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Surabhi Dattatri and Ally Iordache Ms. Ciccone Honors English II 11 May 2015 “Bartleby” by Herman Melville IRONY Example One: “The passiveness of Bartleby sometimes irritated me” (Melville 134). The situational irony that Melville used above is used to help develop the character of the narrator. If Bartleby is passive he is not involved in the life of the office and keeps to himself. Since Bartleby is passive he is not doing anything that would annoy or provoke anyone. However the narrator is “irritated by [Bartleby’s] passiveness.” The narrator is irritated because he like to be in control, especially in control of his employees. If Bartleby does not react to anything the narrator does he can not exhibit control over Bartleby. This to the narrator, is irritating. Ally Example Two: ‘“There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like clerkship; but I am not particular’” (Melville 152). 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 …show more content…
gains employment at the narrator’s firm, he soon becomes a “perpetual sentry in the corner” of the office, rarely ever leaving the building. Though Bartleby claims that he does not want to be contained, he means the opposite since he prefers not to engage with those around him. The verbal irony of Bartleby’s statement shows how he intentionally contains himself, possibly due to his troubled past. Surabhi IMAGERY Example One: “Something prompted me to touch him, I felt his hand, when a tingling shiver ran up my arm and down my spine to my feet” (Melville 156). The tactile imagery serves to connect Bartleby and the lawyer on a personal level. When the narrator goe to visit Bartleby a second time, he tries talking to him in a different way: by touching. For the first time Bartleby is read by touch and the result is that “a tingling shiver ran up [the narrator’s] arm.” The physical shock of touching Bartleby is accompanied by a linguistic shock as the narrator remains speechless, only forming fragmented sentences. For the first time the narrator’s body is acknowledged and he is thus met with this indecipherable interaction. This allows the readers to see Bartleby through touch, “a tingling shiver,” not only through his words. Ally PARALLEL STRUCTURE Example One: “But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically” (Melville 130). Melville uses this parallel structure to show what happens when this routine is interrupted. When Bartleby first starts to work for the lawyer he appears to be working continuously, “silently, palely, mechanically.” The conflict comes when this routine is interrupted. If Bartleby does not write, he disrupts the atmosphere of the office. This quote also develops Bartleby’s enigmatic character. The way Bartleby writes “silently, palely, mechanically” is not the way others write. This action makes him appear as a machine not a person. The description is in the form of a parallel list which in itself is rigid and mechanical emphasizing Bartleby’s character. This portrayal gives rise to his ambiguity because his behavior differs from the others at the firm. Ally SYMBOLISM Example One: “Within three feet of the panes was a wall, and the light came down from far above, between two lofty buildings as from a very small opening in a dome, Still further to a satisfactory arrangement, I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not remove him from my voice” (Melville 130). Walls are symbolic to the story since they represent Bartleby’s isolation and the narrator’s connection with him. By placing Bartleby in a corner of the office, the narrator separates him from human contact and the rest of the world, further making Bartleby a recluse. In addition, the wall causes Bartleby to distance himself from the narrator. He builds his own wall of resistance against the narrator as he continues working at his office. Bartleby “prefer[s] not to” perform the tasks assigned to him, emphasizing the symbolic wall he maintains to remain isolated. The use of walls also serves to demonstrate the routine lifestyle that humans tend to fall into as time goes by. The lawyer continues coming to his office day by day to work while Bartleby continues to reside in the building, performing his duties as a scrivener and eventually, neglecting his responsibilities. Example Two: “But as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors” (Melville 132). Here Melville employs the symbol of the bust of Cicero in order to express the narrator's values. Because Cicero was a Greek orator, the narrator having the bust shows his respect for one who is able to confidently expresses himself. It also shows his value for tradition since Cicero lived during the time of Ancient Greece. The fact that the narrator is the authoritative figure in the novella and has a bust of Cicero shows that he aspires to be the great philosophical man Cicero was. However, Bartleby exposes the narrator’s inability to lead and be an orator because he can not get through to Bartleby. This comes from the fact that the bust is made from “plaster-of-paris” which is fake and fragile. Though the narrator may worship Cicero, he is not able to become like him. Ally ALLUSION Example One: “For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam” (Melville 139). Example two: “ ‘Eh-He’s asleep, ain’t he?’ ‘With kings and counselors,’ murmured I” (Melville 156). This allusion is a reference to the passage in the Book of Job which reads, “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, With kings and with counselors of the earth, Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;" (Job 3:13-14). Job’s faith was repeatedly tested by God, the one he was faithful to, in the same way that Bartleby is tested by society. Bartleby is continuously put under pressure by others to act the way they consider normal. Now Bartleby is “with kings and counselors” referring to the fact that he has just died. Now that Bartleby is no longer in this society he is not subject to its unwanted pressure. Ally REPETITION Example One: “ ‘That’s the word, Turkey,’ said I--”that’s it.’ ‘Oh, prefer? oh yes--queer word. I never use it myself. But, sir, as I was saying, if he would but prefer--’ ‘Turkey,’ interrupted I, ‘you will please withdraw.’ ‘Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should’ ”(Melville 142). Here Turkey calls the word prefer “queer” and then immediately uses it himself. The second time he uses it it is exactly contrasted to the sense in which Bartleby uses it. Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer” has affected not only Turkey but also the others in the office. The narrator realizes the effect as he “must get rid of a demented man, who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads, of myself and clerks” (Melville 142). The repetition of Bartleby in the use of the word prefer is more than just a significant preference, it becomes contagious in nature. Ally METAPHOR Example One: “And here Bartleby makes his home; sole spectator of a solitude which he has seen all populous-a sort of innocent and transformed Marius brooding among the ruins of Carthage!” (Melville 138). The narrator compares Bartleby in the office on a Sunday to “Marius brooding among the ruins of Carthage.” Marius was a Roman general who was part of the army that destroyed the empire of Carthage. The fact that Marius is “brooding among the ruins” suggest that he is not happy with the situation he is in and regrets the action he has taken. This implies that Bartleby is unhappy with his position in Wall Street and regrets being there in the first place. Though the narrator is comparing Bartleby to Marius, the metaphor conveys the ruined aspect of Wall Street to the readers. The mention of Marius as well as the bust of Cicero brings up the fact that empires tend to fall. Wall Street feels secure in its wealth, but the images of ruins make it seem as vulnerable to the ravages of time as Carthage. Ally Example two: “In plain fact, he had now become a millstone to me, not only useless as a necklace, but afflictive to bear” (Melville 143). FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE Example One: “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. Hence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but, in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds” (Melville 124-125). Melville includes this passage of first person narrative to describe the narrator’s character. This is the only time readers are told about his character because the story is told from his perspective, there is no one to describe him. The readers learn that the narrator believes that the “easiest way of life is the best,” meaning that this life for him is easy and that he likes it because it is easy. The narrator then describes his profession as “proverbially energetic.” The use of the word proverbially reveals that he thinks himself to be wise and that he believes his profession is respected. Though his profession as a lawyer is described as nerveracking and generally requires one to be in court he has “never addressed a jury” or draws public attention to himself which would be the only actions that would cause his job to be stressful. The fact that he has not done this shows that he like to avoid conflict and agitated confrontation. This characteristic reappears when Bartleby politely declines some of his request to work. The narrator likes to keep to himself and retain a calm environment. Ally DESCRIPTIVE PASSAGE Example One: “I should have stated before that ground glass folding-doors divided my premises into two parts,one of which was occupied by my scriveners, the other by myself [...] I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding doors, but on my side of them [...] I placed his desk close up to a small side-window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy back-yards and bricks, but which, owing to subsequent erections, commanded at present no view at all, though it gave some light. Within three feet of the panes was a wall” (Melville 130). The narrator describes in great detail how his office is set up.
He describes it without using figurative language or creativity; the description is bleak. This emphasizes Bartleby’s inhuman and machine like qualities. The office is plain, only made of up several walls. The only outside light that does come in is from a “small side-window” that “commanded at present no view at all.” The office is depressing and encourages Bartleby’s depressing character. The walls that are present lead to Bartleby’s isolation. The narrator essentially secludes Bartleby from society because he is trapped within the office walls almost all the time. The reader hardly sees him
leave. Ally DICTION Example One: “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity” (Melville 156). The lawyer’s final cry carries a tone of helplessness and surrender. At the end of the novella the lawyer goes to visit Bartleby out of his own self-interest and sense of guilt that was his motivation for his actions all along. He has no better understanding of Bartleby's predicament. The lawyer acknowledges, in his final cry, his inability to “cure” Bartleby but prides himself for trying. The lawyer’s final plea of “Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!” equates Bartleby and humanity as one and the same. This suggests that attempt to convey to the reader that Bartleby is someone whose actions we should strive for. His personality is used to dismiss change and to remain, despite societal forces, a rigidly fixed and immovable force in Melville’s imagined society. However, the diction illustrates that the narrator still does not understand Bartleby because he groups Bartleby with the same humanity the Bartleby feels oppressed by. Ally
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,”
In the beginning of each story, characters are both shown as “ideal” characters in that their characteristics give the characters their first perceived amiableness. In “Bartleby the Scrivener” Melville uses distinguishing characteristics to solely represent Bartleby from the others in the story. He enters the story first, as a response to an advertisement for a position as a scrivener in a law office. Melville states, “A motionless, young man one morning stood upon my office threshold, the door being open for it was summer. I can see that figure now – pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Meyer 149). Here he makes it known that just by seeing Bartleby’s presence when he first enters the law office; he is exactly what the unnamed lawyer was inquiring about. He was by far unlike other characters in the story. He had no vices or hang ups, the first presence and his stature, he came their wiling and ready to ...
Walls in the story represent the entrapment, a blockade of sorts to prevent focus from wandering elsewhere. Bartleby in the story shares an office with the lawyer/narrator but their line of sight is blocked by a wall set up to seperate them and is placed in the corner of the room, against another wall and his desk is facing a window that again, faces a wall. 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 refuse 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 ha...
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.
One of the literary elements that Melville uses that convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is diction. The author's diction in this short story is very descriptive and is also slightly comical. One of the ways this is used is when the author gently mocks the narrator by having him expose his flaws through his own words. For example, when the narrator talks of John Jacob Astor, a well respected man who complemented him, we find out how full of himself he is and how highly he thinks of himself. "The late John Jacob Astor, a parsonage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point…I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the late John Jacob Astor's good opinion." (Page 122, Paragraph2) Another example of the author's use of diction appears on page 127 in paragraph 2; "At first, Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famished for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sunlight and by candle-light. I should have been quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious. But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically." Here the narrator's description of Bartleby's writing habits in the office, at first, tell us that he is very pleased with his progress and the work he has done but then it tells us that he is not very enthusiastic but...
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 ...
Language is the key, crucial part of this short story. Bartleby, the epitome of mystery and frustration in the office, constantly uses the term ‘I prefer not to’, to exhibit his unwillingness to comply with his boss's requests to proofread his rough draft. “The very language that Bartleby uses as he puts aside the tasks demanded of him shows the extent of to which he does not participate in the conventions of the Wall Street World” (Matturi, 7).
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
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.
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.
The narrator begins the short story Bartleby the Scrivener by “waiving the biographies of all other scriveners for a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener of the strangest I ever saw or heard of” (pg). Bartleby appears at first as a “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn,” (pg) character who is hired by the narrator because of his sedate nature, which he hoped would balance the personalities of his other employees. Bartleby is first isolated from the other characters through the actions of his boss, the lawyer, who “isolated Bartleby from my sight, though not removed from my voice,” (pg) by placing a folding screen around his desk and, “in a manner,
An example that the dead letter office job plays a part in Bartleby’s character is Bartleby isn't the average office worker. He is the weird guy no one likes, doesn't do his work, and just spends hours sitting and staring. When asked to do something, he responds with "I would prefer not to". There isn't much of an argument being created with someone who doesn't give much to argue with. Yet, “Bartleby is improper, propertyless, without possession, while at the same time in full control of his own possession"(Giles). He tends keeps to himself instead of letting others know more about him. Nothing is known about Bartleby, except for what one can see and take in; such as his name, or that he never leaves the office. In Bartle...