Analysis of Herman Melville 'Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street'

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” by Herman Melville demonstrates the detrimental issues of capitalism. The main characters, the lawyer and Bartleby, show the divide that can be caused by social statuses in capitalism. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country 's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” A prime example of capitalism is Wall Street which happens to be the scene of “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” One of the important pieces of capitalism is that what you put in is what you will get out. This is an important factor to remember when examining the story for

Davis, “The Narrator’s Dilemma in ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’: The Excellently Illustrated Re-statement of a Problem” he provides evidence of the capitalism being present in the characters along with the story line. One of the first issues that Davis explains as an issue of concern that starts from the very beginning of “Bartleby the Scrivener” which is how the narrator, the lawyer, “worries more about the usefulness and productivity of his scriveners than their individual characters.” As explained in the previous paragraph the lawyer introduces all of his employees and what he sees from them at the beginning of the story. The lawyer is more focuses on what he employees do for him not who they are as individuals. This is the first down fall of capitalism that is found in the story. The next important event of the story line is when Bartleby makes his famous response of “I would prefer not to.” As Davis explains Bartleby is the enigma of story since he is refusing to do work. “Bartleby is a man confronted with ‘what he feels to be the meaninglessness of the universe’; ‘there is no possibility of meaningful action, Bartleby seems to say, and it is certain that man cannot successfully will anything.’” Bartleby becomes aware of the meaningless of his job as a scrivener, just copying meaningless information endlessly. A unique feature of capitalism is that the value of an individual is set on their output for a job. This makes Bartleby’s value very

Bartleby did not have a place of residence but he lived in the office so when he made the decision to stop becoming a productive member of the capitalist society he also lost is “home” in the process as well. This important fact about Bartleby not having a place to live can show the divide between the upper and lower classes. The lawyer was unaware of this situation till one weekend he came back when the rest of Wall Street was vacant and there was Bartleby in the office since he had no other place to be. The layout of the office is an important piece to note since Bartleby did not leave either. The office was located on the second floor but looking out the windows you could not see anything but a wall. This wall could be the figurative wall of control by the upper class on the workers or lower class. The walls surrounding the office that there is no outside world for the workers and that they would be doing their work endlessly. Melville is showing a clear example of the situation of capitalism and the impact on the workers which is that they are undeniably controlled and continuously reminded of their unhuman status within the society. The second part of the significance of Bartleby not having a place to live besides the office is that this ended up getting him arrested and sent to prison. Bartleby ends up dying in prison facing a wall. The irony that he dies facing a wall