Lotta sociale e spazio urbano. "In the Cage", Henry James

The paper aims to explore the interplay between class conflict and urban milieu that structures In the Cage’s narrative. Starting from the author’s prefaces and some of the most influential sociological essays of the time, this study delves into the spatial counterpoints – streets, houses, parks, neighbourhoods – used by James to represent the social turmoil that upsets Late Victorian London, thus giving shape to the emerging classes’ difficulty in creeping into its hermetic class system. In the nouvelle, such a predicament is effectively thematized by the experiences of an anonymous telegraphist, whose burning desire for social improvement translates into the attempt to physically penetrate and “colonize” the most aristocratic areas of London. As the paper demonstrates, her efforts are met with utter disappointment: she always feels like an intruder in Mayfair’s posh streets, and she ends up seeing nothing but the hall of Park Chambers apartments. Constantly pushed to the city margins, she can only gain access to Maida Vale – the suburban limbo where her friend Mrs. Jordan lives – and Chalk Farm, which by virtue of its position «near town, and at the same time quite secluded» (Walford 1878) functions as a perfect spatial correlative to her liminal social status.