Bartleby Walked Into His Office

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The narrator paints a vivid picture of Bartleby’s appearance from the moment he walked into his office. He is described as "a motionless young man, pallidly neat, pitiably respectful, and incurably forlorn” (Melville 374). At first, hiring a calm and quiet man like Bartleby seemed like a good idea to the lawyer. He was placed at a desk in the lawyer’s office, which had a window view of a brick wall and screens that prevented him from human sight. Bartleby stares at the dead brick wall outside his office window for hours on end. His confinement and lack of freedom in the office leads the reader to believe that Bartleby feels trapped. For the first few days, Bartleby did an extraordinary job writing and copying documents, until one day he was