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Bartleby The Scrivener Essay

1045 Words5 Pages

Herman Melville’s short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" focuses on a lawyer on Wall Street who hires a new scrivener, Bartleby, whom the lawyer quickly realizes is peculiar and a bit odd. The audience, near the end of the story, learns that Bartleby presumably worked at a Dead Letters Office in Washington before administrative changes left him unemployed and looking for a job. After finding an employment ad and introducing himself to the lawyer, Bartleby is hired. However, after a few days of performing his duties, Bartleby begins passively resisting his work with his famous quip, “I would prefer not to.” This unexpected refusal catches the lawyer off-guard, as he runs a productivity-focused law business. Even still, he attempts to sympathize with Bartleby, …show more content…

Immediately, this catches the Lawyer off-guard as he thought “[i]n [his] haste and natural expectancy of instant compliance.” (Melville 7), Bartleby would prefer to fulfill the Lawyer’s request without pushback or rejection. This is the first of many instances of Bartleby’s refusal to work and the beginning of the lawyer’s teetering balance between respecting compliance and individuality. Next, consider the lawyer’s initial reaction to his surprise at Bartleby’s rejection. The lawyer assumes that he misheard Bartleby as he cannot stand to reason that his stellar new hire so passively—but blatantly—refused his command. After all, all the Lawyer asked of him was for Bartleby to proof his writing. The lawyer quickly gets over his shock and confusion, hands it off to one of his other scriveners, and tries to rationalize Bartleby’s behavior. This highlights the budding contradiction between what the lawyer expects and what occurs in his workplace. He expects employees to listen to him, but after this first rejection, he reevaluates this position ever so

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