Bartleby The Scrivener Analysis

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, is a story about the quiet struggle of the common man. Refusing to bow to the demands of his employer, Bartleby represents a challenge to the materialistic ideology by refusing to comply with simple requests made by his employer. The story begins with the employer having trouble finding good employees. This is until the employer hires Bartleby. At first, Bartleby works hard and does his job so well that everyone has a hard time imagining what it would be like without him. After three days, Bartleby is asked by his boss to examine a legal paper. He replies with “I would prefer not to”. The story ends with Bartleby being discovered occupying the office at weekends and being taken into custody for

In Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the narrator is on the hunt for a new copyist in his office. From what we can tell of our narrator, he is an unambitious, vanilla fellow but still has an air of condescension about him. He always thinks that he knows what is best for his employees, although in actuality, he knows very little. Enter Bartleby: the “incurably forlorn” and “sedate” answer to his prayers (330). Bartleby is a quiet man who gains employment at the law office of our narrator. Overall, he seemed to be a good worker who had a few kinks the narrator thought that he could iron out, but to no avail. At the end of his account, the narrator says “Ah Bartleby, Ah humanity” which suggests that he sees Bartleby as a representation of all people. This is because the narrator thinks of Bartleby and all other people as lesser than him and in need of his help.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville was an interesting story of a scrivener, while the movie was about a public records filer. Both the story and movie had parts that overlapped like Bartleby’s “I prefer not to” attitude and the way the offices were set up. Melville introduces a scrivener that helps makes copies, proofread, and deal with scribing; at first, there was a need for a person to fill the role of a copyist and all duties associated. When first hiring Bartleby he was a diligent and with great skill, but suddenly began to show mental instabilities. This infuriated the well-known lawyer as Bartleby was becoming insubordinate. These same actions reflected in the movie as he refused to file anymore. Both the story and movie had many similarities and small differences. The story was much more detailed and better than compared to the movie.

The style of this story was not the greatest in the beginning, but got better the further into the story I got. As a reader, I found it very hard to concentrate on the first few pages because it had a very slow start to it. Once Bartleby was introduced, however, it was much easier to concentrate. The author created a great sense of mystery around Bartleby, and that is what pulled me into the story. I wanted to figure out who Bartleby was, where he came from, and why he behaved the

The lawyer setting him up his own little area, was a mistake, because without him knowing that Bartleby was a secluded person, he basically encouraged Bartleby to be even more removed from the world. To better understand the story, the reader may consider the reader-response strategy. The reader responds to the work, that the narrator had to deal with a poorer person who was pretty well removed from the world and the lawyer did so with compassion until Bartleby would no longer attempt to do any work for the lawyer. The reader also understands what the lawyer was going through, because a good person would try to give people as many chances as they can to prove their character, but after awhile sympathy towards others that are no longer even trying to have good character slips away, and most likely the respect that had

The narrator has hired workers that either do not do their jobs, or do not do them consistently. Therefore, he has a lot of conflict with his workers. Bartleby began as a good worker as a scrivener, but slowly trailed off after a couple weeks of working there. The narrator basically runs the law office himself with little help. After Bartleby had been working at the law office for a while, he decided it would be a good idea to move in to the law office. The narrator did not know that he had been living there until he came into work one morning and found him sleeping on the floor.

Bartleby the Scrivener. Characters Analysis In the reading Bartleby the Scrivener its narrator before introducing Bartleby (the main character), he began describing his others three employees that work in the office (Turkey, Nipper and Ginger Nut). The narrator did this with the purpose of show how much he cares about his workers, gave us an idea of the type of person that the author is , and to guide the reader into the understanding his actions later on in the story.

He uses his employment as a means of escaping social conventions through his monotonous statement “I would prefer not” (Melville 1998, p. 198), living a life of choice and preference in a world where preference is non-existent. Bartleby represents a new form of humanity where an individual has the right to choice rather than living a life of routine through social constraints, defying all forms of society’s restrictions in order to reveal his true desires.

Bartleby shows up because he answering an ad the lawyer put out and the lawyer gives him the job. Bartleby seems like an excellent worker because in the beginning he would write all day and night, but eventually even Bartleby starts acting up and saying “he would prefer not

During this period, the narrator regards Bartleby as a good employee and offers him a work space in which Bartleby’s privacy is appreciated. Things change all in a sudden when the narrator once asked Bartleby to review a document. Surprisingly to the narrator, Bartleby refuses to do so without a proper answer. The narrator again tries to reason with his employee, like what he does with Turkey and Nippers, and forgives Bartleby’s impoliteness.

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.

He introduces Bartleby as “a scrivener the strangest I ever saw or heard of”, and “one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable (3).” These assertions begin to intrigue the reader, and like the narrator, they are curious to understand the puzzle of Bartleby. In his telling of the story, the narrator is initially not particularly interested in Bartleby, though Bartleby does seem “Incurably forlorn”, the

It does not really matter, all that is important is that the boss can not forget Bartleby whether he is there or not. Bartleby seems to be the one being tortured in the story, nobody said the revolution would be easy for the poor. However, the key is that while Bartleby may be depressed, he had a great effect on his boss, torturing his mind. This is what the revolution will look like, the rich and powerful will become crippled by the thought and actions of the poor. They will quickly realize that they will never be able to get back to the way they were.

The form of resistance Bartleby takes erupts from the disillusionment regarding his work as a scrivener. In the beginning, he is a hard-worker, arguably an ideal employee. Yet, the more his work dehumanizes him, the more he disconnects from any authority. Instead of actively rebelling, however,

Characters are made to seem sinister, having an ulterior motive due to this. For example, Lily fakes being interested in the Americana, not smoking and going to church for Mr. Gryce, while Mr. Trenor helps Lily financially in order to sleep with her. The reader is able to identify the difference between a conversation Lily has with Selden and one she has with other characters, due to the lack of need for Lily to keep her good reputation with Selden. Bart herself acknowledges that she doesn't have to ''pretend'' with him or be ''on guard against'' him. In other occasions, the young woman has to concentrate primary on gossip and pretense and strive to manipulate others, by calculating her every word. The irony in this fact is that by acting so, they showcase bad manners; lying, adultery, gossiping, and being passive aggressive, are all behaviours evident in the upper class. In the reader's eyes, this fact makes her relationship with Selden the realest one of the whole book, and comes to the logical conclusion, that he is the best partner for her, him symbolising freedom from materialism, something that she wants for herself. However, Bart is not able to detach herself from her thirst for money and therefore, continues her pursue for a wealthy husband, like Mr. Gryce, who is a symbol for freedom from financial