preview

Compare Bartleby The Scrivener And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Better Essays
Open Document

Space is fundamental for the only reason we exist on it. People defined us and we defined them in relation with the space that surrounds them. In the literary field, the authors place their works in a certain place and time. This is what happens to Bartleby the Scrivener and The Fall of the House of Usher. Melville and Poe locate their works in an office and in a house which acquire an important role during the stories. So, the purpose of my essay is to carefully examine the space in the two short stories.

The importance of the spatial dimension in Melville´s and Poe´s narrative is clear. From the title itself, the office and the house take on a predominant value, even they become fundamental actants of the story, as another character. In Bartleby the Scrivener, the office is set on Wall Street. Wall Street, as we know it today, is an emblematic shopping street in New York. Over time, it became into the financial markets of the United States and the heart of the stock exchanges. The viewpoint in the story is different. The famous street implies the emblem of usury. Thus, Wall Street as a privileged area is the place where the scene of isolation takes place. It is a disturbing place without …show more content…

Bartleby accused of homeless is locked there. This space continues the line of the principal space, the office. It is reflected as an enclosed place with no much lighting. In the office, Bartleby based its existence behind the wall, now he has the opportunity of moving freely in the enclosed grass-platted yards because he was under no disgraceful charge. However, Bartleby carries his passivity and the previous lifestyle towards the new space that was not so pleasant and spacious. The narrator describes how Bartleby behaves in the jail in the following way: “strangely huddled at the base of the wall, his knees drawn up, and lying on his side, his head touching the cold stones, I saw the wasted Bartleby (Melville, 1851:

Get Access