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Bartleby the scrivener summary
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Critical analysis of bartleby the scrivener
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The Uncompromising Code of Bartleby the Scrivener
There are certain social codes that we are expected to follow. They are too numerous and obscure to know-but for the most part, they don't need to be known. The unspoken, unwritten set of rules we are obligated to live by are subtly imbued in us from birth. When we live outside those boundaries and follow our own desires, we are walking on thin ice. An eccentric choice in wardrobe or unusual habits can make the difference between being considered an individual who "thinks outside of the box," or just a plain old lunatic. When someone refuses to adhere to our social codes, they become suspect. But what drives them, enables them to refuse in the first place?
Melville seemed to have a good idea of what it feels like to be in such a position. The American Tradition in Literature discusses how "like Bartleby, Melville was a 'scrivener,' or writer. Melville also refused to copy out the ideas of others, or even his own, in response to popular demand. He too 'preferred' to withdraw"(Perkins 1564). So far it sounds like Melville was almost certainly creating something "out of himself." Additionally, Melville "distrusted the economic compulsion of society; he resented the financial assistance of his wife's father"(1564). This story comes from an artist reliant on only himself, true to his own nature.
Bartleby is merely an exaggeration of this individual way of thinking. Melville presents a distorted image of independence from civil constraint, one that goes so far that it results in a sort of social anarchy. But considering the scrivener's background, it isn't hard to understand how he came to be such a social miscreant.
Bartleby comes to his employer from a dead l...
... middle of paper ...
...o the boss every once in a while-or to our spouse, our family, people on the street. No, you can't cut into my lane. No, you can't check out ahead of me even though you've only got the one can of beans. No, you can't change the channel, or ask me to pick the children up from practice.
How easy to give up. How easy to let the responsibilities rest with another. We already know what rewards the other men have received for their admirable and semi-socially acceptable behavior. Neurosis, alcoholism, ulcers, and envy. All things considered, it seems that Bartleby is the most sound of them all.
Works Cited
Perkins, Barbara, and George Perkins, ed. The American Tradition in Literature. Boston:McGraw-Hill College, 1999.
Perry, Dennis R. "'Ah, humanity': Compulsion Neurosis in Melville's 'Bartleby'". Studies in Short Fiction 24.4 (1987): 407-415.
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 ...
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 story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby constantly changes throughout the story, the narrator's attitude is conveyed through literary elements such as diction, point of view, and tone.
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.
The story of Bartleby was a very interesting story open for many different interpretations. Melville does and excellent job building suspension towards different thoughts as to what caused Bartleby to become an emotionless incapable worker. Here is evidence throughout the story to reflect the kindheartedness of the narrator. After reading this work the last quote “Ah Bartleby, Ah humanity” stood out as a cry of sadness for failing to understand and further assist Bartleby. After the numerous attempts He describes himself an elder lawyer that has his own office with a total of four employees including Bartleby. The narrator takes the time to learn the qualities of each individual not just on a performance basis however, personally as well.
The last line of "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville leaves the reader hanging by saying "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!". The main character, Bartleby, was an introvert who behaved strangely and without a sense of reality. I think the last line marveled at Bartleby and his strange behaviors. The last line connects to the theme of choices and what dictates people's behavior and actions. The last paragraph of the story ponders about Bartleby's past job of working in a post office sorting out mail that was written for the dead. Diving deeper into this, the narrator thinks that Bartleby's past job could help explain his odd nature. He justifies his reasoning by assuming that the depressing task of burning the forgotten letters that were
Bartleby the Scrivener, written by Herman Melville, takes place on Wall Street in New York City during the 1850's. This was a very crucial era in American History, as it was a period of major business development, in which Wall Street was the center for such growth. Wall Street at the time was the very representation of capitalism and the successful wealth found in the United States. The setting is such a paramount aspect to the interpretation of the plot, because it leads us to believe that Bartleby may represent a stand against Capitalism and "Big Money" Wall Street's control over a majority of everyday life. He does so through his polite defiance to the narrator's requests to take a stance and make a point that his freedom of choice was above all else.
Outsourcing has been utilized by companies in sundry industries for many decades as a key business strategy (Ghodeswar and Vaidyanathan, 2008). Harmancioglu (2009) argue that several successful companies depend on outsourcing to continue being responsive in coping with market changes as well as to expand their operations globally. He also stated that outsourcing was primarily perceived and employed to reduce costs, however recently it has become a prevalent and essential tool to gain competitive advantage. There are various reasons that lead companies to outsource some of their functions, these include: cost cutting, entrance to new markets, and to concentrate on main activities (Ghodeswar and Vaidyanathan, 2008). Wright (2004) mentions a number of functions that a company can outsource, these include: human resources, customer care service, and information technology functions.
First of all, general managers’ concerns about cost and quality drive outsourcing. The same issues such as getting existing services for a reduced price at acceptable quality standard came up repeatedly.
The advantages of outsourcing are a cost savings, focus on core business, improved quality, and customer satisfaction. For cost saving, there can be significant cost savings when a business is outsourced. Employee compensation costs, office space expanses and other costs associated with providing a work space or manufact...
Storey, J. (2007). Human Resources Management : A critical text (3rd ed.). London: Thomson Learning.
Foot M , Hook C (2008). Introducing Human Resource Management. 5th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. 11-14,35-56,90-98.
Outsourcing is the process of subcontracting operations and support to an organization outside the company to replace performance of the task with an organization’s internal operations. (www.hjventure.com) Simply stated, outsourcing takes place when an organization transfers the ownership of a business process to a supplier. What makes this process so important is the fact that no matter what the product, there is a continuing effort to ship it outside of America to make it cheaper. This is the number one single reason for outsourcing, reducing or at least, control operating costs. It has been reported that on average, companies have seen approximately a 40% reduction in costs through outsourcing. (www.intozone.com) Because of this large reduction, it makes it almost impossible for similar companies to stay competitive unless they to begin to outsource.