Bartleby The Scrivener

The secondary title for the novel, A Story of Wall-Street, sets the stage for what has become another moral dilemma of man — the importance of commerce placed over the importance of life. Melville plays with the role of commerce continuously throughout this work, which takes place inside of a Lawyer's office on Wall Street. The Lawyer states, very simply, that he is "a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best," revealing that at the very core of his being is an ideal that anything strenuous he may come across in his path should be quickly avoided, as to not cause any disturbance in his daily routine (Melville 1). This accurately sums up the general mindset of those on Wall Street at the time, and perhaps America as a whole -- that anything out of the ordinary was considered a nuisance to those focused entirely on the generation of wealth. The Lawyer recognizes this, and even considers himself a part of this crowd. However, he has taken the time to write this account of Bartleby, the Scrivener that arrives one day to fill a position in the office. While Bartleby may represent this "nuisance" exactly, the Lawyer finds himself drawn towards the mysterious quality he brings, unaware whether he will be beneficial to the firm or

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 author creates a sense of mystery, puzzle, which relentlessly attracts the reader through the whole work. When the author described Bartleby's character, he feels apologetic for his isolation and strange behavior. However, the author said that he depended on other people's judgments, Bartleby did not fit into the structure of established society. He would have to explain to every visitor why Bartleby violates someone invented the

Characters often had unexpected controverting characteristics. As an example, in the beginning, Sten Blix had the very friendly and nice baker image among townspeople. Although on the real side, he is violent and has psychopathic characteristics. I really enjoyed reading this book because the description of the scene was so realistic that during my reading, I felt like I was inside the book. While I was reading, I was able to identify some fairytales that were incorporated in the story. In the part where Jeremy and Ginger went to the forest to work for Sten, it portrayed the fairytale “Hensel and Gretel.” They were deceived by the appearance of the poisonous drink that Sten handed to them, similar to the house made up of sweets in “Hansel and Gretel.” I think the most extreme scene in the novel was during the last part of the story when Jeremy, Ginger, and Frank were abducted and locked in the dungeon. I was frightened by baker’s detailed plan of making the kids to write a letter to their parents. Also, the fact that he was listening to their conversation was very creepy. It was a great novel with reversal which added intensity and concentration in the

In short, Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby, the scrivener”, tells the tale of a successful lawyer hiring a new copyist and the challenges he faced with his new hire. Initially, the new hire, Bartleby, was extremely driven and very efficient. He had a great work ethic, and had an extraordinary output of writing for the head lawyer. On the third day Bartleby stunned his boss by preferring not to comply with his boss’s request. Bartleby’s refusal to comply was at first directed at anything outside of his copyist responsibilities, but gradually shifted toward refusing to do anything including his responsibilities as a copyist. Upon further analysis into Bartleby’s descent from a productive scrivener, to utterly useless in the office. I have found a connection between the people that isolate others because of differences, and the people that choose to stray away from “normal behavior”. This impacts the isolated person, people are negatively impacted when they live in isolation and have little personal and emotional connection with others. Without any emotional connection or contact with others, humans lose their purpose in life, or become useless like in Bartleby in the office.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a remarkable short story written by author Herman Melville. The narrator of the story is a lawyer who owns his own law practice located on Wall Street and has various scriveners who work for him. The first scrivener he describes is named Turkey. He is an excellent worker in the morning, but as the day goes on his work begins to become messy and sloppy. He also has an ill temper in the afternoon. The lawyer tries to have Turkey work only in the morning, but of course Turkey argues with him so the lawyer just decides to give him less import work in the afternoon.

“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville is a tale about a strange man named Bartleby, who takes up a job as a scrivener, a law copyists, for a lawyer on Wall Street. Bartleby is a mysterious man, who most likely had some type of mental issue. No one really knows anything about him and all he did was work until he decided not to and he never left his little cubicle until the lawyer left and would then use the rest of the office as a room. The lawyer tried to reach out to him once to learn more about him and try to understand him but, he didn’t want to say anything. Bartleby tells his boss “I would prefer not to” instead of “I will not” because he doesn’t want to anger him and want to risk getting kicked out of the office. He’s polite yet cold so that he doesn’t provoke anyone. The narrator tries to appeal to Bartleby by basically letting me do whatever he wants. However, Bartleby continues to defy him by not doing the work and by not leaving when the lawyer leaves the office. It wasn’t until he was jailed and unfortunately died of starvation.

The narrator is very compassionate towards Bartleby which affects his behavior of dealing with his employees. This shows that he is an industrious lawyer who has established a modest office on Wall Street. The lawyer demonstrates a psychological state of an overall association who tolerates all kinds of people and becomes interested in everything the employees do. The first employee, Turkey is highly excitable, short-tempered, and has a behavior of drinking in the afternoons to cope with his behavior of copying documents. However, he declines to go home because he enjoys the messy work in the afternoon which exhibits

As the narrator is shown to be increasingly charitable towards Bartleby, the reader is left to question how far one’s moral duties should extend. Though the narrator goes as far as to invite Bartleby to his home, his decision to move his office can ultimately be seen as the real beginning of Bartleby’s demise, as it leads to his imprisonment. In the story’s conclusion, the narrator divulges a rumor, offering a possible explanation for Bartleby’s behavior, “Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the dead letter office (…) does it not sound like dead men? (…) Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”

“So true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections,” (112) so starts Herman Melville's book, Bartleby. This book was written in 1853 and is centered around a law office on Wall Street. The main characters consist of the unnamed narrator who is referred to as just the Lawyer, his peculiar employees, and the newest recruit, Bartleby. The occupation of these men are scrivener's, which means they copy documents all day long. The story develops as the office is seeking extra help and Bartleby shows up at the opportune time to give it. He is then hired and the reader finds out that this man is homeless and has weak eyesight. When the Lawyer finds out that Bartleby has been living

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is an interesting short story written by Herman Melville for Putnam's magazine at a time when Melville was in need for money (Davis 183). The narrator opens with a description of himself, his employees, and the fact that his business has recently grown. Soon after, the narrator, who is a lawyer, hires an additional employee by the name of Bartleby, the namesake of the story. He then proceeds to tell the reader all he knows of Bartleby: how he started off copying as desired; how he then “preferred not to” do the tasks that were asked of him; how he was eventually fired but refused to leave, even when the lawyer moved his practice; how he was put into prison; and how he died of starvation while incarcerated. The

It appears that Bartleby is hopelessly searching for something that he would actually "prefer" to do; an assumption backed by his symbolic open-eyed death at the end, and also by his reference to his interests while discussing other job options with his boss: "I would not like it at all" (par. 204) is the answer he repeats in different wording when offered five different lines of work. In other words, he is connected to his inner inclinations (our pure will that can incline us to either take an action or refrain from it), yet they do not incline him to do anything.

The start of the book was slow and not very interesting. But I continued on through the sea of words, until his mom dies. Then it starts to get more interesting and I had more of an urge to continue to read not only in school, although I still can't really relate to James (main character) or anything really happening in the book. I also felt bad for James. Going from his home with his mom and his drunk moms boyfriend to a crummy foster care center full of people that are setting a terrible example for him, making him

Bartelby dominates the lawyer who does not succeed to help him in any way or to make him leave out the office. In the end, the lawyer is the one who leaves:“Good-bye, Bartleby; I am going—good-bye, and God some way bless you; and take that,” slipping something in his hand. But it dropped upon the floor, and then,—strange to say—I tore myself from him whom I had so longed to be rid of.”

It was funny, because the book would take me some time to pick up, but whenever I did, I found myself flying through, captivated by the beautiful writing. (The character's situation in the first chapter really resonated with me, which initially drew me in.) Overall, it felt like it took me a little while to read, but I did enjoy the process of doing so. However...the reader is left with so much mystery at the end! It was initially