Compassion in “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Melville

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Character Analysis: The Narrator
The Theme: Compassion
How The Narrator Shows Compassion
The Narrator’s Role
Compassion in Society
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Human beings abide by established moral codes that govern society and advocate for the positive development of all living beings. As a result, individuals often try to reduce others’ suffering. Nonetheless, this does not mean a person has to sacrifice themselves, their business, or their livelihood to oversee others’ well-being and success. “Bartleby the Scrivener” is a short story by Herman Melville, published in 1853. The story takes a first-person point of view, allowing the narrator to share his experiences with his coworkers at his office on Wall Street. The narrator introduces several themes, but one notable line throughout the story is the limit of human compassion in situations where acts of kindness are rejected. The narrator wishes to alleviate Bartleby’s suffering out of pity. Still, the latter’s response, lack of communication with one another, personal interests, and social pressure play a major role in limiting the narrator’s compassion.

Character Analysis: The Narrator

Although the short story by Melville revolves around Bartleby, a persona introduced by the narrator as one of the strangest beings he ever knew, its focus lies on the narrator’s conflicts and issues with self-perception. The narrator starts the story by describing his own attributes and values. He believes that “the easiest way of living life is the best” and exhibits this attitude in all his interactions (Melville 3). As a result, the narrator is known for avoiding anything that can lead to unnecessary pressure.

However, he meets a challenge that pushes him to his limits and encourages him to go against his convictions about living. The narrator has the difficult task of showing compassion to an individual he does not fully understand. Empathizing with a person like Bartleby is physically, emotionally, and mentally draining because he resists authority and prevents the narrator from exercising his power (Thompson 76). The narrator struggles with the employee until the latter finally dies, rejecting the basic human need for survival. Nevertheless, the narrator’s patience and compassion run out several times, prompting him to shift his attitude to accommodate the societal pressure.

The Theme: Compassion

The interactions between the narrator and Bartleby present a struggle between self-preservation and helping others. Humans depend on each other to survive and progress, especially when faced with challenges. However, people choose to forego their pleasures to help others through compassion and empathy. Subsequently, pity is the reason why the narrator acts with patience and kindness toward Bartleby, his antagonist. Sympathy and concern are innate human attributes expressed by assisting others when they are emotionally, physically, or financially in need (Thompson 75). Nevertheless, individuals’ compassion is limited, considering that people’s needs are insatiable.

As a result, a person may choose to neglect assisting others, primarily if the efforts conflict with their personal comfort or development. In the short story, the narrator shows the audience that people have different levels of compassion, but everyone has an upper limit. Regardless of his moral stature, the narrator is forced to ignore Bartleby as the scrivener declines any reasonable assistance and refuses to help himself.

How The Narrator Shows Compassion

The narrator perceives himself as unable to devote himself to strenuous or complicated work. Nevertheless, he goes out of his way to accommodate Bartleby until he fails because the two men never understand one another. The narrator shows unusual compassion to Bartleby even after encountering the scrivener’s passive resistance to working (Dechêne 194). On recruitment, the employee seems dependable – he completes many assignments in the first two days.

However, after some time, Bartleby’s behavior changes drastically, to his boss’s surprise. He starts being selective and disobeys direct orders from his boss to assist with a task (Melville 21). Even so, the narrator does not fire or dismiss the scrivener, although he believes he should do that. Instead, he reasons that it would be unwise to let Bartleby go. The narrator believes that Bartleby would not find understanding elsewhere and would be thrown out on the street. In this case, compassion is given but not taken, which causes great frustration to the narrator. After several failed attempts to make Bartleby work, the narrator finally gives up. It is evident that his compassion towards Bartleby finally reaches its limit, and he abandons any attempt to help Bartleby.

The Narrator’s Role

The narrator’s struggle represents the inner dialogue that one has when deciding to help another person and meeting an unusual response. The narrator continuously justifies Bartleby’s defiance and wrong actions, but his self-interests prevent him from offering further assistance. When Bartleby refuses to work on documents assigned to him, the narrator links the scrivener’s behaviors to incomprehensible complex factors (Aguilar 146). The narrator sees that Bartleby “fully [comprehends] the meaning” of his offers to help (Melville 37). At the same time, he explains the scrivener’s refusal as “some paramount consideration” that “[prevails] with him to reply as he [does]” (Melville 37). This discrepancy between societal norms of accepting help and the apparent absence of a reason to refuse such assistance leads to great confusion for the narrator.

In other words, the narrator knows that Bartleby understands him, but something out of his control seems to make him deny the compassionate pleas of others. Moreover, the narrator appears to exceed his usual kind gestures – he wishes to help Bartleby settle down by giving him a place to stay or relocating him to his family (Aguilar 148). However, he eventually gets tired of pursuing Bartleby as the latter causes problems with the business and clients. Hence, the narrator’s efforts do not amount to anything, as he becomes frustrated with the scrivener’s presence at the office.

Compassion in Society

Social and environmental factors also significantly reduce the narrator’s compassion as people around him start questioning his authority. The narrator’s attempts to rationalize Bartleby’s actions end as no more excuses support his delinquency. For example, when Bartleby decides to stop copywriting, the narrator blames himself for not providing a well-lit space (Melville 17). However, he becomes tired of acknowledging these excuses and affirms that Bartleby is overstepping the bounds of societal norms. Moreover, the boss is unable to take the increasing judgment and questions arising from his colleagues over his influence at the office. At last, he succumbs to the wishes of his social circle and decides to move, leaving Bartleby behind (Thompson 86). Thus, the author reveals that an individual’s empathy depends on how much they are willing to sacrifice. In the end, compassion is a limited attribute that can run out at any time.

Conclusion

Compassion underlies critical human interactions because people stick together to make life easier. However, empathy is often sustained when both parties reciprocate and communicate. Otherwise, compassion has a limit that can make people turn their backs on others and neglect their assistance. “Bartleby the Scrivener” features a character who goes out of his way to provide for an employee he does not understand. However, in the end, his compassion runs out due to societal pressures, self-interest, and a lack of understanding, thus obliging him to abandon Bartleby. As a result, the story shares a lesson that compassion can help people have a meaningful existence but also has its limits and conditions.

Works Cited

Aguilar, Ricardo Gutiérrez. “On the Bearability of Others-Being: Bartleby, Expression and Its Justification.” Empathy: Emotional, Ethical, and Epistemological Narratives, edited by Ricardo Gutiérrez Aguilar, Brill, 2019, pp. 42–151.

Dechêne, Antoine. “Herman Melville’s ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.’” Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge, edited by Antoine Dechêne, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 93–218.

Melville, Herman. Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street. Bartleby, 1853.

Thompson, Alyssa. “The Call to Humanity in ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’: A Lawyer’s Story of Self-Transformation.” Women in Philosophy Journal, vol. 11, 2020, pp. 74–89.

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