Comparing Isolation In Bartleby, The Scrivener And Cathedral

Isolation in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a short story by Herman Melville published in 1853. It tells the story of Bartleby, an office clerk who one day refuses to do what he is asked. “Cathedral” is a short story by Raymond Carver, published in 1983. The story is told from the point of view of a man whose wife invited an old blind friend of hers to spend the night at their place. In both works, the stories are told from the point of view of a character that observes another isolated character. In “Bartleby,” the eponymous character, by refusing to work, slowly isolates himself from the rest of the world, despite the narrator’s attempts to communicate with him. In Carver’s story, though reader might think that the blind man is the most isolated character because of his physical impairment, it appears that, throughout the story, the narrator himself suffers from isolation. In both stories, the narrators are themselves as isolated as the character they observe. However, the

end of Carver’s story shows an epiphany, a possible communication between the blind man and the narrator, whereas in Melville’s story, the narrator fails to reach out to Bartleby.
Bartleby, in the short story of the same name, is a humble clerk, working in an office on Wall Street.

In the beginning, he appears to be a model employee, doing his job swiftly and without complaint. However, one day, he starts refusing to work, and does not give any other justification than the repeated sentence “I would prefer not to.” This refusal is the beginning of an isolation that only worsens. His employer, who is also the narrator, tries to be comprehensive, but Bartleby’s very presence disturbs him. He perceives Bartleby as someone terribly lonely and this makes him uneasy, as it forces him to reflect upon his own loneliness. Bartleby’s isolation takes a strong physical turn when a “high green folding screen” (page) is installed into the office to “isolate” (same page) him from the narrator’s sight. Bartleby is further isolated by a narrator who ambiguously doesn’t mean any harm, but fails to understand

him.
In Carver’s “Cathedral” as well, at first, the narrator seems to isolate one of the characters from the world, by constantly referring to him as “the blind man,” imagining him as a cliché of a blind person and thus portraying him as an isolated man. The narrator seems prompt to isolate other people into categories. When Robert’s late wife is mentioned, the narrator’s first reaction is to say “Beulah! That’s a name for a colored woman.” (page) However, as the story goes on, it turns out that the narrator himself might be just as isolated as Robert. On the other end, Robert turns out to be more socially integrated. According to his wife, the narrator does not “have any friends. Period.” (page) while Robert has “a lot of friends” (page) to visit all around the world. In the end, Robert asks him to draw a cathedral with him. The narrator’s poor performance shows that, despite his functioning vision, he doesn’t really know how to truly look. However, drawing the cathedral with Robert represents an epiphany for him; he momentarily breaks his isolation by achieving a form of communication that goes beyond sight and speech.
In Bartleby, there is no such final connection. The narrator, who keeps worrying for Bartleby finally finds him dead in prison. His final words are “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” (page) as if finally showing a form of understanding, but only too late.
In “Bartleby the Scrivener,” as well as in “Cathedral,” the reader is told a story from the point of view of a narrator who, at first, seems integrated in society and talks about another character who is isolated. However, in both stories, it turns out that the narrator is as much, if not more, isolated as the other character. In “Cathedral,” the narrator manages to break both his isolation and the “blind man’s” in a final epiphany. In “Bartleby the Scrivener,” the end is more pessimistic, with the narrator failing to come to come to terms with his own self through an understanding of Bartleby’s isolation.

Works Cited
Tan, A. (2006). Rules of The Game. In R. Bausch, & R. Cassill, The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (pp. 1423-1430). New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company.