Symbolism In Bartleby The Scrivener

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Herman Melville wrote numerous short stories while, using different literary techniques. Melville brilliantly uses symbolism in his story Bartleby the Scrivener. Melville uses Bartleby as a reference to a Christ-like figure. Melville does this to test the narrator that all people are going to have a hard test in life and that no one is exempted from this. Melville’s throws symbolism all throughout this story. He shows how Bartleby is compared to other people at his work and how Bartleby becomes the ultimate test for the narrator. Melville uses clear symbolism to portray Bartleby as a Christ-like figure, proving to the narrator that there is no easy life for anyone.
A critic of Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, Richard J. Zlogar, breaks down …show more content…

“he lives, then, on ginger nuts, never eats dinner/ vegetarian/nothing but ginger nuts.” (Melville 669). This can be represented as eating the bread in a church. Zlogar states “The closest the scrivener comes to an enactment of Christ's communal Last Supper is his dining alone on the ginger-cake "wafers". (Zlogar 517). The narrator can also be a representation of God to Bartleby’s leprosy. The narrator must get over the nauseating feeling to Bartleby in order to heal him from his disease (Zlogar 517). Bartleby is persecuted from his so-called home, the office, and is taken to a jail. “It has informed me that the writer had to the police, and had Bartleby removed to the Tombs as a vagrant.” (Melville 684). Bartleby was persecuted from his home and sentence to a jail. In the biblical days, Jesus was persecuted and sentence to death. Bartleby was basically sentenced to death as he died in front of the narrator who returned one last time to see Bartleby. Bartleby provides the ultimate test for the narrator as he is someone like a ‘beggar’. Jesus Christ is not going to knock at someone’s door with a fancy suit on. Christ is going to look like a beggar, who is diseased, to see who has the faith to care for

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