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영어

This essay examines Henry James’s 1898 novella In the Cage with respect to the significance of the author’s use of the typewriter as a writing implement and his allusion to the telegraph in the story. Apart from highlighting their role in liberating the minds and expanding the consciousness of users, James also elucidates the limitations of the typewriter and telegraph as a medium. In the novella—created by dictation and typewriting—one finds numerous instances of the influence of the telegraph on the style and diction of the fiction. Similar to the author, the unnamed telegraphist in the story—by using the new medium— experiences a sense of expansion of her physical and mental capacities to a world beyond the boundaries of the self. She longs for a “wired” escape to a virtual web of possibilities to overcome social, economic, and sexual barriers. Her desire for non-verbal, pure communication intensely represents her dream to transcend social and material confinements. In this sense, despite the differences in economic and social positions, the telegraphist in In the Cage can be compared to the wealthier upper-class heroes and heroines in James’s other novels. While they are naïve idealists longing for mental liberation, they eventually awaken (sometimes fall victim) to the harsh reality of the world’s intricate web of material greed and sexual desire. Ultimately, through the telegraphist’s misinterpretation of the telegraph messages communicated between her upper-class customers, James implies that the meaning of words can neither be imposed nor exist inherently in the medium. Meaning is rather created in the context of a speech; it also depends on the relationship between sender and addressee, of which the telegraphist has no complete knowledge, except the transmitted words.