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Aspect of character in bartleby
Literary analysis of Bartleby
Aspect of character in bartleby
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Passive resistance is a powerful and effective way of dealing with control because, without any direct action, the opposition cannot find a ground to fight against, for there is no real direct threat. The passive resistance is incomprehensible, so in trying to understand the resistance as an attempt to solve or crush it, the opposition becomes even more disorientated and is left in a state of confusion, with no clear idea on what action to take next. Also, in attacking a passive resistance, the opposition ‘looks bad’, or seems less justified with the actions taken against said passive resistance. The unbreakable front also produces the responses in the opposition needed to keep the passive resistance strong and continuous, and even establishes …show more content…
Furthermore, the lawyer is fearful of damaging his image towards others. If he were to lash out against Bartleby, he would seem unjustified, inappropriate, and rude. Walter E. Anderson further goes into this idea that images do affect the lawyer’s outcome, stating “One might expect outrage, but the lawyer is only “nettled,” apologizing that even this reaction “was rather weak in me I confess” (p. 36). He is being mildly ironic, of course, but he also knows he is not “a villain” and would not be denounced for one” (Anderson, 391). As stated, one would expect anger and frustration from the lawyer, coupled with yelling and arguing towards Bartleby, but instead the lawyer holds his wrath for he knows he is not “a villain” (Anderson, 391), and therefore will not be depicted or thought of as one. The only way to formulate any conclusion or understanding of Bartleby is to guess or assume his identity, and recalling to an earlier quote by Nudelman, “staging multiple readings of “Bartleby” might seem ill advised” (Nudelman,
Bartleby- The Scrivener In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the author uses several themes to convey his ideas. The three most important themes are alienation, man’s desire to have a free conscience, and man’s desire to avoid conflict. Melville uses the actions of an eccentric scrivener named Bartleby, and the responses of his cohorts, to show these underlying themes to the reader. The first theme, alienation, is displayed best by Bartleby’s actions. He has a divider put up so that the other scriveners cannot see him, while all of them have desks out in the open so they are full view of each other, as well as the narrator. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This is proven when Turkey exclaims, “ I think I’ll just step behind his screen and black his eyes for him.”(p.2411) The other scriveners also felt alienated by the actions of the narrator. His lack of resolve when dealing with Bartleby angered them because they knew that if they would have taken the same actions, they would have been dismissed much more rapidly. The narrator admits to this when he said, “ With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence.” (2409) The next theme is man’s desire to avoid conflict. The narrator avoids conflict on several occasions. The first time Bartleby refused to proofread a paper, the narrator simply had someone else do it instead of confronting him and re...
McCall focuses his argument within the way in which Melville has written Bartleby, The Scrivener, he goes into detail about the comical aspects within the story and uses Melville’s description of Bartleby’s saying “I prefer not to,’ he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly disappeared.” (272). McCall suggests that the adverbs Melville uses, “respectfully” , “slowly” and “mildly” , “create[s] a leisurely little excursion into the uncanny” (279). I agree that the lawyer must have had some wit and good intentions in making the claim about Bartleby up to a point, I cannot accept this fully because many people still believe that the lawyer is unreliable. Most critics within the majority, as McCall reinstates, “believe, “the lawyer is “self-satisfied”, “pompous”…”a smug fool” who is ‘terribly unkind to a very sick man’ “(2660. I disagree with the idea that the lawyer was unkind and Bartleby was sick. The lawyer was fascinated by Bartleby’s responses to the job, and Bartleby, I feel knew exactly what he was doing in stating his responses. McCall acknowledges that “these cure two central problems in the story: the nature of Bartleby’s illness and the lawyer’s capacity to understand it,”
The definition of a lawyer is a person who practices or studies law. In Errol Morris’ interview of lawyer Murray Richman, Errol asks Murray many questions about the morality and some of his court cases involving the mobsters at the time. Some people may think Murray is in the wrong due to the fact that he is allowing crime to prevail. They say this because Murray is using his abilities as a lawyer to help his clients get acquitted in their court cases. This means that the mobsters who truthfully commit murder, may get off the hook due to Murray Richman. Murray is right to believe his actions are justified because he is simply doing his job as a lawyer and keeping his morals out of it.
Melville’s use of verbal irony allows for a deeper understanding of Bartleby’s character. Bartleby states that he would rather be assigned a position that is not as confined as a clerk; however, in reality, his behavior indicates that he prefers to be isolated. The narrator cannot understand why Bartleby expresses a disliking for confinement when he keeps to himself the majority of his time. As he
Bartleby demonstrates behaviours indicative of depression, the symptoms he has in accordance with the DSM-IV are a loss of interest in activities accompanied by a change in appetite, sleep, and feelings of guilt (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, 320). Very shortly after Bartleby begins his work as a Scrivener he is described by the narrator as having done “nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery”. (Melville, 126) In contrast, Bartleby had previously been described as a very hard worker and this process of doing increasingly less shows how his a diminishing sense of interest both in his work but also of the perception others have of him. It is also noted that included in this lack of interest is a social withdrawal (DSM—IV, 321) which corresponds well to Bartleby in that his workspace becomes known as his “hermitage”. During small talk which included Bartleby he says that he “would prefer to be left alone”. (Melville, 120) Bartleby only emerges from his hermitage when called upon and quickly returns when faced with confrontation.
Bartleby's state is further clarified by the symbolic use of the walls and the dead letter office described in the epilogue. First, throughout the story he is depicted time and again as facing and staring at a wall. Staring at a wall can mean ...
In Herman Melville's short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is constantly changing, the narrator's attitude is conveyed through the author's use of literary elements such as; diction-descriptive and comical, point of view-first person, and tone-confusion and sadness.
This can be seen in how the narrator and other lawyers never want to do anything that harms themselves or their reputation. Melville shows us this side of the lawyers when they come to the narrator to help rid themselves of Bartleby and they state, “Every body is concerned; clients are leaving the offices; some fears are entertained of a mob; something you must do, and that without delay.” Then, the narrator decides to help not out of the goodness of his heart but because he is “fearful then of being exposed to the papers.” All the lawyers have no true concerns of what happens to Bartleby as long as he is out of their way. This helps to give the reader some insight into how the law is there to attempt to keep people formed to the society intended where everyone has there place to help society run smoothly and if someone doesn’t conform to this society, they are told that they are breaking the law and must be imprisoned. Therefore, the lawyers decide to call the police on Bartleby and have him thrown in jail for nothing other than his
Through Bartleby’s flat and static character type, it is amazing how many different types of conflict he causes. From the first order to examine the law copies, to the last request to dine in the prison, Bartleby’s conflictive reply of “I would prefer not to” stays the same (Melville 150). In this way, he is a very simple character, yet he is still very hard to truly understand. Even ...
To begin, the focus will be set on the issues posed by the story of Bartleby. The audience may wonder why Bartleby goes from the employee who does his work without being problematic, to one who repetitively
Bartleby is a man who is in charge of his own life by having a free will and living a life of preference. His infamous line "I prefer not to" appears in the story numerous times. His choice of preference leads to the downfall of his life. Bartleby made several crucial mistakes that lead to his downfall. His first mistake was when the attorney asked him to make copies and run errands for him and Bartleby preferred not to do so. "At this early stage of his attempt to act by his preferences, Bartleby has done nothing more serious than break the ground rules of the attorney's office by avoiding duties the attorney is accustomed to having his scriveners perform" (Patrick 45). An employee is also supposed to do tasks in the job description and when these tasks are not accomplished or done correctly, not once but several times, it usually leads to termination. Bartleby is a rare case because he does not get fired. This in turn results in his second mistake. Since he was able to get away with not doing anything, Bartleby opted to take the next step and quit his job or in his own words, "give up copying" (Melville 2345). Quitting caused him to have more troubles than he had before. Bartleby then...
Melville intends something less black and white with more gray shading. Melville uses dramatic irony and grim humor in “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. This is to show the reader how the Lawyer assumes he is a safe, successful and powerful man with extensive control in his polite society until he hires a man named Bartleby. This relationship is slowly revealed to be quite a conundrum for the Lawyer and the reader. Melville shows how the Lawyer never had any power or control over Bartleby but quite the opposite; Bartleby held all the power and control in this relationship. I will explore the important of the power struggle and the fight to maintain control between the Lawyer and Bartleby.
For his kindness, Tom is returned with bitterness, with the only reason for this being because of the color of his skin. Mayella was not the only person who was insensitive to Tom. In the cross-examination, the prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Horace Gilmer, was unpleasant towards Tom, acting rude and calling him a boy. Although one might think this is due to his personality, as Dill pointed out “He didn't act that way when he was talking to his own witnesses”. Mr. Gilmer was plain disrespectful to Tom, unlike Mr. Finch, who was just as humane to Tom as he was to the others he cross-examined.
Franklin, H. Bruce. "Bartleby: The Ascetic's Advent." Melville's Short Novels: Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Dan McCall. New York: Norton, 2002. 176-85.
Herman Melville wrote about Bartleby in Bartleby the Scrivener and in The Dead Letter Office. The Dead Letter Office is a post office in Washington D.C. where letters end up at a dead end because the letters were not able to reach the destinations they were sent to. So whoever they had been sent to never got those them. Bartleby's job was to get those letters and later on burn them. In Bartleby the Scrivener, Bartleby no longer works in the Dead Letter Office; he now works for a lawyer. "Dead Letters And Dead Men: Narrative Purpose In 'Bartleby'" written by Thomas R. Mitchell and “Melville’s Bartleby, The Scrivener" by Todd Giles are both critical articles where the authors point out different meanings from “Bartleby the Scrivener” relating Bartleby to a dead letter. There is great significance within the story between Bartleby and the Dead Letter Office because it plays a big part on Bartleby’s character , such as not being the average worker, lost, and antisocial, by having Bartleby compared to a dead letter.