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Character analysis of the narrator in Bartleby the Scrivener
Effects of social isolation
Effects of social isolation
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Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville is a short story in which a lawyer, who runs a law firm on Wall Street in New York, narrates the story of Bartleby. Bartleby is one of the scriveners working for the lawyer. The lawyer finds Bartleby to be different and stand out against the other scriveners. The lawyer notes, “Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but his own particular business there” (12). The lawyer respects Bartleby for being a hard-worker. However, at this moment he notices that Bartleby is lonely. Bartleby the Scrivener is a story of isolation and alienation. During his life, Bartleby is isolated from his coworkers and from society. Melville conveys that society is primarily responsible for the creation …show more content…
and demise of Bartleby. The story begins by introducing the narrator, a lawyer who runs a successful law firm on Wall Street.
He employs multiple scriveners at his office to help him with his work. They are Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut, but the one who stands out from them is Bartleby. In his first days of working at the firm, Bartleby impresses the lawyer with his job performance. However, the lawyer begins to notice that Bartleby’s behavior is off. Bartleby began refusing to review documents and eventually refusing to write copies of the documents. He only sits at his office space and stares out the window at the wall. The lawyer offers Bartleby time off and then attempts to fire him. He notices Bartleby strangely never leaves the office and asks him to leave. After Bartleby refuses to leave, the lawyer decides to move to another office and leave Bartleby. The people who moved into the new office begin to get furious as …show more content…
Bartleby is still there. They blame the lawyer for Bartleby settling there, but he informs them that it isn’t his responsibility. The lawyer attempts to talk to Bartleby and even let him stay at his home, but Bartleby refuses. The lawyer then goes away for a few days, and upon his return he learns that Bartleby has been arrested and taken to the Tombs. Feeling compassionate, the lawyer pays a visit to Bartleby. He observes Bartleby in an open yard, but staring at a wall by himself. On his next visit, the lawyer spots Bartleby lying dead, curled up in a ball at the wall. The lawyer proceeds to hear a rumor of Bartleby’s past. He learns that Bartleby previously held a job at the Dead Letter Office. The story ends with the lawyer feeling sympathy for Bartleby and humanity. The story focuses on Bartleby’s isolation and alienation from society.
The quote, “Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to everything but his own particular business there” (12), depicts the separation between Bartleby and society. Though Bartleby is in an office space shared with others, he shuts them out and isolates himself. He doesn’t desire to be associated with anything but his own work. There is only an office screen separating him from the remainder of the office, but he still finds a method to alienate himself. This displays his ability to form his own isolated world. These behaviors of Bartleby are the result of society. When Bartleby first came to the law firm he was quite normal. But once he was ordered to review the documents by the lawyer, Bartleby refused to do something that society believed to be usual tasks. Therefore, asking Bartleby to complete the basic tasks started his
alienation. Society is not only responsible for Bartleby’s creation, but also for his demise. The narrator voices, ““Bartleby, in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, ‘I would prefer not to” (11). This quote exemplifies the small amount of conversation that Bartleby has ever made with the lawyer. Bartleby rejects any request made to him, even in made politely. This remark instills shock upon the lawyer as Bartleby believes he has the choice to do as he please. Bartleby is an individualist, who believes what he should be doing is what he wished to do. If he would agree to the lawyer’s task, he would become part of society. By doing this he would become like everyone else and cease to exist. Bartleby is not able to join in with society, which leads up to his death. Melville prominently portrays the themes of isolation and alienation in his short story, Bartleby the Scrivener. They are particularly portrayed within the main character, Bartleby. Society is responsible for Bartleby. However, there was nothing society nor Bartleby himself could have done to prevent his creation and demise. It is simply put that, Bartleby is unfit with society.
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...
Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: St. Martin's, 1995: 513-539.
The set up of this environment clearly gives a sense of entrapment as every direction Bartleby faces he is met with another wall and must maintain his focus on copying, on working. The lawyer however, shows no sign of this being a bad thing; he simply sees the sharing of the office as a convenience to be able to call Bartleby to run his errands whenever he calls and doesn’t even have to look at Bartleby, a separation of humanity or social contact. As the story progresses, Bartleby refuses requests like checking the copies or going to the post office and eventually begins refusing to work entirely but this is seen as simply Bartleby being odd and not as a resistance to work but rather there is a cause for his refusal to work, as stated by the narrator, his eyes were perhaps hurt and needed time to recover. As time goes on Bartleby still refuses to work and lives in the office and this bothers the narrator to the point of having him evicted from the premises by use of force, calling the authorities and having him thrown in prison.... ...
In Melville’s, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” a lawyer’s idea of relationships is tested. As a bachelor, his disconnection with people is an obstacle he has to overcome. The relationships between his coworkers and himself are simple and detached until Bartleby is introduced. The lawyer is befuddled at the unique behavior that this character displays and cannot help but take particular interest in him. When Bartleby is asked to work, he simply says, “I would prefer not to,” and when he quits working, he begins to stare at the wall (1112). This wall may symbolize the wall that the lawyer has built up in an attempt to ward off relationships, or it may simple symbolize Wall Street. When the lawyer finds out that Bartleby is l...
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.
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.
The lawyer, also the narrator, hires Bartleby to work as a scrivener at his business that involves bonds, mortgages and titles. The lawyer thinks he has all of his scriveners behaviors “on lock”. Although Bartleby started as a hard working employee, he eventually and in a calm manner refuses to do any requested work by the lawyer by simply saying, “I would prefer not to”. The lawyer doesn’t fire Bartleby after he declines to work, instead he gives Bartleby another chance. The lawyer preference to remain calm shows that he chooses to stray from confrontation. Bartleby continuous refusal to work leads to him being fired, but he refuses to leave. The lawyer’s philosophy and careful balancing of his employees is compromised by Bartleby actions. The lawyer moves his entire practice to another building to only find Bartleby there. Bartleby is arrested and continues in his bizarre daze. The lawyer visits Bartleby to convince him to eat and get through to him, but it doesn’t work and Bartleby dies. The lawyer sensitivity and empathy towards Bartleby raises questions to the lawyers sincerity. Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate what was the lawyer’s intent to help Bartleby?
In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” which was written by Herman Melville, the character named Bartleby is a very odd, yet interesting individual. In the story, Bartleby is introduced when he responds to a job opening at the narrator’s office. Although there is no background information given about him, it becomes very apparent that he will be the antagonist in this story. Unlike the usual image put on the antagonist, Bartleby causes conflict with a very quiet and calm temperament. This character’s attitude, along with the fact that he is a flat and static character, makes him a very unique antagonist, and this fact is shown through the way other characters approach and deal with his conflict.
He starts to disconnect himself by refusing to do work given to him by his boss, this comes from his desire to be complacent, which we find out when he says “I like to be stationary,” when talking to the lawyer (127). Bartleby continues to change throughout the story, as he goes from being an employee who won’t do his work, to never leaving the office and essentially making it his home. According to Todd Giles, “Bartleby's silence establishes distance,” meaning that he becomes so out of place that people stop expecting of him (Giles, 2007). What this causes is the need for Bartleby to be removed from the Wall Street Office. The lawyer tries in many different ways to do so, and even offers him more money than he is owed if he will quit. Bartleby refuses and continues to stay in the building, doing nothing, detached from the world around him. Eventually the lawyer changes offices due to Bartleby and leaves him there for the next buyer. Bartleby is forced out by the new owner, and in time it is told the police he is a vagrant and he is thrown into jail. Bartleby’s story ends
Later in the story the narrator decides to move his office to rid himself of Bartleby because he was beginning to frighten customers. Before doing so he did give him money. However, Bartleby continue to remain in the office even with the new owner. When the new owner demanded that the narrator have Bartley removed at once,
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.
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2012. 1483-1509. Print.
For decades scholars and writers have attempted to find the historical analogies and symbolic figures that created Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”. The story describes the setting of a small “law-copyists or scriveners” office on Wall Street and the unexpected arrival of an unknown character named Bartleby (Melville...
His efforts though are fruitless because he was not able to get to Bartleby and never truly understood him, even in prison as the man eventually dies of starvation. Although after his death the lawyer does learn of Bartleby’s previous and listless job at a ‘Dead Letter Office’ which made the lawyer sympathize for him and wonder if that job is what made Bartleby so distant. Bartleby was a loner who distanced himself from everyone, even in death, he was aloof and never interacted with anyone which is not considered normal human behavior because humans are supposed to be social. This story went a little deeper and gave the idea of humanity as a whole being apathetic towards each other, because only the lawyer showed any sort of humane concern for Bartleby while the others cared less. Bartleby himself displayed apathetic behavior as he showed little to no care for how his behavior affected others or even himself. Outside in the world, many people who are stressed out and constantly working tend to only focus on themselves and have little to no care for other people most of the time. It’s another negative view on humanity, but at the same time it’s not that wrong, as society made by humans also makes others so busy and stuck in tedious schedules that they gradually become more jaded and some even become distant and