TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

In this month’s story we’re going to meet a character who is very unpleasant indeed. Blake, the main character in The Five-Forty-Eight by John Cheever is a man who is cruel to his wife, and also cruel to his mistress. We’re going to look at how the story unfolds as Blake faces the consequences of his own actions. As always, you will get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself.

John Cheever uses various recurring themes and motifs throughout the story, which both build up atmosphere and add layers of meaning to what is happening. We’re going to follow some of these throughout the story to see how he does it.

The first thing we’re going to look at is the significance of time in the story. This is first apparent in the title, which refers to the time of a train. Notice also that in the first paragraph we are given a very specific time, , for