Compare And Contrast Bartleby The Scrivener

The topic that I choose for this research paper is the comparison and contrast between Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and Parker film Company’s “Bartleby”. The written form and the 2001 film version though they both show the same symbolism are very different in comparison. Melville wrote about a lawyer narrating a story about his employees, Bartleby. However, Parker produced a movie with a record keeper and his odd employee Bartleby. The time frame and setting within the two dialects are also different, Herman Melville’s setting is of 1853 and Parker’s is in the contempered age. There are many differences as there are similarities in the two scripts, even the characters are not the same. In the hurt story there

is a young man he calls Ginger Nut and in the movie, it is a woman named Vivian. I will be using three references apart from the story that Melville wrote and the movie version that Parker produced. The first source will be the journal article “A ‘Bartleby’ filled with distractions: [Home edition]. In the article Elanor goes over the differences to Melville’s short story and parkers movie version, for example, she states “sadly the director, Jonatan Parker, hasn’t just re-imagined Melville; he’s clobbered him” (Gillespe,2002). Furthermore, I will reference the article written by Scott, A.O. “So, you’re a nowhere man in a nowhere world, now get back to work”, compares Melville’s writing with the production of “Bartleby”, by Parker. Scott sates in his article that “Mr.

Parker, who wrote the script with Catherine di Napoli, has transported Melville’s story into a surreal contemporary nowhere world,” (Scott, 2001). The last resource being used in this research paper is an article wrote by Damon smith called “Poorly conceived “Bartleby” fails to bring characters to life”, this article discusses the drastic changes in the 2001 film “Bartleby”, compared to Melville’s original writings. Smith feels that these changes does not give Melville’s short story the justice that it deserves. These three sources are credible scholar articles that will provide comparative information to help support my thesis as well as primary points with this research. There are more differences in the movie and book that effect the way that the short story may have been perceive in its time. Parker takes a 18th century story and modernizes it to fit a culture that the viewers are in to help them to understand what Melville was trying to interpret in his writings. To some those drastic changes dampened the story and to others it made it more understandable and exciting. This research will show those differences as well as the similarities and show that the symbolism in both kinds of literature is the

same.