Essay on American Capitalist Society In The 19th Century

Herman Melville is an acclaimed author of the American Renaissance period and his most commendable works include “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. The story of “Bartleby” is not only a revelation of the business world of the mid-19th century but at the same time, it is also the manifestation of the emerging capitalistic lifestyle of perhaps New York’s most prominent street, Wall Street. Bartleby is a rather peculiar yet captivating figure. Bartleby’s life and death contribute to a sort of enigma for the reader and his employer. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a story that criticizes the monotonous day-to-day cycle that the modern working man is forcibly put in by society. With that being said, the death of Bartleby not only serves as a reflection

Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” was written in the mid-nineteenth century, during a time when economic revolutions swept across Europe and class riots erupted in New York. Inspired by this environment, Melville depicts the working class as laborers struggling to survive the game of life and achieve their goals. The working class possesses a very hectic and repetitive life that often leads to unhappiness. This is demonstrated in the office where Bartleby and his coworkers, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut work. They all exhibit signs of depression, they all appear easily bothered, and they all possess an odd and unique quality. The context of the story and the environment in which it was written encourages an analysis from the lens

The character of Bartleby in Herman Melville’s novella “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” is a person who refuses to become an object in capitalistic society. Initially, he is the perfect example of the objectification and mechanization of humans in the workplace. In essence, Bartleby is a machine that continually produces. Ultimately, he begins to resist the mind numbing repetition of his tasks and the mechanization of his life. The other main character, the narrator, is a facilitator of the capitalistic machine. He dehumanizes his employees by ensuring that their free will is denied in the workplace using objectifying nicknames, providing a workplace devoid of human touch and connection,; and perpetuating mechanized, repetitive work. Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” shows the dehumanizing effects of working in a capitalistic environment and ultimately suggests that one must conform to a standard way of life or will cease to exist.

Herman Melville’s, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” tells the tale of Bartleby, the new scrivener at a lawyer’s office on Wall-Street. In an office of industrious, distressed workers who endlessly perform mundane tasks due to the orders of the lawyer, Bartleby forms a mystifying exception. Bartleby baffles his boss and colleagues by responding to requests with his famous line, “I would prefer not to.” His response demonstrates an unwillingness to work and a willingness to do what he truly desires, which is extremely unusual to both his colleagues and their society and creates a massive social divide between them. Due to the abandonment of those around him resulting from their growing frustration with his inactivity, Bartleby ultimately faces a swift

Have you ever gone to work and question yourself, “Why Am I Here?”? “Bartleby the Scrivener” is a short story written by Herman Melville. Melville lived during the Industrial Revolution, which was a time where workers were not getting treated fairly. Even till now, some workers are not getting treated fairly with their bosses and getting paid minimum wage. It is still complex for some people to survive with the money they are earning.When he was a teen, Melville did not have a stable job so he followed ships around and he once traveled from New York to England and back. During this time was when it was popular for people to get the oil from whales. Herman Melville wrote Bartleby because he wanted to inform readers how the work style was like back in his days. In this story, Herman Melville wanted to relate his life to Bartleby and relate it to society. He wants people to appreciate the life they have now since it was not easy back in the days. As profounding as life seems to be now, back in Melville’s time people had to find or hunt their necessities instead of buying them, like oil. Life was difficult for Melville as a teen when he lost his father and was put in debt so he had to work hard in order for his family to be stable again.

Wall Street is commonly regarded as a vicious battleground occupied by thousands of money-hungry individuals that wish to strike it big by climbing the corporate ladder by any means necessary. While many win and many more lose everything as people try to succeed on Wall Street, Melville sees a problem outside the bounds of losing and gaining money. Melville realized that an existential battle was simultaneously taking place within the minds of these young people. In Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, Melville emits contempt for society and its corrupt values by creating underdeveloped characters that lack typical characteristics of fully established individuals. With work, money, profits, and productivity at the center of the universe,

In Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, there are several themes that the author incorporates in his writing such as alienation, charity, and morality. Melville utilizes the actions of the young scrivener Bartleby not only to represent mankind, but also to reveal these underlying themes to the reader. In the first opening words of the short story, “I am a rather elderly man” we learn that the narrator of the story is an older gentleman who is a lawyer and is reflecting on things that happened to him (109). Throughout the story, the author utilizes Bartleby and the other scriveners to symbolize the proletariats. While Herman Melville’s short story is one that employs several themes, it is his portrayal of work in a capitalist society and the way in which it dehumanizes its employees

2. The U.S. used harsh, but appropriate, measures to civilize the inhabitants of the west.

Because both Bartleby and the narrator lose their professions during the course of their lives despite their desire to make an adequate living, the story exposes capitalism’s apathetic and harsh treatment of its subjects. Towards the end of the story, we learn that “Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington, from which he had been suddenly removed by a change in the administration” (American Literature). Bartleby, a capitalist subject who, at the beginning of the story, eagerly attends to his duties, was stripped of his job simply because of a new administration. Melville reveals how capitalism as an ideology essentially chews its subjects up only to leave the majority of them without high-paying positions; it is an ideology that perpetuates the failure of many while advantaging few. Even the narrator, a supposedly astute Wall Street lawyer, loses one of his professions before Bartleby’s entrance into his life: “I consider the sudden and violent abrogation of the office of Master of Chancery, by the new Constitution, as a

Throughout the history of the United States’ economy, there has been both push and pull of capitalistic and socialistic ideas that have been argued to best suit the economy of the United States. On the side of capitalism, the overall aspect and function that centers around this economic system is freedom. Socialism rests upon the idea of governmental control over the majority of a country's resource supply, as well as the public control over means of production and land. In my opinion, I believe the United States will continue to ride on a mainly capitalistic track.

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” tells a story of a nameless lawyer who has four nicknamed employees. Throughout the descriptions of the four employees, their daily work and the way the lawyer viewed them, it shows that the four employees have been used to symbolize the lower classes and the lawyer have been used to symbolize the upper classes of a capitalist society. Based on the use of symbolization of Melville, the main purpose of this story were to show how the lower class workers were viewed and treated by the upper classes with a class divided capitalist society. In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” written by Herman Melville, Melville argues that working in a capitalist society dehumanizes the employees because the

The Lawyer describes Bartleby’s work ethics as being a great scrivener, but also creepy. For example, the Lawyer states that Bartleby was a great scrivener but his flaw of not being cheerfully industrious stopped him from being the perfect worker (page 118). Another example, for the creepy work ethics was the description of him working “silently, palely, mechanically” as if he wasn’t human and seemed out of place. The Lawyer positions Bartleby in a corner of his office by a small window facing a view of brick walls.

Melville wrote this story from the point of view of lawyer on Wall-street who does not have the most efficient employees. This later costs the job of the man who refuses to work as well as his home. Bartleby refused a task that his boss gave him simply because he had no desire to do it. The lawyer became infuriated with him and decided to fire him. Unlike London’s story the lawyer depends on people for his survival as a business. In contrast to To Build a Fire it is not a life or death situation no matter how important people feel their business

Like so many other authors, Herman Melville’s stories were not highly regarded during his lifetime. It would take years after the author’s passing for his works to become acclaimed. Although definitely not his most famous work (Melville also wrote Moby Dick) “Bartleby, The Scrivener” is one of his most puzzling stories. Published in 1853, this “story of a ‘forlorn’ anorexic copyist who comes to work in a Wall Street domain of ‘rich men’s bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds’ at once unsettles and compels.” (A. Robert Lee, “Herman Melville”) Melville’s character, Bartleby, becomes employed by a law firm as a scrivener. Shortly after, he refuses to perform any work, insists that he live in the office, and he even picks up the hobby of staring

I just think it was something new that America was not ready for in the 19th century. Composers from Europe began expressing themselves more than usual. They wanted to be individualist and shown extreme interest in nature, death, love, and fantastic which started the maturity of their personal musical styles. Intimacy, one of the subjects, were now talked about in songs. Operas glorify romantic love and started sharing the stories of their relationship. Mostly, the song was about lovers being unhappy and the obstacles of love. This form of art was rising overseas and finally made its way to America in 1825. The allure for opera though was not well receive at first because the people of America preferred more sensible musical entertainment sung