Directions: Record your answers in paragraph format.
Why do you think Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced to the reader before Bartleby?
In "Bartleby the Scrivener," Melville chooses his order of character introduction in order to illustrate what kind of man the lawyer is. The entire story depends upon the lawyer's reactions and responses to Bartleby and upon the reader accepting the lawyer's reactions, responses, and actions as wholly sincere and in keeping with his character. The descriptions of these characters are also really part of the setting. The office is cramped and uninspiring, and those who work there could be considered misfits. Turkey and Nippers together make one effective worker, and Ginger Nuts is nothing but a glorified errand boy, though he's supposed to be an apprentice. Once we meet them, the tone of the office is set and helps prepare us for the inimitable Bartleby the scrivener who "would prefer not to."
Describe Bartleby’s physical characteristics. How is his physical description a foreshadowing of what happens to him?
Bartleby's physical characteristics foreshadow his death. Bartleby is described as pale and thin. For Bartleby, his life itself is pointless and he cannot pretend enthusiasm as expressed by his actions. For example, when he is told to do something his response is “I would prefer not to,” and when he got fired from the firm he acted as if nothing happened. His lack of action showed that he didn’t care for what was going on
In both stories, after the characters are introduced, one begins to see situational changes within the characters. Bartleby, who once was a skillful, efficient worker and a valuable asset to the lawyer, has now ceased working and his superficial façade is none changing. He presents his employer with a constant and passive answer of “I would prefer not to” to all request and inquiries presented by the lawyer. He unwilling leaves the premises of his job and the lawyer try to put up with him but he finds his annoyance of Bartleby’s actions unbearable. Such as when he found that Bartleby was staying the office after all others had gone home and refusal to do any work and take any money from the lawyer and leave. Even the lawyer seems to be walled in by Bartleby and Bartleby’s
Another literary element that is used to convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is through point of view. In Bartleby, the Scrivener the point of view that is used is that of first person narration. By Melville's use of first person narration it allows us to get close to Bartleby but still be confused and in awe of him and since we see him through the eyes of his employer we can quickly identify with the narrator's confusing feelings over Bartleby. An example of this appears on page 127 in paragraph 6; "I sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying my stunned faculties. Immediately it occurred to me that my ears had deceived me, or Bartleby had entirely misunderstood my meaning. I repeated my request in the clearest tone I could assume; but in quite as clear a one came the previous reply, "I would prefer not to." Here Bartleby has just refused orders from his boss who sits at his desk stunned at wheat he has just heard. This is not the only time throughout the story in which Bartleby does this and always with the same words; "I would prefer not to" which only frustrates and confuses the narrator. Another contributor to the narrator's growing
physical traits and use phrases or passages from the book to support your point of view.
After reading “Bartleby, The Scrivener” and watching the movie, the immediate thing you catch is the setting. The setting between the book and the movie are completely different. “Bartleby is a clerk in a Wall Street law firm. He is a quiet, respectable, competent scribe who, at first, seems to be a model employee. He is more productive than the other clerks. He works hard. He seldom takes breaks. But there is something odd about him.” (Lantos). This explains a good portion of who Bartleby is in the book, that he is a diligent and steadfast worker. The movie also explains that Bartleby is a great
She is very illustrative and severe in her characterization. She states metaphorically how is his physical aspect, in one part she says: “some anomalous gene had fired up at the moment of his begetting as a single spark sometimes leaps from banked coils, had given him a giant’s chin”, in this sentence, she uses a cause and effect syntax to characterize his physical defects. This type of syntax causes a better understanding of his nature; an afflictive person that most of the time does not do anything to change. She describes how ugly he is and provokes an unpleasant perception of this character with the purpose to reveal the effects of a disturbed
his character symbolically in terms of either the other characters of the novel as a
I should have been quite regulated with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious. But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically." (Melville 9). This nature of working disturbed the employer because he noticed the machine-like style of Bartleby's. Bartleby's lack of human qualities bothered the narrator, as he did later become concerned about Bartleby's condition and began to inquire of his past.
Lastly, the last employee The Lawyer describes is Bartleby. According to the Lawyer, Bartle is, “one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the original sources, and in his case those are very small” (Melville 1). To him, Bartleby is the most interesting scriveners of all time. Bartleby joins the office after getting hired when he saw an ad placed by the Lawyer, which at that time needed extra help in his office. In the
The perception of the narrator, of everything including rights of Bartleby as assets prevents the narrator from understanding the spiritual aspect of the pride in Bartleby. Although the narrator
In the narrator’s office, Bartleby is faced with being holed up by his employer. The narrator tells us “I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on my side of them… I placed his desk close up to a small side window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy backyards and bricks, but which owing to subsequent erections, commanded no present view at all, though it gave some light… Still to further satisfactory arrangement, I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight…” (Melville, 301). He has essentially cut Bartleby off from any forms of communication by this set-up, alienating him from the other workers in the office and the narrator as well. We see Bartleby deteriorate through his time in the office, starting off as a hard worker, to denying to do certain parts of his job, and finally, to completely cutting himself off and not doing any work, much to the chagrin of the narrator and the others. The work itself could also be compared to that of what he did in the Dead Letter Office, copying dead letters day in and day out for the law. There is no real destination for what he does, the works he copies will end up gathering
Looking at the very first time Bartleby refuses to examine the copies, the reader might think that the narrator is going to dislike him very much, but this is not true at all. When the narrator first hears the refusal, he comes to anger very quickly. He is baffled at Bartleby’s response and proceeds to ask his other employees what their opinions might be. However, the passive nature of Bartleby turns the narrator’s anger into an appreciation for the character. The narrator even tells the reader that Bartleby “means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence…. he is useful to me” (Melville 152). This attitude holds strong until Bartleby refuses to do any work at all. The narrator’s thoughts turn into anger again, and he tells Bartleby that “the time has come, you must quit this place” (Melville 159). Nonetheless, after Bartleby also refuses this command, the narrator takes on the responsibility of caring for the poor man. This type of change reflects all of the characters’ changing views of Bartleby throughout the whole story.
In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, a story of “the strangest” law-copyist the narrator, a lawyer, has ever employed is told. The narrator experiences conflict with Bartleby when he “prefers not to” examine some law papers. Once Bartleby “prefers not to” once, he continues to repeat the statement on all request asked of him. This statement sends Bartleby into a state of tranquility, staying isolated in the cubical and refusing all assistance by any means. This state results in him going to jail, and eventually dying. This passive resistance Bartleby exhibits traps him physically and psychologically by surrounding him with “walls” the narrator symbolically describes numerous times. The idea of transcendentalism arises from
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
The lawyer himself says his goal was to remove the sight of him, but not the employment: “I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not remove him from my voice” (Melville). The narrator also makes Bartleby out be some sort of loner who does not like company. We are told scriveners usually work in pairs: “Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original” (Melville), but Bartleby is an exception to this normalcy “I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet Byron would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document” (Melville). We see that the narrator makes Bartleby a hard to work with person in this statement thus isolating himself from the rest of his colleagues. He is also dehumanized in his way of work, where he worked methodically, but there was no change in the way he worked. The lawyer describes him as an emotionless robot-like being: “I should have
The story of Bartleby by Herman Melville is circled around a boss and his workers. This short story is an exert from a larger collection of short stories within a book called, Great American Short Stories by Jane Smiley. The narrator in Bartleby is this Lawyer who holds much interest and worries over one specific scrivener who works under him. He pays close attention to this employee because of the attitude and behavior he distributes. This character is quite particular, his name is Bartleby, a unique individual in the eye of the Lawyer. Throughout this short story one may witness a change in Bartleby, it happens so gradually that they may not realize it or possibly skim over it. Bartleby was a very sequestered being; his development occurred over time with him losing motivation entirely. In the beginning, Bartleby is a silent but good worker, however, he eventually refuses his responsibilities as a scribe, then he suddenly stops everything except for staring at a wall in a courtyard.