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'A Character Analysis Of Bartleby'

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The story of Bartleby by Herman Melville is circled around a boss and his workers, taking place at a law firm on Wall Street of New York City. “Bartleby” is also a short story that presents itself in Jane Smiley’s book, Great American Short Stories. Any form of writing has a purpose such as entertaining, informing, and persuading. For Bartleby one may find all three being used, however, there is a hidden message. The narrator in Bartleby is the lawyer who holds much interest those he has employed. He pays close attention to one specific employee because of the attitude and characters he demonstrates. Yet, he also has given his other workers much notice too and focusing on them separately and as a whole. If anything the story “Bartleby” shows much character development. Throughout the story anyone can notice the other three workers being defined in grave …show more content…

The reader gets a fairly large description of each of their aspects, even the minutiae within them. To manifest attributes for the Lawyer’s laborers, the speaker takes time to note their personalities. Starting off inside the story with one of his copyists, Turkey. It is shown in the story where the narrator has observed Turkey so knows his facial color with timings through the day, as well as his mood. For example, “Yet at the same time, made uncomfortable by his inflamed ways after twelve o’clock,” (104) and also, “One Saturday noon (he was always worse on Saturdays),” (105). This ties into the claim of the lawyer taking notice of his surrounding people to take thought into their moods. After Turkey would be the second copyists, Nippers, same case. Something the writer grasps is the way Turkey and Nippers both function through a daily routine, he takes this into a thankful consideration. Such as spoken, “Their fits relieved each other, like guards. When Nippers’ was on, Turkey’s was off; and vice versa. This was a good natural

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The narrator requests to work on an ordinary job which is not completely relevant to copying, and instead of writing, he prefers to object. When confronted by the narrator about the issue and his reasons for declining the request, he says that he desires not to. After considering the happening for a long time, the storyteller moves his office to a different place to get rid of Bartleby. As the story split ends, Bartleby says no to eating, and he is seen starving himself to death. Various incidences in the story portray Bartleby as a hero who reveals his braveness in facing the unjust community by his authority and molding the conscience of the narrator.

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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

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Critical Analysis The short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, showcases the protagonist, Bartleby, as a scrivener who is inundated with the demanding expectations of his job while being employed by an overbearing mercenary boss. Ultimately, Melville illustrates the protagonist’s sanity and moral value deteriorating as Bartleby begins to lose the will to live due to the stress that his job has created. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was born in New York City, New York. He is the third child out of eight.

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