The Five-Forty-Eight presents a self-complacent suburban male as both sexual predator and coward. As such, Blake is attracted to women who will submit to his misogynistic abuse. Literary critic Patrick Menanor considers it "Cheever's most brilliant treatment of manipulation and victimization…though the story is about cruelty and revenge, it is essentially a character study of Mr. Blake as a soulless automaton, one of Cheever's most revolting sociopaths…"[12] Blake's ultimate humiliation at the hands of the victimized Miss Dent appears to not touch him. Literary critic Lynne Waldeland writes: "No rude awakening into an enlarged humanity has taken place for Blake. The only effect [of his ordeal]...is to make him notice more vividly the homes, the lights, the street signs of Shady Hill, perhaps as symbols of security" that has now been undermined. "His reflections are marked by no thoughts of family and no regret or guilt about his treatment of the woman."[13]
Meanor identifies a thematic device in Cheever's choice of the name Blake for his protagonist: "The ironic use of the name Blake adds to the story's 'heart-versus-head' theme. William Blake, the great [British] transitional poet" was the polar opposite of the cold-blooded rationalist in The Five-Forty-Eight. The gift that Miss Dent brings to Mr. Blake is a rose, which he instantly discards into a wastebasket because "Mr. Blake doesn't like roses."[14] Meanor points out that "one of William Blake's most famous and enigmatic poems is The Sick Rose, an apt symbol of the corrupting powers of rationalism" that characterized British industrialism and its destructive exploitation and dehumanization of "the poor, vulnerable, and the disenfranchised" textile workers. Miss Dent suffers similar abuse and indignities.[15][16]
Author Tim Lieder notes that Blake is so hated not because he's awful but because he's average and there's no passion in his life. Even the one moment of passion is undercut by the fact that he wants to get rid of the woman as soon as possible. In that context, his nonchalance in the face of death makes sense.[17]
