Character Analysis of Bartleby, the Scrivener

He just had a few idiosyncrasies that irk the narrator, and among them are what come to be known as “dead-wall reveries” (338). Bartleby would often gaze out of his window at the view, which was nothing more than a big old brick wall. Hours and hours would pass of Bartleby not doing his work, and not even doing something for his own entertainment like reading the newspaper or drinking, like the other copyists did. His time was consumed by these reveries, and also by not doing anything that he did not prefer. Readers can interpret Bartleby’s actions as a representation of his hopelessness. When a character looks out of a window, it can show the reader how he sees the world. For Bartleby, his vision is fixed on a dead wall. The view he has of the world is dead and despairing. He doesn’t want to do anything productive because he is so fixed on his lifeless

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” presents the titular character with a mental impairment that bears many similarities to what is known as depression. Although Bartleby appears to have this disability, it is never confirmed due to the entire view of this character being shaped solely by the perspective of an ignorant narrator. Having only encountered visible, physical disabilities before, the narrator does not know how to respond to a man with an invisible, mental one. Driven mad by Bartleby’s preferred phrase, “I would prefer not to” (Melville 8), the narrator fails to recognize this phrase as what Mitchell and Snyder’s Narrative Prosthesis could label as a subconscious cry for help, and instead tries half-hearted

Transcendentalism is a philosophical belief several authors have used in their works to feel disconnected from an organized society. Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michael Donovan, Jon Krakauer, and Henry David Thoreau have all used transcendentalism to give more depth in their characters or theme;moreover, usually the characters or themes both have some characteristic of independence.

In “Bartleby the Scrivener” an elderly lawyer recounts the tenure of a scrivener, Bartleby, from his office. The progression of this employer/employee relationship depicts disengagement between opposing social classes and its consequences. The presence of the subtitle of “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street” has been given much consideration. The subtitle carries the baggage of the emerging capitalistic culture, but it also alludes to the confinement that walls enable. Melville strategically uses architecture in his short story, “Bartleby the Scrivener” to demonstrate the disengagement between social classes that capitalism produces. In the story, the

While many may claim that Bartleby isolated himself by saying, “I would prefer not to.” by continually backing away from his responsibilities, but that was from the Lawyer’s perspective, not Bartleby’s. Maybe the reader will never know why he began to isolate himself. Now the Underground Man, on the other hand, was a

When interpreting Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, many critics like to look at Bartleby and the mental workings that make him say “I would prefer not to”. However, I believe it is much more interesting to look at the lawyer in the context of a capitalist society. Bartleby, the Scrivener begins with a classic capitalist scene: An 1850’s law office on Wall Street. The protagonist, an unnamed lawyer, commences the story by telling the reader about how for thirty years, his life has been more or less ordinary, until a copier by the name of Bartleby shows up. From the very beginning, the reader only gets the lawyer’s side of the story. The reader can tell from the first paragraph that the lawyer is used a certain way of life, the easy

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” begins with the self-characterization of a well-established man, who prioritizes financial security and the ease of life. “All who know me, consider me an eminently safe man” as told by the narrator himself (Melville 33). The narrator has already made a name for himself in Industrial America: handling legal documents at a small office on Wall Street. Inside the office, “at one end, they looked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious skylight shaft, penetrating the building from top to bottom” (Melville 34). Even the description of the office offers no solace to the bleak life of the narrator. The narrator is living a life taking few risks and above all to conform to the ways of society to maintain his secure,

To begin with, Bartleby is the protagonist of Melville’s story and he “was a scrivener, the strangest [one] ever saw” (3). He looks like a “cadaverously gentleman” (16), yet he wasn’t “ordinarily humane” (10). His physical appearance symbolizes the image of someone who exhibits emotional coldness and inhuman remoteness. In other words, he is alive but dead on the inside. Furthermore, another central symbol of the novel is the office. In this environment, restricted relationships among employees are evident. Hence, Bartleby appears as a prisoner of his own thoughts. He chose to isolate himself, despite having people around him. This demonstrates the lack of personal interactions in his work environment. The narrator, the employer of Bartleby, cares about the protagonist because he doesn’t want to feel guilty. He mentions that “befriend[ing] Bartleby will cost [him] little or nothing” while at the same time he can “lay up in [his] soul what would prove a sweet morsel for [his] conscience” (13). Moreover, this symbol of the office captures the essence of egoism. The narrator acts kindly towards Bartleby to soothe his conscience, not because a human being was mentally and physically in pain. Bartleby, judged on his corpse-like appearance and robotic actions, experienced apathetic responses that demonstrate how those around him never attempted to genuinely help him. Consequently, the lack of human compassion to help others demonstrates the inability to look consider the emotions of an individual that is

The Transcendental movement of American literature was largely pioneered and driven by Ralph Waldo Emerson who outlined his fundamental tenets of Transcendentalism in his nine maxims. Emerson, who valued individuality, states in his essay Self-Reliance “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind” (Emerson). By intentionally not associating divinity with conventional religious institutions such as the Christian church, a frequent aspect of American literature that the reader might expect, he emphasizes the importance of establishing the self in his maxim. Sacred, to Emerson, does not signify the “sacredness of tradition” that the church believes in, but rather to the holiness of what comes “wholly from within” (Emerson). Emerson believes that integrity means staying true to himself: “The only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it,” and an individual “must be a nonconformist” against society if needs be to maintain that integrity. Authors Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee demonstrate Emerson’s

“When man wanted to make a machine that would walk he created the wheel, which does not resemble a leg” (Guillaume Apollinaire). Although the leg and wheel do not resemble each other in appearance, their ultimate goal and purpose are quite similar. Two objects do not have to look or appear similar in order for them to serve a common purpose or portray the same idea. This creates a similarity to the way Ralph Waldo Emerson relates to Transcendentalist ideas. Although Emerson’s work may not appear completely identical to that of other transcendentalist thinkers, they share many themes and visualizations. Emerson’s way of portraying Transcendentalist beliefs can look different than the ways of others, but that does not mean that they cannot both resemble Transcendentalism thinking. Throughout his literary works, Ralph Waldo Emerson observes Transcendentalist thinking because of his promotion of Individualism, a faith-oriented life, and the appreciation of nature.

During a period of depression and eye problems from 1853-56, Melelville published a series of stories. Melville exploits Bartleby's infamous remark "I would prefer not to" to reflect his protesting attitude toward his meaningless job. Secondly, Melville gives attention to Bartleby's actions, and his constant coexistence with the inescapable wall. As a final method, Melville once more supplies you with Bartleby's actions involving his imprisonment and concluding suicide. It is through these three literary techniques of establishing character that Melville is able to constitute the idea that an insignificant job in a capitalistic society will produce an alienated worker. Herman Melville's, "Bartleby the

It is normal to think in a situation of employer and employee, the employer gets to make the commands and orders pertaining to the employee, however in Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, this situation is not the case, and in fact opposite. Blatantly about the passive resistance the main character, or employee, Bartleby achieves with the famous, “I prefer not to,” quote, this basic idea of passive resistance only skims the surface of the underlying themes and lessons presented in the book. Melville adds certain aspects into the story that raise questions about Bartleby’s character and his amount as a human (if even human at all), especially when compared to other characters. These questions about Bartleby 's character serve as a negative instruction to the reader on lessons of humanity as where the other characters serve as positive instruction. Melville transforms the book into an educational tool to teach the basic characteristics of humanity and essentially redefining what it is to be a moral and good human through the book.

Melville assigns Bartleby a corner of the room with a grim view and a high green folding screen, separating the two. To any and all questions brought to him, he either remains silent or says those five words with an absence of tone, in a somewhat inhumane way with no emotion and a straight face almost “cadaverous.” The narrator attempts to know the origins of this interesting creature and even finds him living in the office still possessing such a “cadaverously gentlemanly nonchalance” (54). The narrator gives an eerie vision of Bartleby as a corpse, which brings about not only sympathy but also fear. Although Bartleby is alive, he has certain undead qualities about him.

“Bartleby” begins from the narrators perspective. He is elderly and works on wall street. A description of the narrator allows the author to create the setting for the story without needing to introduce Bartleby in the beginning. This allows the structure to begin slowly and then speed up as it gains more focus and direction once an opinion on Bartleby is presented from the perspective of multiple characters.

At first, the illusion of a good work ethic is put forth by Bartleby. Nevertheless this commitment is short lived and he begins refusing to do his work stating “I would prefer not to” anytime he is asked to review his copies documents. This is something that The Lawyer chooses not to condemn at first out of some sort of