily and with consent, thinking he was not unlike an amazing, divine being. On that note, her pain mostly comes from the act of using her for sex and then firing her from work, causing intense emotional distress and feelings of powerlessness and insecurity within herself (evidenced by her complete disappearance for about two weeks), especially in someone who is mentally ill. Therefore, in her instinctive search for retribution, she seeks the equivalent and would like Blake to feel the same fear, loss of power, and lack of self-confidence that she did.

Typically, given her pain, it would be expected that she would pursue the non-violent form of punishment, possibly filing a lawsuit against Blake or perhaps going to his superior and reporting the incident. That would be the most rational and justified approach. Instead, however, because of her mental condition that predisposes her to an irrational mindset that she cannot control, she chooses a more violent approach that is utterly unnecessary in the situation. Rather than find someone with more power than Blake, she is subjected by her mental state solely to her opinion of him as almost omnipotent. Thus, she is forced to seek out the method of becoming someone more powerful than Blake. This, combined with the fact that she really has no consequences (and is only subject to a return to the mental hospital if found guilty), thereby forces Miss Dent to make an irrational decision to pursue Blake and hold him at gunpoint to get her revenge.

In conclusion, regardless of the irrationality of the act, her attempt was successful and Miss Dent clearly accomplishes what she wants to do: re-establish that power and self-confidence within herself. Regardless of whether Blake learns his lesson or not, the fact that she controls his life for a relatively brief moment, causing him to sweat with fear, to attempt to reach out to his neighbors through eye language, and lie face-down in the dirt, is enough for her to regain her sense of self. Thus, in the end, she can simply walk off into the night, without ever having harmed Blake physically, and still remain as the somewhat heroine of the story. (788)