Bartleby The Scrivener

“Bartleby the Scrivener,” a short story by Herman Melville,b describes the narrator’s experience employing an introverted and seemingly isolated scrivener in his office on Wall Street, the financial district of New York. However, the idea of “Wall” Street can be read more literally, seeing as the scrivener, Bartleby, seems to find himself constantly surrounded by walls. Bartleby is walled in, not only by physical walls, but by walls he puts up himself in order to preserve his isolation, and by the pressures of the capitalistic society he is forced to live in.

Bartleby's narration ends in a low and sad tone because of Bartleby's death. By visiting the tomb, the lawyer understands that human kinds are faced with various challenges. Another sad moment is noted when the employees' vagrancy forced the boss to a life of isolation. The Lawyer is filled with pity for Bartleby and was mindful. He wondered what was wrong with Bartleby and tried many different ways to help, but he never accepted the requests. On the contrary, in Crane's story the ending is positive and is marred with optimism. The society was confined in a rigid way of thought, but this was changed when Jack Potter went against community norms and came back home with a bride. The ending of any story is essential in that it serves as a fulfillment for the audience, but also the setting is

When the lawyer finds out Bartleby never leaves the office and has made it his home he says, “Before, I had never experienced aught but a not unpleasing sadness. The bond of common humanity now drew me

This is because the narrator is trying to help Bartleby, such as giving him extra money, but when Bartleby doesn’t show appreciation, the narrator’s attitude towards him change. He is “seriously displeased [and] pained” (20) by Bartleby’s lack of appreciation. Furthermore, the narrator’s feelings toward Bartleby shift from sympathy to guilt because Bartleby ends up in jail. He isn’t the main reason for why Bartleby is in jail, but he is part of the problem. He is so deeply pained by the idea that he put Bartleby in jail because he doesn’t want to accept that he is part of the reason. The narrator has been sheltering Bartleby, by allowing him to stay in the office and give him extra money, and in doing so he attached himself to Bartleby. He no longer sees Bartleby as charity, but rather a responsibility. In the end, the narrator is no longer intrigued by Bartleby’s oddities because Bartleby has turned into a burden of

Herman Melville’s, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” tells the tale of Bartleby, the new scrivener at a lawyer’s office on Wall-Street. In an office of industrious, distressed workers who endlessly perform mundane tasks due to the orders of the lawyer, Bartleby forms a mystifying exception. Bartleby baffles his boss and colleagues by responding to requests with his famous line, “I would prefer not to.” His response demonstrates an unwillingness to work and a willingness to do what he truly desires, which is extremely unusual to both his colleagues and their society and creates a massive social divide between them. Due to the abandonment of those around him resulting from their growing frustration with his inactivity, Bartleby ultimately faces a swift

As the story of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is told, the narrator’s view of him constantly changes, the narrator debates with himself over Bartleby’s actions and the correct response to take. Bartleby’s influence over the office manifests itself through the narrator’s inner frustration. The narrator wrestles with a courteous but uninterested worker. He finds himself lost when confronted with Bartleby’s presence. The narrator’s frustration indirectly puts Bartleby in control. Bartleby can recognize that his behavior causes the narrator to become aggravated and can allow Bartleby to get what he wants. Examples being how he wants a place to stay, and not to have to read through copies, share personal information, or generally take orders from his

The narrator does whatever is best for him and his work so that everything gets done efficiently. There are many examples in the story that show how the narrator of the story is very committed. The narrator figures out ways to make his employees work most efficiently and is always trying to get things done. The story tells us about how Turkey comes back from lunch and is much more

Bartleby has taken the role as a panhandler in a sense. The lawyer sees that he has nowhere to go, and no one to depend upon, so he lets him stay. Even though he is poor, he’s not as naïve as everyone thinks he is. They call Bartleby mysterious and they take his many refusals lightly. It seems as if he knows exactly what he’s doing, and he just wants to make others feel sorry for him. He is only getting away with not doing any work because the boss lets him do so, and he knows this.

It is a statement that carries no strong approval, no attached personal values, and no strong objection to the request. Instead, it is a weak, substanceless response associated with no human emotion at all. People, by nature of evolution, are able to form their own opinions and preferences. Bartleby’s passive nature and seemingly lifeless mentality are further developed by his reaction to various events in life that would normally emit intense emotions. After being told that he was sentenced to the Tombs, without any sort of objection, emotion, or the like, he “offered not the slightest obstacle, but in his pale unmoving way, silently acquiesced.”(Melville. 46) This behavior is contrasted with the typical melodramatic reactions to similar instances that are commonly seen in today’s world. The sentencing to prison is something that would emit the strongest emotions in an ordinary individual. That Bartleby “offered not the slightest obstacle” is indicative that he has been stripped of his humanity by Wall Street. Despite maintaining a primarily contemptuous view of Wall Street people, Melville also reveals his pity towards those with such depraved values as the ones who occupy Wall

It is stated that he works long hours and greatly pleases his boss. One day Bartleby is called into the office to examine a document and he says, “I would rather not.” The Lawyer is so baffled by this that he sends him out and calls for Nippers to instead. This story does not have a lot of substance to it. It really is just about a pretty mundane man and his business, but this causes the reader to read in between the lines.

During this period, the narrator regards Bartleby as a good employee and offers him a work space in which Bartleby’s privacy is appreciated. Things change all in a sudden when the narrator once asked Bartleby to review a document. Surprisingly to the narrator, Bartleby refuses to do so without a proper answer. The narrator again tries to reason with his employee, like what he does with Turkey and Nippers, and forgives Bartleby’s impoliteness.

In turn, the narrator fails to recognize the humanity of his workers and reduces them to workers in his business. When describing his workers, he also focuses on their age, a factor that would determine how hard they work or how long they will work for him. His focus when describing his third employee, Ginger Nut, is he “was a lad of some twelve years old [and worked] at the rate of one dollar a week.” (14) This concentration on age and financial rate displays his non-existent desire to know his employees on a personal scale, only for their benefit to the company and how much money they cost him. The narrator’s desire for a successful business is evident in his reaction to Bartleby’s refusal to copy papers.

(292). His image is affected by Bartleby, and instead of involving the police to have Bartleby removed, he relocates to a different office to avoid confrontation and preserve his

When interpreting Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, many critics like to look at Bartleby and the mental workings that make him say “I would prefer not to”. However, I believe it is much more interesting to look at the lawyer in the context of a capitalist society. Bartleby, the Scrivener begins with a classic capitalist scene: An 1850’s law office on Wall Street. The protagonist, an unnamed lawyer, commences the story by telling the reader about how for thirty years, his life has been more or less ordinary, until a copier by the name of Bartleby shows up. From the very beginning, the reader only gets the lawyer’s side of the story. The reader can tell from the first paragraph that the lawyer is used a certain way of life, the easy

But before he made that decision, he had an epiphany that struck him as his thoughts became more vivid with the reasons why Bartleby would act in such a way that was not acceptable (2016). At that very moment, the lawyer became self-aware of the whys and wherefores of Bartleby's actions (2016). He learned Bartleby was homeless and did not have a place to call home (2016). Instead, he made the lawyers office his work and home (2016). He realizes Bartleby was not only a hard-working man, getting the documents done on time, but that was only because he had nothing else to look forward to rather than to focus on his work and rest at his office throughout the night while doing it all over again the next day