A primary theme in “Five-Twenty” is dissatisfaction and how it manifests differently for every person. The Natwicks are both, in their own ways, embittered with how their lives turned out. Royal has always arrogantly believed himself to be destined for greatness, while Ella only realizes her lack of fulfillment later in life.

From snappy clothing and expensive cigars to plans to sell more luxurious goods at their grocery store in Sydney’s suburbs, Royal has always held himself to be superior to those around him. It is a trait emphasized in his name, putting him in the role of the little prince since birth. It is always the customers’ lack of refined palate that sets him back, never his own fault that his business does not flourish. By the time the story finishes, he has died as the dependent of a woman whom he regards as beneath him. He used to ride out to see her on horseback, but by the end, he needed to call out for help with picking up a fallen newspaper.

As for Ella, she has spent most of her life with Royal, thinking herself lucky, wondering what he could possibly see in her, and often trying to make it up to him for some imagined misstep. Only later, as she sits alone outside and comes in to report the passing Holden, does she feel superior to her husband. Then, when he has died and she at last realizes her loneliness, she realizes the affection she has lacked her entire life. She fervently pursues it with the man in the Holden, but he dies during a shower of her kisses and loving words. She never even gets to learn his name.

Both characters demonstrate deep dissatisfaction—and total powerlessness to escape from it—a theme most overtly symbolized by their monotonous routine of watching the evening traffic.

A strong theme within “Five-Twenty” is the patriarchy. The broader theme could be said to be that of gender roles, but the structure they exist within is distinctly patriarchal.

The relationship between Royal and Ella is unequal and always has been, from how she dusts his boots in gratitude when he rides out to see her to the way she prepares more expensive meats for his dinner, leaving cheaper chops for herself. He expresses no surprise that she would do such a thing and treats her as a second-class citizen within their household. When they inherit money, there is no question that it is his decision as to what they will do with it, just as it was his decision to move into the house they live in. When the doctor gently suggests that sometimes, when a married couple cannot have a child, it is because of the husband, Ella cannot hear or even think of the possibility. She has too fully internalized her husband’s superiority.

The framework for this imbalance is visible in their childhoods. Royal was given a name that grants him an immense sense of his value—probably too much of it—while Ella often overheard her mother describing her as a “plain little thing” who can “wash and bake against any comers.”

During her life with Royal, Ella limits her expressions of anything that might bother him or call into question his superiority. Even after he dies, she lives in a diminished state, with the possibility of a new life only offered by the arrival of another man into her life, a possibility quickly snatched away by his unceremonious death.