ipl-logo

Bartleby The Scrivener Literary Analysis Essay

578 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Bartleby, the Scrivener Melville

A Literary Analysis of Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Question 1:

Bartleby appears to be a man that is respectful in terms of his job performance and appearance in the narrator’s office. In fact, the narrator defines Bartleby as being “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Melville para.15). This description defines a respectable and responsible man, but he also seems depressed and unwilling to do the bidding of his employer. In this manner, Bartleby does not seem like a lazy person, but a person that has become severely depressed in his refusal to work for his employer.

Question 2:

Bartleby “prefers not” to work as a way to reject the authority of the narrator as a “boss” in the workplace. At the end of the story, Bartleby’s employment history defines one possible reason for his refusal to work: “Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington” (Melville para.250). This background tells the reader that that Bartleby worked in a very depressing environment for many years before coming to the Lawyer’s firm. Bartleby appears to “prefer not” to work or find his own living space because he can no longer do the work of a copyist in this …show more content…

Bartleby begins his rebellion against the Lawyer by refusing to work. The capitalistic setting of Wall Street is superficial because life is only measured in terms of money. Bartleby’s rebellion against this type of economic system is symbolic of rejecting the Wall Street setting in terms of the workplace and living quarters. After all Bartleby has to be forcibly removed from the Lawyer’s office because without money, he cannot rent a place to live. The setting is very significant in this story because it shows a limited interpretation of humanity in a place that measures life in terms of profit, production, and

Show More
Related

Freedom In Bartelby The Scrivener And A & P

856 Words | 4 Pages

Bartelby becomes somewhat of a hermit, living in the office in which he refuses to work. He wants to be free of his burdens, but only passed them on to his boss, the narrator. The narrator, burdened by Bartelby, tries his hardest to cast him out of his life and take back his independence, eventually passing his onus to another. In the case of Bartelby the Scrivener, one can see that to obtain freedom, a burden must be passed to

Read More

Bartleby The Scrivener Character Analysis

1006 Words | 5 Pages

When only one gentleman shows up for the job, the boss gives the strange man, Bartleby, a job as a filer. After a few days, the new employee will not listen to the boss. This extraordinary man merely states, “I prefer not to,” when requested to complete a duty. Consequently, the boss gets weary of Bartleby’s behavior and attempts to get rid of

Read More

How Is Bartleby The Scrivener Relevant Today

243 Words | 1 Pages

After reading Melville’s short story Bartleby the Scrivener, I started to think about how the story is relevant to today. Melville is able to capture the tedious and repetitious work environment of people who work in offices not only through the description of the office, but also through the interactions of the workers. In the story, Bartleby is put in an office space without a view to the outside world. Instead the lawyer positions him facing the a wall. The wall symbolizes the class difference between the two men.

Read More

Kindred Commentary

458 Words | 2 Pages

Rufus became so accustomed to having everything he wanted handed to him that he never learned the true meaning of work. In his later years as an adult, he still has not liked to write his own

Read More

Conformity In Melville's 'Bartleby'

249 Words | 1 Pages

The story has come to a point where Bartleby has refused to work and the narrator lets this slide by. This refusal to work would result in dismissal of one’s job, but the narrator continued Bartleby’s employment. However, this charitable act may just be a feint so the narrator’s “can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval; to befriend Bartleby…will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience”. (Melville 56). Rather than for the good purpose, the narrator is conforming to what he thinks society would like him to do in this kind of situation.

Read More

Bartleby The Scrivener Conflict Analysis

736 Words | 3 Pages

In Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener”, he presents the internal conflict of the story’s narrator, a well off businessman who is dealing with an external conflict of finding another clerk who will simplify his work. Although the narrator remains unnamed, Melville heavily relies on his commentary and character development as he shifts the narrator’s persona from that of a man with a “seldom lost temper” (Paragraph 4), to a man who is on the brink of madness. Melville implements minor characters at the beginning of the story to ultimately serve as a basis for the plot, making it known that the narrator desperately needs a new clerk to make up for the faults of his current employees. Using comical juxtaposition, Melville describes these characters individual quirks that aid the reader’s prediction as to how Bartleby’s personality will fit into the dynamic.

Read More

How To Interpret Bartleby The Scrivener

194 Words | 1 Pages

There are numerous ways somebody can interpret "Bartleby the Scrivener". I think all through the story the storyteller (the Lawyer) is the more sympathetic character. The lawyer, despite the fact that an active individual from society, alienates himself by forming dividers from his own particular egotistical and materialistic character. As it were, the lawyer's entire life rotates around items and ideas which don't sound good to him in spite of the fact that he is not mindful of this. The dividers of Bartleby conflict with the lawyer's dividers, however, both are designed to protect both the lawyer and Bartleby from the outside world.

Read More

Examples Of Nonconformism In Bartleby The Scrivener

832 Words | 4 Pages

Day after day, Bartleby works significantly hard, “copying by sun-light and candle-light” (1070). At first, Bartleby nullifies Emerson’s views by going forth with what every person is expected to do, and becomes a zombie in the work life, living every day the same. There are many theories behind the mysterious change of events of Bartleby when one day he randomly stops abiding to the tasks given and asked of him, and begins to solely reply to everything with “I would prefer not to” (1071). Bartleby stops his work altogether, and becomes a zombie in another way. In many ways, Bartleby both nullifies and fulfills Emerson’s view because he stops engaging in what is expected of him, but it is not to better himself since he begins to “prefer” not to eat, which kills him in the

Read More

Similarities Between Bartleby And Willy Loman

1800 Words | 8 Pages

The Narrator justifies keeping Bartleby and ignores his internal issues with confrontation. When Bartleby refuses to do anything but copy the Narrator forgives the behavior because Bartleby asked so politely. When Bartleby refuses to work all together the Narrator allows him to stay because he thinks it is a good thing to help Bartleby. Even when the Narrator realizes the he can’t have Bartleby in his office anymore he moves offices instead of making Bartleby leave. All these acts show us that the Narrator does not know how do deal with confrontation

Read More

Bartleby The Scrivener Consequences

1041 Words | 5 Pages

In the story we are introduced to an odd character by the name of Bartleby, a scrivener who at “At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing” ( Melville 11) and proceeded to write “silently, palely, mechanically.” (Melville 11). But this soon turned around when Bartleby decided to turn in the opposite direction, when he was given orders “Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied “I would prefer not to” ( Melville 11). He seems to be committed to the idea of “preferring” not to do something, and he would respond this every time and seems to have given up on his job. This ultimately makes the lawyer say “you are decided then, not to comply with my request-a request made according to common usage and common sense?”

Read More

Bartleby The Scrivener Essay

2169 Words | 9 Pages

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener” gives the reader a task to try to construct who Bartleby is when all the information known about him is through the title of his job “a scrivener” for the lawyer’s company on Wall-Street. The lawyer attempts to control Bartleby time after he joins him just like he has been doing with his other employees who he has already figured out but is stunned when he suddenly sees a change in his work ethic and responds with “I would prefer not to” (Melville 1489) whenever he is told to do something at the office. “Bartleby, The Scrivener” is representative of how readers tend to analyze pieces of literary works and this is shown through the lawyer and his attempts to figure out his employees, especially Bartleby, through the use of corporate control. Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut are the other three characters/employees in the short story who have been figured out by

Read More

Bartleby In The Office

632 Words | 3 Pages

For the first time in the story Melville begins questioning human existence through the narrator’s response to discovering Bartleby living in the office. Thomas Mitchell author of the article Dead Letters and Dead Men best described this event in is his statement, “Stricken by his sudden awareness of the immensity of Bartleby's solitude, his total isolation from all human contact, the narrator is shocked out of the "snug retreat" of his own isolation by his realization of the "bond of common humanity"” (Mitchell). Discovering Bartleby in the office creates a mixed feeling of emotions for the narrator. In his statement "Yes, thought I, it is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here, keeping bachelor's hall all by himself. Immediately

Read More

Significance Of The 'Dead Letter Office In Bartleby'

654 Words | 3 Pages

Understanding the significance of the dead letter office in the story also helps to explain Bartleby. At the end of the story the narrator reveals the only piece of information he ever obtained in regards to Bartleby was the possibility he was previously employed at the dead letter office. This piece of information leads the narrator to establish a correlation between Bartleby and dead letters. This is seen when he states, “"Dead Letters! does it not sound like dead men?”

Read More

To Kill A Mockingbird Historical Reality

832 Words | 4 Pages

On the other hand, some may argue that the economic state during the Depression is not accurately represented due to how seemingly fair the characters are living. Yet, many of the character complain about their financial situation, such as when Atticus tells Scout they are indeed poor or when on chapter 24 page 312 Mrs. Merriweather exclaims about her maid Sophy, “It’s never entered that wool of hers that the only reason I keep her is because this depression’s on and she needs her dollar and a quarter every week she can get it.” These moments in the book sublimely point out the effects of the recession, such as low wages. On average during the 1920’s, maids made around twenty-five cents per hour, adding to a total of seven to twelve dollars a week (‘Monthly Labor Review by United States’ v11 no5. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read More

Depression In Herman Melville's 'Bartleby'

149 Words | 1 Pages

Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby” is a story of a successful lawyer that hires a man named Bartleby as his scrivener in his firm on Wall Street. The man Bartleby does his office tasks but not for too long. Throughout most of the story you can see that the phrase, “I prefer not to” being used. Bartley looses his job, ends up in prison and dies because he prefers not to do anything for example, even things like not eating. I believe that this character Bartleby was severely depressed to the point where it took over his life, because he starved himself to death.

Read More

More about Bartleby The Scrivener Literary Analysis Essay

Related Topics

Open Document