Category: Bartleby the Scrivener

Bartleby the Scrivener, written by Herman Melville explores the harsh reality of mentally unstable people in environments that are not conducive to their well-being. Bartleby shows what happens when someone with mental health issues has gone through a negative experience and then is forced into another because one cannot live without working. The story is set in a law office during the 1850s right after the end of the industrial revolution which created many jobs, but many of those jobs were very labor-intensive and repetitive. We are introduced to the characters in the office from the perspective of our narrator. Bartleby is mentally unstable due to his past and present work experiences and is not adequately cared for in time, he shows what happens when someone is in need of help but gets it too late.

After Bartleby’s job position is replaced in the “dead letter office,” a place where letters go that have nowhere else to go. Bartleby is then hired by our narrator and becomes a scrivener, someone who copies law and court-related papers. The narrator and his team work out of a small office on wall street, throughout the beginning story we get to know the other members of the office. Starting with Nippers who is described as constantly complaining in the morning about the height of his desk among other things, yet chipper and bright in the afternoon. Turkey is the oldest member of the office, and also the complete opposite of Nippers in that he works best in the morning and has a short temper in the afternoon. Ginger Nut, constantly running on errands generally fetching ginger nut cake, hence the name. He’s a young boy studying to become a lawyer, his father volunteering him so as to become more acquainted with the law profession. Last is Bartleby the most recent hire, we aren’t told much about his previous life, all we are told is that he used to work in the Dead Letter Office, sifting through letters that would never reach their destination. Bartleby tends to spend his time at the office blankly staring at a blank wall belonging to a neighboring building through a window. All of these members that work with Bartleby never once tried to support Bartleby outside of work-related matters.

The reason Bartleby is so absent from his work and life is because of his mental state after being replaced in his previous job. The narrator mentions Bartleby’s past employment at the “Dead Letters Office,” this fact gives us a lot of incite about what causes Bartleby to act the way he does. The Dead Letters Office is where letters go that no longer have a location or person where it was addressed and also had no return address, more often than not the person who was to receive the letter has died. Having to sift through these letters a day in and day out, that are incinerated shortly after he reads them, can have a profound effect on someone especially if they are already mentally unstable. Bartleby would look through letters all day that were then burned if they in fact had no were to go, showing the pointless repetitive nature of his job. “The report was this: that Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington, from which he had been suddenly removed by a change in the administration. When I think over this rumor, I cannot adequately express the emotions which seize me.” This quote is from the final portion of the story. Had the narrator realized the effect working at the office had on Bartleby, the narrator might have treated him differently when he showed repeated signs of negligence. The narrator would not have left the Bartleby on his own no matter the effects that Bartleby had on him.

The green screen the narrator puts between his desk and Bartleby’s is symbolic of the boss not wanting to be attributed to the employee’s work yet still being in reach and being able to hear them. The narrator put Bartleby in a position where there is a window that used to be a view into the backyard but because of recent and constant construction, all he can see is a brick wall. Construction shows the ever constent changing of the environment around Bartleby that he cannot keep up with. Bartleby is constantly surrounded by walls and he also never really seems to want to leave the comfort of isolation. By the end of the story, he is literally in the most walled-off place you can be, a prison. The following is a quote from when the narrator first visits Bartleby in the prison. ‘The yard was entirely quiet. It was not accessible to the common prisoners. The surrounding walls, of amazing thickness, kept off all sounds behind them. The Egyptian character of the masonry weighed upon me with its gloom. But a soft imprisoned turf grew underfoot. The heart of the eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the lefts, grass-seed, dropped by birds, had sprung.’ There are many ways to unpack this quote from near the end of the story. Although there are walls on every side there is still grass and flowers showing nothing is entirely walled off from the outside world. The narrator is constantly putting Bartleby behind these walls, either intentionally or unintentionally because he doesn’t want to have anything to do with him until he finally understands Bartleby when he sees him in the jail. He separates himself from Bartleby when he most needed someone close.

Bartleby is described as being a hard worker in the beginning, but toward the end is when his work ethic begins to change for the worst. “At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light. I should have been quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious. But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically.” As our heart begins to die the beat turns into a constant, mechanical rhythm much like the way Bartleby works at the beginning. After constantly working at his last job in the Dead Letters Office he is burnt out mentally and physically so he works constantly, not stopping, until one day his heart slows down to a point that Bartleby has trouble even trying to do simple tasks. This state should have been obvious to the other works and narrator but nobody cared enough to help.

When asked to do something he would always reply with an “I would prefer not to.” The first time the narrator hears this he is flabbergasted and doesn’t know the proper response. One day the narrator comes to the office and finds that Bartleby has been living there. Due to his repeated unwavering response and Bartleby’s living situation in the office our narrator decides not to fire him, but to move offices abandoning Bartleby alone. Giving him six days and some money to leave, Bartleby decides not to leave, but to stay in the office eventually resulting in him being taken to the “tombs,” or a prison. The narrator visits Bartleby bringing food and requesting special treatment for Bartleby. After returning to the prison a second time he finds that Bartleby has starved to death despite the food that was gifted to him. It is here, at the end of the story that Bartleby is finally adequately taken care of by the narrator, given food and comfort. Then he leaves Bartleby alone for a week just when he started to trust and have faith in the narrator this causes him to end his own life.

While researching the background of Melville’s literature, the scrivener: Bartleby, we can touch the pathos that the brutal and stressful working environment makes employees undergo profound loneliness and anxiety in wall street. Considered in the middle 19th century, wall street was regarded as a yearning shortcut to richness full of greedy speculators, even though there were many gullible people dedicated themselves to capital or marketing campaigns. Since capital never slumbers, capitalists are likely to tyrannize employee to pursue their maximize profit. In this case, it is reasonable to claim our main character, Bartleby, in the Scrivener, might suffer from deep depression, resulting from his rumination on the essence of humanity and perverseness for not compromising with capitalism. On top of that, His cadaverous-like characteristics might appeal to the fellow-felling of many other workers in wall street, representing the phenomena of alienation among people lurk in commercialism.

Based on the story of scriveners that happened in a chamber of the first-person narrator, a lawyer, the plots address a tremendous characters’ vivid psychological activity and characteristic analysis displayed by Melvine’s hilarious writing style. concerning each person’s eccentricity, it is plausible to conclude that the collaboration of each employee in this office contributes to an inclusive working environment and exhibit benevolence in their way. From , “The work of that concept, in no small part, is to produce a fiction of community, however large or small its scale, that rests on the constant aesthetic demonstration of the sameness at the core of the human: the sameness that makes us, in one fell swoop, comprehensible in our opacity and collectivize in our singularity”( Edelman 106). In other words, the lawyer tent to harness uncommon traits and peculiar dispositions of his clerks to generate the sameness, by counterbalancing each to form an efficient team. For example, Bartleby, despite his quiet and indifferent traits, he makes up his personality shortcoming by accomplishing an extraordinary amount of mechanical scrivener business in the beginning. In contract with Bartleby’s sedate singularity, Turkey and Nipper have quiet fights and fiery temper at times. By concluding “the irritability and consequent nervousness of Nippers were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon he was comparatively mild. So that…I never have to do with their eccentricities at one time. Their fits relieved each other, like guards”(Melville 121), we can determine that lawyer is considerate and sophisticated due to his strategic allocation for his human capital, which is beneficial for him to hedge or minimize the risks of his business. Besides, Gingernut, who is also a temperate young man, responsible for procuring food and other trivial daily things. In short, the synergy among those workers constructs a rational working pattern, which is beneficial for augmenting the efficacy of the business.

Apart from the utilitarian aspects of the lawyer, there are many other dark sides of humanity disclosed in this tale, which are a powerful explanation for Bartleby’s peaceful resistance for capitalism. Firstly, the story has provided us with the evidence that lawyer inclination to enslave the workers. According to the argument that “the lawyer is also blind to the fact the hierarchical distribution of labor in his office, which relegates the clerks to copying his documents and promptly performing this behests, is a social construct deriving from an economic system that invests employers with virtually unlimited power over their wage-dependent employees”( Kuebrich 393). For example, the lawyer “abruptly called Bartleby” with “haste and natural expectancy of instant compliance” because he thinks a small affair he had in hand is even more important than “any necessity had arisen for having his writing examined”. Therefore, when Bartleby continuing to cease doing and negotiating anything, he refused to figure out the hidden reason and assume its “violently unreasonable way” (Melville 125). Secondly, it is ridiculous for a lawyer to pry on others’ privacy. After the lawyer finds out the secret that Bartleby is homeless and sleeps in his office, which also evokes his unprecedented melancholy and sadness, he resolved to ask Bartley for his history out of “a prudential feeling” (Melville 134). If Bartleby refused to openly answer hid questions, he will give him twenty dollars for dismissal. In these circumstances, it is powerful to state that the lawyer is self-interest and stands for a dictatorship of capitalism since he only cares about healing his pity regardless of the inferior’s emotion and pain. Accordingly, his problematic and feudalistic mindset might bring up an invisible stressfulness for his office, giving rise to many psychological problems for his clerks.

In the rapid living pace in wall street, one might feel chiefly depressed feelings resulting from hierarchical social stratification, which get in the way to surpass their existing circumstances. it is vital for us to find a way to vent the pressure. For example, turkey . The jobs are so wearisome and boring. The symbolic function of a class in capitalism.）On the other hand, from the dungeon-liked environment inside the office and gray brick wall outside the windows, both lawyers and Bartleby are far away from pureness and beauties of the mother, which might suggest they both alienate themselves from others to some extent. Part of the Bartleby is a “psychological double” of the lawyer because “his insistence that he “prefers not to” conform reflects both his gentleness and the profundity of his rejection of impersonality masking itself as personal contact. As such, it appropriately represents a voice deep within the lawyer himself, a desire to give over his mode of life…Bartleby clings to the lawyer because he represents a continuing protest within the lawyer’s mind” (Marcus 367). In a nutshell, the reason why Bartleby is a psyche of the lawyer results from their identical aloofness and impersonality. The lawyer felt deeply mournful when he saw Bartleby died of starvation. The thing that prompted him to touch Bartleby and even yelling “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, the humanity!” is the high-involvement or pathos, derived from his despair and sadness for losing a brave self who abide the social conformity and not surrender to the commercialism’s enticement.

There once was a small law practice office on Wall Street in New York City. In this office, an elderly man of about sixty years of age runs his small business with the help of several scriveners: Nippers, Ginger Nut, and Turkey. The scriveners are employed to write journal work and to help review the works of others with the lawyer. In his business, the elderly man helps the wealthy men of the city with their mortgages, bonds, and other financial problems. He is a lenient individual and stands firm in his Christian faith. Everything seems to be falling into place and to be going smoothly until Bartleby arrives. He was previously working at The Dead Office. The Lawyer decides to bring him in for hire. Little does he know, Bartleby is unlike any of the other copyists he has employed. He only wants to copy. He refuses to do the other work the lawyer asks him to do and consistently responds with, “I would prefer not to,” (Melville 26).

The small office provided jobs to Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut before Bartleby arrives. Turkey is an Englishman around the same age as the lawyer. He has one major flaw: a drinking problem. In the book, it says “In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o’clock, meridian – his dinner hour – it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals,” (Melville 19). Turkey is very useful before lunch hours, but after lunch, he becomes drunk and vague. He starts making mistakes such as dripping blots of ink on the papers he is copying. His alcohol problem clearly becomes a hindrance to his job and responsibility. The second copyist goes by the name of Nippers. Nippers is a rather young man and comes in around lunch to relieve Turkey. Nippers cannot be at work before lunchtime due to indigestion from unknown causes. He is particularly bothered when he makes mistakes while copying. He becomes irritable and impatient with the other men in the heat of business. The third scrivener is known as Ginger Nut. He is a young child around the age of twelve. His father helps him get this job before he died because he wanted his son to succeed. Ginger Nut’s duty for Turkey and Nippers becomes a cake and apple purveyor, (Melville 23). Both Turkey and Nippers have their flaws, but none were comparable to what is coming. One summer morning a young man described as being pallidly neat, pitiable, respectable, and incurably forlorn stands on his office threshold. This man’s name is Bartleby. He comes in, and the lawyer immediately notices that he is different. Bartleby indulges in the writings he is given and copies at a quick pace. The lawyer says, “But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically,” (Melville 24). More here insert thesis

Throughout the story, Bartleby uses the statement, “I would prefer not to,” (Melville 30). several times. Every time the lawyer would ask Bartleby to do something other than copy, he responds with this statement. Surely, this extremely irritates the lawyer to pay Bartleby to work but he refuses to work. He does not want to get frustrated with Bartleby in the beginning, but the longer it goes on, the more he becomes sour. The lawyer deals with this behavior for a long time, and this makes Bartleby spoiled. He realizes that saying, “I would prefer not to” (Melville 35) is all he has to say to get his way. He can get out of doing any of the work he pleases without punishment. The lawyer treats Bartleby with a more than fair action. He is more lenient with him so that he might get some information out of him. He asks Bartleby about his family and receives no response. He asks Bartleby about his life prior to working there and still gets the same response: “I would prefer not to.” It has been said that Bartleby never once refuses to do anything he is asked to do. According to Beverungen, Bartleby does not refuse: “He exceeds this enforced choice. He simply prefers not to,” (Beverungen 10). With all of that being said, he can possibly be so kind to him in hopes for more information. In the long run, the lawyer hurts Bartleby because it allows him to do anything he wants without the risk of repercussion.

The lawyer treats Bartleby fairly. Some people even compare the kindness of the lawyer to Christ, and Bartleby to God’s children. Bartleby has previously worked in an office called the Dead Letter Office which symbolizes a person’s life before accepting Christ. Once someone accepts Christ, he is born again and has a purpose. Now that Bartleby has been taken in by the lawyer, he has experienced obvious comfort in the office. Towards the end of the novel, it is mentioned that Bartleby never leaves the place. Even when the lawyer tries to kick him out, he still will not leave which can be compared to the loyalty God’s children should have with him. Christians should cling to him in the darkest and brightest times, even when evil tries to cloud their view. The Bible tells about The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. The victim has traveled a long way from Jerusalem to Jericho and is taken in by the Samaritan. The Samaritan takes care of him and makes sure he is okay (The Prudent Samaritan 359). This relates to the novel because Bartleby travels from Washington to New York in search of a job. This is where he is taken in by the lawyer. He takes care of him by giving him a job, a place to stay, and even food at times. This shows that Christians should love everyone, whether it be a neighbor, enemy, or friend. The Samaritan shows love by helping someone out that he did not even know. This relates to the novel because the lawyer is very impatient with Bartleby and is tempted to lose his cool. Instead, he helps him and tries to show him love and compassion. At the end of the story, the lawyer does several favors for the sake of Bartleby. When he first comes to work there, all of his flaws are overlooked. This goes for the other scriveners as well. Their flaws are always okay. Even after Bartleby is removed from the property of the office and taken to jail, the lawyer visits him and brings him some dinner. These actions show mounds of kindness because not only does Bartleby fail to do the work he is assigned, but also he lives on the property without permission or without even paying rent. The normal person would be furious and would probably lash out on Bartleby. The lawyer does just the opposite. He allows him to stay there even though he does not understand. He never forces him to do other work when he politely declines the tasks. Even when he is forcibly removed, he still shows kindness by visiting him in jail and making sure he was well taken care of. The lawyer even took the extent of kindness to pay off one of the lunchroom workers with his own cash just to make sure Bartleby was well fed. This is the kindness only the children of God can have. All flaws and mistakes are overlooked and exchanged for love.

The lawyer is a very patient and caring elderly man who only wants what is best for all of his scriveners. He is a compassion man and it shows throughout the entire text. It had to be very difficult for him to maintain a cool head while dealing with someone that uncooperative. He tries to be more than fair with his judgments. Bartleby is unlike the rest; he only wants to copy. The lawyer allowed him to do exactly that. The frequent repeating of the phrase,“I would prefer not to,” (Melville 25) becomes understood as a preference not a denial. He never refuses or denies any work; he just prefers not to do the work, and therefore, is never forced to. The lawyer’s kindness is similar to that of God’s. He is forgiving, unforceful, patient, and caring. He takes Bartleby in and cares for him beyond what he is required to do.

“Bartleby the Scrivener”, a narrative essay, written by Herman Melville is a complex story that can be seen from many different viewpoints. The narrator of the story, known as the lawyer, is the protagonist, who possesses an incessant urge to understand the world around him. He can be seen as a voice for the people of his society, while he also separates himself from it by having extreme obsessive-compulsive actions throughout this plot. The lawyer makes sure to give his two cents on every aspect of the story, leading readers to know plenty about his beliefs and job-driven lifestyle. While all of the lawyer’s thoughts and opinions are made clear by Melville the reader is left to make one’s inferences about his character beneath the surface. The lawyer’s character has a method to his madness. Meaning he is versed in figuring out other’s demeanors and what the world he lives in expects of him. He can also be described as a wise and sensible man, who shows patience to others like characters: Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers. The narrator is extremely practiced, as the reader can tell he is also intelligent. However, as a person, he is so concerned with his-own self-being that his relationship with Bartleby, the antagonist, is sickened, in turn creating the plot.

The lawyer’s life is solely based on questioning and making sense of the world that surrounds him. Although the reader can infer that he may be unaware of this fact. He admits his character is one who overthinks and tries to comprehend at an obsessive level, ‘All who know me consider me an eminently safe man’ (Melville, 130). While the lawyer struggles to understand Bartleby’s odd behavior, he overlooks the fact that they are more alike than they are different. Both build safe havens in their life to shield them from exposure to the expectations of the outside world. The narrator’s safe haven is in a wall street type of job. Where he knows exactly how he should act to be the best lawyer. Yet he has never eluded to having any family, friends, or even any type of normal human interaction. McCall agrees with this idea that the lawyer is inadvertently secluding himself from society. He even states that the lawyer is, “deficient in humanity and quite obtuse towards human beings” (McCall, 155). Similarly, Bartleby shields himself from a social lifestyle by having little to no human interaction with a mildly skilled job. The only time that the narrator even acknowledges that he and Bartleby are similar he merely states, ‘For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam’ (Melville, 140). The lawyer can come to see that the characters are both of the human race but this, in turn, shows the reader how he places himself above the people of society. There he had placed himself and Bartleby in the same spectrum but continues adding, “Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. Ah Bartleby, Ah Humanity.” (Melville, 153). Only proving the point that he does believe he has figured out all aspects of the perfect life when Bartleby lacks being this model of society’s ideals. This shows a waterfall effect of what is thought to be how society and the working world should look, as Bartleby can be thought of as mentally slow, and maybe the reason as to why he seems to have given up on life and secludes himself from society. While Bartleby is relatively secluded from society, working for the lawyer is an attempt to regain human interaction and work towards a normal daily life. In a different light writer, McCall Sees this outburst by the lawyer as he proclaims it “a someways hollow and unfeeling exclamation” (McCall, 155). As if there is no feeling of self-righteousness behind it. While this is untrue, it is the lawyer’s differentiation between his status and Bartleby’s.

In a general sense, the lawyer is seemingly normal. He is not a very likable or unlikable character; he keeps a clear head and is rarely hostile. He tends to try and float through life easy going without confrontation. He describes himself as a rather successful lawyer and is proud to acknowledge how dependable he is. He even describes his success in obtaining the position as a “Master of the Chancery Court” (Melville, 130-131). Yet, while he is well-to-do and is probably acquainted with higher political figures, he does not show a great deal of work ethic to the reader. He seems to be easily psyched out especially under pressure. It can be inferred that the narrator lonely other than the company of his work. A daily routine is what he is most comfortable with. In terms of character, he is quite bland, with a very little spark to his lifestyle. Bartleby becomes his challenge to an everyday schedule that comes with constant uneasiness. While he has few distinguishing qualities, it is apparent his biggest problem is lack of confrontation, which is seen with all the characters who are employed by him not only Bartleby. He employs two certifiably awful clerks, Turkey and Nippers, probably because he lacks the time, effort, and guts to fire them and find better help. The narrator constantly persuades himself it rather irrational to confront people. He is unaware that this is a weakness by making himself believe this is the appropriate way to act, which is not a very good aspect of a businessman or leader. In turn, this is the predominant reason why conflict arises among himself and Bartleby. He goes as far as to move his office to an entirely different building to avoid Bartleby.

While the Narrator battles through his issues with confrontation, he is not a bad guy. Although he does show a certain measure of sympathy for Bartleby; the lawyer remains stricken by his-own self-worth. He is puzzled by Bartleby and takes on the responsibility of figuring out his character. After it is all said and done, the lawyer shows sympathy towards Bartleby even though he is no longer his employee. This is the first time the reader sees actual human emotion from the narrator, making him easier to read and figure out. Even with flaws, it is easier to relate to the lawyer.

Short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” is an iconic mystery in the English Literature industry. If one has read and is familiar with mystery than they would know that the solution is very far and few between a happy ending like one would hope for. Because of this, it only makes the mystery story a perfect mystery story. While reading Bartleby one may ask themselves, “why am I reading this very dry un-exciting story?” yet, they find themselves unable to quit reading because they must know how it ends. Herman Melville, the author of this short story is able to tell his tale in a way most authors can’t. He is able to combine comedy and tragedy into one story.

Bartleby the Scrivener can easily be evaluated in many different ways. The power struggles between the characters of the short story, the economical issues, and inequalities that arise from these issues. However, the reader could also really dig in and analyze the story by looking at the symbolism, characterization or overall theme to find what the author is trying to say about the “human condition.”

The short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” is one big struggle of power between characters. Herman Melville uses dramatic irony and black humor to show the reader how one of the lead characters, the narrator, assumes his practice is safe because he is a “rather elderly man” (886) who is an experienced, successful, lawyer with a substantial amount of power as he rightfully should be since he is the owner of the practice. The idea that the narrator has complete power and control over his practice and employees quickly changes soon into the second paragraph of the story when the narrator gives talks about his other employees. When learning about each employee’s character it’s safe to assume that they are not going to win the employee of the year award. However, the narrator assumes his age and years of experience make him a better judge of what is good and bad with the people he employs.

The narrator decided he need to hire another scrivener for his practice, so, he hired Bartleby who seemed like the perfect fit. He “did an extraordinary quantity of writing” (891) “there was no pause for digestion. He ran day and night copying by sunlight and by candle-light.” (891). Until one day when given instructions from the narrator her simply said in an “in a singularly mild, firm voice, “I would prefer not to.” (891). At this point, the narrator is feeling like he is losing his control because this has never happened to him before. At least with Turkey and Nippers one was productive in the morning and the other in the afternoon but now he has a worker who won’t work at all and he is left in shock along with the readers. The narrator admits that his reaction is not his typical response to someone with such lack of respect for their elders, “had there been anything ordinarily human about him, doubtless, I should have violently dismissed him from the premises.” (892) said the narrator. Instead of acting out of rage, he tries to take control of his power and “I begin to reason with him” (892) as he did with Turkey and the coat but this time it was different, he got nowhere with Bartleby. This is the beginning and only one of the many power struggles between Bartleby and the narrator, yet ultimately, the narrator will lose.

After looking at the power struggles between the characters, mainly Bartleby and the narrator, I feel that there are some deep meaning in what the author, Herman Melville is trying to tell the audience about the human condition. He views the human condition as the modern human is isolated from their daily lives. The behavior of Bartleby and the other characters is their inability to feel any emotion towards anything. Bartleby is withdrawn from “life” and it started by his refusal or non-determination to preform his regular task at work. This behavior expands by him not even willing to move from the office. This is much like how people now with depression behave. At first, they stop performing regular tasks and call in “sick” at work or they stop hanging out with friends and family because they rather be alone. When he is not willing to leave the narrator just gives up and moves his practice to run away from his problem and pawn it off for somebody else to deal with it. This is far too common for people to do now because it is much easier to tuck their tail and run for the hills rather than stick it out and solve their problem. Eventually, Bartleby get’s thrown in prison and stops eating resulting in him dying due to starvation.

Herman Melville was born New York City in 1819 and died in 1891. At the beginning of his life, he was living in a wealthy family, but after his father’s death, his life started to change when he was 20. He became a sailor in a whaling ship and he experienced the life of a sailor. He travelled across the world, especially the tropical areas he sailed. After his sea voyages, based on his experiences, he wrote Moby-Dick which is counted as his masterpiece. Moby-Dick did not get the interest that Melville expected from the readers in that time period. But he is rediscovered by literature critics in 20th century after 30 years from his death. He wrote Bartleby the Scrivener in 1856, it can be seen that, the rising American capitalism affected his works. Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener suggests that capitalism can dehumanize workers and that its stability relies upon the illusion that it is an expected, merciless system.

In Bartleby the Scrivener, Melville uses themes of isolation, capitalism and dehumanization in American workplaces through the lawyer’s employees’ desolations both mentally and physically. At the beginning of the story, the narrator begins with long describes of his characters. He is putting nicknames to his employees and explains their in-office-manners. This narrations helps the narrator to dehumanize them, because the lawyer only regards their capability of working, like working tools. Nicknames that he put them also shows how he sees his workers as inhuman beings, removing a part of their human side with not calling them with proper names. Ginger Nut is the important character here, because he is only used as a delivery boy. He does not write like others. He is described by the lawyer as “cake and apple purveyor” (Melville, 5). It means that he has no other uses in the narrator’s point of view. This instance supports the Melville’s argument about the dehumanizing effect of capitalism on workmen. It is interesting that, even he describes all of his workers, the narrator is having a hard time –literally tells a long story when he tries to tell about Bartleby– when he tries to explain about Bartleby. Because Bartleby is the only one who rejects the demands of the system. Eventually, he ends up with his death. Because of his resistance to the system, he finds himself dead. The lawyer is the symbol of the system.

During midst of 19th century, capitalism with slavery was on the rise. From a different angle, it is obvious that, Melville addresses the story of slavery in his work. The lawyer’s workers are not working in farms or plantations just as Americans made black people to, but in a more modern place. Their salaries which makes them survive are not dissimilar from chains. No doubt, they are working under a wealthy man, as their owner. Their plantation can be considered as their office. And if we connect the capitalism theme with dehumanizing and slavery, they would complete a whole new perspective for the story, considering the year it has been written. Slavery was a common thing to get hard workers with ridiculous costs or for free, as mentioned in the story: “To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience” (Melville, 10). The lawyer does a lot of charity only to salve his conscience. He does not want to fire him because that situation would bother his conscience.

Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby and the Scrivener,” has provided readers and critics with enough material to speculate upon Bartleby’s condition and the message the writer intends to send through the peculiar character. Bartleby’s unique character was so mysterious that it forced readers to look into the motives of the other major character, the narrator. Besides considering the personality and actions of the narrator, others have concentrated their attention on the relationship between the two and the significance of their interaction or lack thereof. For the contemporary reader, Bartleby’s existence could have a double meaning: an alter ego for the alienated person who is living under circumstances completely different from what nature intended it to be and a choice of passive response to societies compulsiveness to adjust and submit to a strict simple but deceptive rules. After reading the short story the question we must all ask ourselves is does this story have a ‘hero’? Who is it? How does this affect the story?

Although Bartleby and the narrator are seen as the main characters, Widmer does not identify a “hero” in the story between those two. In fact, it seems as though he paints the narrator to be more of an antagonist. He feels that the narrator “variously attempts to exorcise his wan demon of perverse will, his own walled-in humanity.” I believe that it affects the story to the point of making the narrator seem less genuine during the times where he tries to help Bartleby. In the story, the other scriveners are very unreserved. So when Bartleby appears at the office and interviews for the job, the narrator thinks that Bartleby will tone the office down some because he was so different than the others. Everyone else worked in a separate location to the narrator, so Widmer believes that the narrator places Bartleby in his office so that he can control him and make him do things the seasoned employees wouldn’t.

The narrator introduces himself and sets the tone for his story in terms that present the reader with the setting that encompasses a claustrophobic world, his office: “ ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employees, my business, my chambers, and general surroundings” (Melville, 2330). The repetition of a possessive pronoun announces that the narrator presents a world that he thinks is entirely under his control. Furthermore, he portrays himself as a person who finds a way to go through life avoiding complications, perfectly just into the rules and laws of society, and always choosing the easiest way out of any potential problem. He further describes his lack of ambition as a virtue that helped him keep safe and sound through the years and retainage of wisdom, speared of any turbulence.

The double meaning of the relationship between the narrator and Bartleby must be taken into consideration considering the environment the narrator describes he lived in for most of his adult life. His employees, the only people he introduces as his entourage, appear to be suffering from the alienating effects of their profession. The head of the office seems to be perfectly aware of their flaws and wise enough to make the best use of their hindered capabilities. On the other hand, he lives and works in the same circumstances therefore, making himself subject to similar alienation effects.

Sanford Pinsker, who wrote the article, ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’: Language as Wall advances the theory that in order to understand the symbolism of Melville’s short story, one must focus on the details regarding the narrator instead of trying to sell the enigma posed by the scrivener himself. Pinsker further considers the metaphor of the walls in the short story and their importance in defining human relationships or the lack thereof. The description of the chambers occupied by the law firm on Wall Street indicates the power effect of the walls on those who are surrounded by them. No one is spared by the look of walls, not even the head of the office: “owing to the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my chambers being on the second floor, the interval between this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge square cistern” (2331).

The atmosphere of the whole story is complete already within this passage since an utter impression of claustrophobia is set in place. Considering Melville’s biography along with his travels and adventures during his young adult years, one could find a high degree of contrast between the wide and “uncivilized” basis he cruised through and the setting he creates for “Bartleby the Scrivener.” The people living in those chambers seem already dead, like ghost wandering around to tournament others. Questions like: “What is the purpose of their existence?,” “What is the meaning of life?,” “ Do these characters have any other life outside these walls?” arise when analyzing the circumstances Bartleby walked into at the law office. Melville’s exploration into the limitations imposed by an artificial and apparently absurd and purposeless life goes deeper into the depth of human mind and psyche.

The development of the narration gives the reader the possibility to make all kinds of speculations, thus bringing the story closer to being a mystery story. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock starts his analysis of the story with the consideration that it is indeed meant as a modern mystery short novel, pointing out the meaninglessness of some human actions: the conclusion or lack thereof of Bartleby’s points to the unsettling realization that every letter is potentially a “dead letter”- that, as famously proposed by Jacques Derrida, a letter can always not arrive at its destination meaning can always go astray. If this is an inherent possibility of language, then “Bartleby” finally raises the question of what is meant to be.

Barley is frightening to the narrator because he highlights the meaninglessness of work, something the narrator believed in. Once a message is taken out of context, it may become useless for those who are trying to discover its meaning. In this case, one accepts Weinstock’s proposal to consider “Bartleby the Scrivener” a mystery story. His conclusion would be that not only phrases, but also human beings taken out of context are likely to become useless or, otherwise meaningless.

In closing, other well-known writers such as, David Shusterman agree that Herman Melville did not write the short story with a “hero” in mind. Shusterman feels like even though there is not hero identified, a character to take note of is the lawyer narrator. The narrator goes out of his way to appear like the good guy but his intentions may not be so pure. He wants to be the hero but many believe he takes on a more antagonist role.

Works Cited

1. Widmer, Kingsley. “Melville’s Radical Resistance: The Method and Meaning of Bartleby.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 1, no. 4, 1969, pp. 444–458. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29531362
2. Shusterman, David. “The Reader Fallacy and Bartleby the Scrivener.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 1, 1972, pp. 118–124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/364228.
3. Pinsker, Sanford. “Bartleby the Scrivener: Language as Wall.” College Literature, vol. 2, no. 1, 1975, pp. 17–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25111055.
4. Melville, Herman, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street.” Project Gutenberg, 2004. Print.

When people get obsessed or curious about someone, they can do things that they would not be able to do it without being afraid of being judge by others or by themselves. Those individuals can make them change radically and leave a profound effect on them. In the short stories “Bartleby The Scrivener” by Herman Melville and “The Bridegroom” by Ha Jin, we are presented to two narrators who came across to a peculiar person, an outlier who would become close to each narrator. Each peculiar individual would be presented in the beginning of each story as the ideal person, but soon the perfect view of them decay. Eventually the narrators are force to deal with the problem of helping a person that is only giving them problems, problems that gradually increase as the stories go, but the curiosity that each narrator has towards the peculiar individual stops them from leaving them. Even though the narrators are willing to help in any way they can, they eventually realized that there is nothing that they can do in order to change the way those outliers are, leaving them at the end. In the two stories, the authors tell us how the narrators did not want to stay away from those peculiar individuals because they portrayed how the narrators wanted to be but could not.

In the story of “Bartleby” by Herman Melville, a lawyer introduces us to Bartleby. Due to the increase of the lawyer business, he is forced to hire one more person. This is when Bartleby first appears in the story. A scrivener who was described as a respectful, well dressed, and incurable forlorn. The scrivener performs an incredible amount of work leaving the lawyer impressed, but this image of a perfect employee starts to change when Bartleby refuses to revise his work in one of the most peaceful way by saying “I would prefer not to” leaving the lawyer shocked about the scriveners refusal (Melville 10-11). In this scene, we see how someone can appear to be the perfect employee. Bartleby was well presented and did a great work, but the way he refused to do a part of his job and how the narrator allowed Bartleby to get away with his refusal can only say that in a way the narrator was curious about him. The lawyer himself was unable to answer in the way Bartleby did nor he could act like Bartleby because of his work and social status.

From the beginning the author starts by presenting the lawyer. He is not ambitious. at all neither he likes to work hard. As the lawyer says in the beginning of the story, “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (5). This can explain why the lawyer did not get rid of Bartleby at the moment he started to refuse to do a part of his job. The way Bartleby behaved attracted the lawyer’s attention because he wished that he could be like Bartleby; do what he wanted and refused if he was asked to do a task. He grew up with the believe of the best life was to have an easy one, and surely Bartleby was having that kind of life. Furthermore, Bartleby had nothing to lose when he decided not to do any work at all. If the lawyer decided to behave like Bartleby, everything he had achieve could be lost. The lawyer surely was jealous of Bartleby and this made him keep the scrivener because at least he could witness what he wanted to do but could not.

Another person who is presented as the perfect example is Baowen. Ha Jin, introduces us to Baowen, in his story “the Bridegroom”. In this story the narrator is Old Chen. His nominal daughter Beina, was getting old and Old Cheng was concern that Beina would become an old maid, but everything changes when Baowen suddenly proposed to her leaving everyone in the factory shocked especially Old Cheng. Baowen is described as handsome, well educated, with fine manners, and that in a way “he resembles a woman”. This perfect image of Baowen changes when Beina came to Old Cheng’s office and tells him that Baowen did not come home (Jin 1-2). The way Old Cheng describes how Baowen is, gives the reader a feeling that he feels attracted to Baowen, especially in the part where he says that he resembles a woman. Old Cheng describes Beina with only negative aspects while Baowen is being describe as the perfect man. As he was an Old man and never had a child of his own, Old Cheng could be questioning himself about his sexuality.

Even though Old Cheng felt curious or attracted towards Baowen, he would not be able to behave like him because of the society he lived in would not accept it. in the story after Baowen is caught in a gay men club and arrested, many rumors started to be heard in the factory. Saying that homosexuality was a westernized social disease (3). Therefore, Old Cheng would never be like Baowen. He had a good job as head of the security section and a wife. The pressure that the society he lived in was putting already on him was something that will stop him from accepting that he might be gay too. That is way he was curious about his nominal son-in-law. Baowen was married but did not have a child after eight months of being with Beina. Old Cheng was married for many years already and also did not have a child; this can tell the reader that Old Cheng could relate himself with Baowen. Old Cheng must have thought about he himself being homosexual.

Some people may say that both narrators were helping because that is the right thing to do. Even though the lawyer was giving many options for Bartleby to leave the chambers, Bartleby did not accept. The lawyer went even as far as asking Bartleby to come home with him and that he could stay with him as long as he needed to (Melville 32). This part is important for the reader, because for more that someone is willing to help another person, asking a stranger to come home and live there is an extreme option. The lawyer barely knew Bartleby and despite that fact, he was willing to take him to his dwelling. The lawyer had and attraction towards Bartleby, and even he says that he was exited to ask him to go to his house.

Work cited

1. MELVILLE, HERMAN. BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER: a Story of Wall-Street. PAPER INK, 2019.
2. Jin, Ha. The Bridegroom: Stories. Vintage Books, 2001.

Throughout “Bartleby the Scrivener” Melville introduces the reader to many male characters with interesting personalities and qualities. However, despite the masculinity portrayed throughout the narrative and the exclusion of women, there is a feminine presence that destroys the notion of a pure masculine world through the character Bartleby. Melville adds feminine attributes to Bartleby to provide a radical point of view of the male-dominated workforce that emerged in the 19th century and how women impact the typical “masculine” world.

The narrator describes himself as an “elderly man” (Melville 1469) who is also “one of those unambitious lawyers…an eminently safe man” (Melville 1470), and in a way this character is an extension of Melville himself. He owns a business that operates in Wall-Street and maintains the status-quo of a typical office environment of a capitalist society. The lawyer avoids conflict with his employees, who have less than favorable qualities, but believes them to be assets to his business. The narrator states that “[t]heir fits relieved each other like guards. When Nippers’ was on, Turkey’s was off; and vice versa. This was a good natural arrangement under the circumstances” (Melville 1474). Turkey was proficient at his job until twelve o’clock, where his face “blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals” (Melville 1470) and his work would suffer until the end of the day. He is obnoxious, has a temper, and dresses poorly. The lawyer described him as having “clothes [that] were apt to look oily and smell[ed] of eating-houses” (Melville 1473). Nippers is a young man that is “the victim of two evil powers- ambition and indigestion” (Melville 1472), the latter which caused him to be irritable and fidgety throughout the day until the afternoon, where his efficiency increased. He is “always dressed in a gentlemanly sort of way” (Melville 1473). Ginger Nut is a young boy who is sent to the office to become a student of law but is mostly used as an errand boy to bring ginger nut cakes to Turkey and Nippers. These secondary characters are an asset to the lawyer’s business, which is why he keeps them employed. However, there is little knowledge of these characters beyond a working relationship.

Bartleby is employed soon after his interview and works more diligently and proficiently than the other employees. It’s noticeable that the lawyer gives Bartleby special treatment compared to the other employees. Bartleby is described as having a soft-spoken voice that sounds like “a flute-like tone” (Melville 1476), as well as pale skin. These are traditionally feminine qualities used by writers during this time, and it could be the reason why the lawyer was infatuated with him in the beginning. The office was “divided…into two parts, one of which was occupied by [his] scriveners, the other by [himself]” (Melville 1474), which portrays the hierarchy within the workplace and how disjointed the office is. The lawyer “assign[ed] Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on [his] side of them” (Melville 1474) but installs a temporary wall “which might entirely isolate” (Melville 1475) Bartleby until he is needed. On the third day, and on every occasion after that, when the lawyer wants him to examine a document or do something for him Bartleby replies “in a singularly mild, firm voice… “I would prefer not to”” (Melville 1475). He is unable to comprehend why Bartleby constantly resisted completing any tasks assigned to him, yet avoids disciplining him, using the excuse “more business hurried me” (Melville 1477). He becomes confused about his superiority, “begins to stagger in his own plainest faith” (Melville 1477), and defers to the secondary characters Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut on their opinions on how Bartleby should act.

The only time a woman is recognized directly in the story, is when the lawyer mentions his housekeeper. He says, “…there were several keys to my [office] door. One was kept by a woman residing in the attic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my apartments” (Melville 1480). There are no other details to describe her, yet he gave her the first key to the office. This symbolizes a type of authority she now holds in a masculine world. Eventually it is discovered that Bartleby holds the fourth key and holds the same authority as the housekeeper. Bartleby is also living in the office.

The lawyer expresses conflicting feelings towards Bartleby. First, he supports him and his feministic traits, but after pressure from society he “was made aware that all through the circle of my professional acquaintance, a whisper of wonder was running round, having reference to the strange creature I kept at my office. This worried me very much” (Melville 1489).