Bartleby Underground Man Analysis

The term alienation refers to the isolation of one’s self from a belonging society. When a person is alienated they no longer feel as if they belong or have the same views as the group or society they live in. How does one become alienated from something that they once belonged to? This is a question many have discussed throughout history. In Voltaire’s book Candide, Marx’s book The Communist Manifesto, Hoffer’s The True Believer, and Memmi’s The Colonizer and the Colonized, all these authors address man’s alienation in modern society and come up with solutions for man’s alienation within each book.

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.

First and foremost, Capitalism wants people to work it doesn’t want people to prefer not to work, the working man needs to work in order for the economy to keep on rolling. The rich men of capitalism want the working man to keep on working for their money to come in. Without work capitalism crashes. That is why Bartleby is thrown in prison, this is why he is constantly persecuted and questioned by the narrator, the narrator is confused because he is used to capitalism and it’s way of working, Bartleby is nothing but the odd one out of this system. When Bartleby stops producing copies, his life slowly gets worst, it leads him to go in prison and rot for the rest of his days. Bartleby lives in a society that wants nothing but constant production. He is crushed by the money-making monster that is capitalism. No one wants Bartleby to work in their establishment because he doesn’t want to work. To this society someone who does not want to work is regarded as a lazy person who leeches off of others. The narrator tries to get Bartleby to stay away from him, he doesn’t want anything to do with him near the end, capitalism has consumed the narrator it shows that it has

Alienation is when you are an outsider; you may feel isolated from others for being different, therefore not part of a group. I have at times felt alienated when I couldn’t get on a ride due to my height. For

Through the course of the story, Bartleby displays a considerable amount of alienation. Though Bartleby starts out as an amazing employee, always working hard and not causing trouble, he becomes an interesting subject when he tells the lawyer that he would, “prefer not” to do what was asked of him. The lawyer is very concerned with Bartleby’s past and what makes him “tick”. But, the lawyer is also very impatient. For instance, in the beginning of Bartleby the Scrivener, the lawyer says, “...I would put certain calm questions to him the next morning, touching his history, etc., and if he declined to answer them openly and reserved, (and I suppose he would prefer not), then to give him a twenty-dollar bill over and above whatever I might owe him, and tell him his services were no longer required…” (Melville 35) This quote explains that if Bartleby didn’t answer or if he “preferred not to answer”, he was going to let him go. In today’s society, we can compare this situation to those of unemployment. Unemployment is more a branch of political alienation rather than what Bartleby had resembled. Political alienation refers to an individual citizen's relatively enduring sense of estrangement from or rejection of the prevailing political system. From the mid-19th century to present time, alienation still exists in many different

Alienation, the state of being isolated from a social gathering or a social norm. Also known as the major theme throughout Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, The Scrivener.” In the beginning the author describes a normal work setting environment in which later alienates the environment with odd disputes. Melville introduces a lawyer and his typical work environment along with his scriveners, but when referring to his scrivener Bartleby, the lawyer described him as “the strangest he ever saw” (479). Melville purposefully isolates the character Bartleby to express alienation in modern day society by using symbolism and tone.

      Herman Melville's Bartleby is a tale of isolation and alienation. In his story, society

The narrator went to great lengths to avoid a confrontation. When Bartleby refused to leave the office after being fired, the narrator chose to move his office to a different location instead of removing the eccentric man by force. The narrator informs the reader of this idea when he says, “ No more then. Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. I will change my offices.” (2422) By doing so, the narrator displays just how far man is sometimes willing to go to avoid conflict. The final theme is man’s desire to have a free conscience. Melville reveals this theme through the actions of the narrator as well as the new tenants of the office. The narrator attempts to appease his conscience by giving Bartleby money above his wages when he fired him. The new tenants of the office try to put the responsibility of dealing with Bartleby back on the narrator, but they are denied and eventually have the man removed from the premises by law officers. Herman Melville uses the actions and reactions of the characters in “Bartleby the Scrivener” to disclose three important themes, alienation, man’s desire to avoid conflict, and man’s desire to keep a free conscience. In doing so, he gives us an inside look into the workings of the human mind. The reader is left with the impression that all people, including lawyers, have compassion for other humans, and at some point, that

Dostoevsky’s Underground Man is quite possibly the most interesting anti-hero in all of literature. His unique worldview has both shocked and puzzled readers since the novella’s publication. One of his key characteristics is his tendency towards paradox, especially concerning doubt, shame, and spitefulness. These paradoxes seem to reflect his era, of which he is often critical to the point of exhaustion. Other features of the Underground Man’s psyche mirror the nineteenth century as well. For example, his anomie is a result of his life as a clerk in (then) modern Saint Petersburg. The Underground Man’s true self may be shrouded by mystery, but it is clear that he is either telling us that he lives in all of us through our experiences with alienation, or that if we were anywhere near as self-aware as he is, we would live underground as well.

The Underground Man’s character and relationships in the novella The Underground Man, are quickly ruined by his philosophical convictions. One of these convictions is that the only way to feel alive is to feel pain and suffering, and the two choices in life are either lofty suffering or cheap happiness. The Underground Man ruins relationships with Liza through believing that he will not be able to have true happiness with her and instead, it will all be fake. This thinking is completely irrational and does not allow him to achieve true happiness, as he does not choose to understand that that is a possibility in life. The irrational thinking in the Underground Man’s head, causes illogical actions when it comes to emotions and situations that he is not used to. These situations all have negative repercussions that further cause the Underground man to believe that his relationships and happiness are unattainable.

The Underground Man is a person of extremities and contradictions. His character is harder to gauge than most because he varies on every single position he gives. He is a wicked man, who can perform no wicked acts, an evil man, who has his stretches of good, and a man of freedom and free-will who has imposed among himself rules and his own underground prison. The Underground Man is hyperconscious, he is highly intelligent, and is well read, yet this has led him down a path of inertia. He is an apathetic man, who for the life of him can’t make a single decision. Another aspect of the Underground Man’s character is the fact that he is a masochist, he enjoys suffering and wallowing in his own misery. This is evident when the Underground Man says: “the pleasure of despair, of course, but it is in despair that the most burning pleasures occur, especially when one is all too highly conscious of the hopelessness of one's position,” (Dostoevsky, 5). The Underground Man is quite ambivalent towards those he considers gentlemen or active men, whom he considers less intelligent. He admires their ability to charge towards their goals and not be held back by doubt; he even refers to them as “enraged bulls,” (Dostoevsky, 5). The Underground Man then states he envies these men of action to a point of disgust. He feels the men of heightened consciousness who do nothing are smarter because walls don’t affect them. Another profound aspect of the Underground Man’s character is his view of freedom. To him freedom isn’t achieving what one considers the pleasant aspects of life, but exploring all possibilities across the field. This shows that the Underground Man is in fact capable of rational thought because there is more to life than just pleasure. Overall, the character of the Underground Man is one of contradictions, nihilism, spitefulness masochism, ambiguity, consciousness, and inertia.

Also identity and the alienation of Social class struggle like The Case for Reparations show the alienation of the black community after slavery during the Jim Crow era, and social struggle between owners and workers proletarians and bourgeoisie from Karl Marx communist manifesto. Marx spoke of this alienation which is happening in modern society. Why have we become spectator to the things that happening in modern society, maybe we became spectators because the things that’s hurting use we see them as convenient and not harmful. Also Paulo freire mention alienation to show children begin oppressed and isolated from of knowledge The children that are born in to the new generation seen these things when they were younger and thought it was just part of everyday life their parents except it, and they don’t know the harm that comes with. Becoming a spectator to these problems will only lead to future society becoming more isolated and cold. Soon were just going to let the government make all the decision in our life’s no voice leads to us to begin told what to eat and what is good for us. Because of modern alienation way we eat and interact is changing and it is turning use in to spectator who turns a blind eye to the changes.

Mike Birbiglia, an American actor and filmmaker once said, “Alienation, I suppose, cannot be hackneyed because it will always exist.” It is always interesting to hear what others think an outcast is. To some, and outcast is someone who does not dress nice or smell good all the time, while to others an outcast is a person who is shy and quiet. Outcast have been around since the beginning of civilization. In ancient times they were called untouchables, in medieval times they were called beggars, but now they go by many names. Some think social class defines the weakest in society; but just because someone is not the same as most, he or she does not deserve to be treated as less than. Robert Frost, one of the most famous American poets, is constantly referred to as someone who described alienation in his poetry. He knew exactly how to develop a clear separation of people within a society in many different ways. Robert Frost demonstrated his views on alienation in three key poems.

d) In forth aspect, alienation of workers and other workers, relationship between them will also be alienated. What Marx believed was that, workers are alienated by capitalists and eventually become the “goods” on the trading market. As capitalists own factories, they can make decision about who they want to hire. Thus, workers are first “selected” to work in the factories. Then, throughout the working period, workers are usually monitored by supervisors. Once a worker is found to violate the factory as well as the capitalists’ interest, he or she is no longer hired. As a result, workers have to work in a commercial, capitalist atmosphere. The relationship between workers is worsened.

Alienation, through my personal views, is inevitable in the modern day. Our society has become so adapt to depending on the individual to conform to the demanding expectations of our society. What constitutes a life of alienation in my opinion is the inability to find meaning in the world and to become a cog in the machine of our society, conforming to what is expected from us based off of societal norms. This idea can best be highlighted through Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, which is illustrated through the main character’s alienation based on their inability to find meaning in their lives.