Miss Dent's Revenge
...er emotional conflict. After she had been working for him for a few days, she told Blake that she had been in the hospital for eight months. She was thankful that he had given her a job because she was not able to get one before. She had only been working for him for three weeks when one night they stayed after work late and then went back to her place. They slept together and then afterwards he dressed with no acknowledgement that she was weeping, not even to ask if anything was wrong. The next day he had her fired and even instructed the switchboard girl not to let her in. She is more the victim in the story than Blake. His actions, even after they slept together, show that he is inconsiderate. His actions before that evening show that he is inconsiderate when he tosses into the wastebasket a rose she had put on his desk. After having a second drink in the bar, Blake realizes he has missed the express and he will have to catch the local five-forty-eight. As he gets on the train, Miss Dent suddenly approaches him, and they begin to have a conversation. She proceeds to tell him that she has been sick and has not been able to work because he has “poisoned their minds” (534) against her. She has a pistol in her purse and she tells him she will kill him if he doesn’t do as she says. Knowing this, it is unclear what her intentions are for Blake while she is holding a gun on him. In some ways it is easy to feel sorry for this woman. She lives alone and seems to be depressed. Miss Dent begins to tell Blake about her hospital stay and it becomes even more clear how mentally unstable she is. Blake is not sure how to comprehend all this. She is very upset and blames him for many of the reasons that she cannot find happiness. Miss Dent tells Blake that he “preys on weak people” (536). It is hard to be sympathetic toward him knowing the way he treated her. Blake takes notice of everything going on around him while they are riding on the train. His world has suddenly become reduced to these few minutes. After they finally arrive at their destination, Miss Dent makes him get off the train. Soon everyone has left the area and Miss Dent tells Blake to “put your face in the dirt” (538). As he follows her instructions he begins to weep. At this point Miss Dent seems satisfied with this and proclaims to feel better. She then walks off into the night leaving Blake there on the ground alone. It seems that Miss Dent needed to have some closure on what happened between her and Blake and the fact that he caused her so much grief. The revenge of seeing him lie there on the ground weeping must have been enough for her self-gratification. In a sense, she left him...