Social Deviance in Bartleby the Scrivener Essay

Obsessions cause havoc and can potentially ruin a person’s life, yet society normalizes and capitalizes on their effects. Obsessive thoughts and behaviors are becoming increasingly more common in today’s society. They can have many detrimental effects due to the lack of control it causes in a person. With the popularity of romantic comedies and love songs, borderline stalking behaviors are viewed as normal acts of love. The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, features a man hopelessly obsessed with a past girlfriend. Additionally, There’s Something About Mary is a movie about a man demonstrating stalker-like behavior toward a woman that he has been obsessed with since his childhood. Due to deficits in their own life and self-esteem,

‘Obsessive love has the capacity to drive a person to insanity, leading to irrational behaviour, alienation and despair’

Many people have obsessions, but most do not take it to the extremes that they kill because of it. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” represents the blindness that happens when someone takes an obsession to the extreme and ignores the consequences of inept actions that result in deadly consequences. Aylmer, the husband, becomes obsessed with a “crimson birthmark” shaped like a small hand that is on the cheek of Georgiana, the wife. Alymer view the birthmark as a stain to his sensibilities and views on what is a “perfect” form based on his egotistic view of his wife. Unfortunately, his decent into madness sucks up even his wife into a mucky pool full of fear and self-loathing. She does this all just to please her husband, which ultimately results in her death. More then once I have heard that obsessed people are evil. Obsession by itself does not make a person evil. Obsession to the point that safety and life are put at risk is

A person with these constant thoughts understands that they are senseless, but ignoring them is very difficult. For example, a person with an obsession about contamination might have a thought like “Don’t touch that door knob, it might spread a disease,” or "My hands may be contaminated--I must wash them.” These types of persistent thoughts might enter a person’s mind suddenly or very gradually. The obsessions intrude into the consciousness of the person, disrupting their normal thinking and behavior (Silvia 2).

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.

In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” which was written by Herman Melville, the character named Bartleby is a very odd, yet interesting individual. In the story, Bartleby is introduced when he responds to a job opening at the narrator’s office. Although there is no background information given about him, it becomes very apparent that he will be the antagonist in this story. Unlike the usual image put on the antagonist, Bartleby causes conflict with a very quiet and calm temperament. This character’s attitude, along with the fact that he is a flat and static character, makes him a very unique antagonist, and this fact is shown through the way other characters approach and deal with his conflict.

In the short story, "Bartleby the Scrivener," Herman Melville employs the use of plot, setting, point of view, characterization, and tone to reveal the theme. Different critics have widely varying ideas of what exactly the main theme of "Bartleby" is, but one theme that is agreed upon by numerous critics is the theme surrounding the lawyer, Bartleby, and humanity. The theme in "Bartleby the Scrivener" revolves around three main developments: Bartleby's existentialistic point of view, the lawyer's portrayal of egotism and materialism, and the humanity they both possess. The three developments present the lawyer's and Bartleby's alienation from the world into a "safe" world of their own design.

| A. Either obsessions or compulsions:Obsessions as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4):1. Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress2. The thoughts, impulses, or images

In Bartleby, The Scrivener, Bartleby serves as the main character with his distinct nature that everyone is trying to decipher. Despite the attention around Bartleby, much of the story also revolves around the narrator, the lawyer, who tells the story through his perspective; this implies that the lawyer’s ideology and perception of societal norms shape the interactions between the lawyer and Bartleby but also how the story is told. Take for example, if the lawyer disregards Bartleby and fires him on the spot, this story would have ended rather quickly and been much different than it actually is. With this said, the lawyer’s peculiar attraction to Bartleby’s strange behavior can be explained by the lawyer’s innate ideas of social norms and instruction that stems from the behavior of the other scriveners and his own experiences.

   There are certain social codes that we are expected to follow. They are too numerous and obscure to know-but for the most part, they don't need to be known. The unspoken, unwritten set of rules we are obligated to live by are subtly imbued in us from birth. When we live outside those boundaries and follow our own desires, we are walking on thin ice. An eccentric choice in wardrobe or unusual habits can make the difference between being considered an individual who "thinks outside of the box," or just a plain old lunatic. When someone refuses to adhere to our social codes, they become suspect. But what drives them, enables them to refuse in the first place?

Have you ever seen a person so disconnected from society and from what is considered to be normal that he or she made you question their sanity? If so, you could relate with the lawyer in the story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” In this story, the narrator, who is a lawyer, has a simple man named Bartleby respond to a job opening as a scrivener. Unbeknownst to the lawyer, Bartleby did not act in the manner the lawyer would have expected. Bartleby is so outside of what is expected that it is almost as if he had died and no longer had to live up to society’s standards. In this story, Bartleby is portrayed as a lifeless zombie and is alone with nowhere to go, no one to see, nowhere to be, and no purpose to live for.

On a more professional note, I learned that this type of obsession can take over one's life until they don't know what is real anymore. All they have in their mind is their uncontrolled illusion. It is really hard to not

The subtitle “Bartleby, the Scrivener, means an individual (Bartleby) who is a law-copyists. Bartleby is one of the scriveners described by the Melville as the strangest Scrivener that ever existed while scriveners are the law copyists. Melville implies the demonstration of patience with the employees as well as haste in doing work in the business world. When Bartleby joins him in the business, he works so hard and with the haste and the natural expectancy of the instant compliance expects Bartleby to snatch a copy of business from him and proceed with the examination and copying without delay (Reed, Naomi 273). Also when he calls him to examine a small paper with him,

Wall Street is commonly regarded as a vicious battleground occupied by thousands of money-hungry individuals that wish to strike it big by climbing the corporate ladder by any means necessary. While many win and many more lose everything as people try to succeed on Wall Street, Melville sees a problem outside the bounds of losing and gaining money. Melville realized that an existential battle was simultaneously taking place within the minds of these young people. In Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, Melville emits contempt for society and its corrupt values by creating underdeveloped characters that lack typical characteristics of fully established individuals. With work, money, profits, and productivity at the center of the universe,

Cars, food, music, or even reading, all of these things can become a person’s obsession. What are you obsessive over? Now before you begin thinking that obsession is a bad thing, just know that being obsessive is not necessarily a negative word. In this paper, I will be discussing the different definitions that our society has created about obsessiveness.