Analysis of Herman Melville´s Bartleby, the Scrivencer Essay

In Herman Melville's short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is constantly changing, the narrator's attitude is conveyed through the author's use of literary elements such as; diction-descriptive and comical, point of view-first person, and tone-confusion and sadness.

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener” the author, Herman Melville, uses indirect references to hint to many historical, literary, and biblical events. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” contains many allusions about important events that help connect this fictional story to actual events in Melville’s time period, before, and beyond. Melville uses allusions frequently throughout “Bartleby, the Scrivener” to help build connections with the real world and the fictitious world of this short story.

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

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.

Herman Melville’s, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” tells the tale of Bartleby, the new scrivener at a lawyer’s office on Wall-Street. In an office of industrious, distressed workers who endlessly perform mundane tasks due to the orders of the lawyer, Bartleby forms a mystifying exception. Bartleby baffles his boss and colleagues by responding to requests with his famous line, “I would prefer not to.” His response demonstrates an unwillingness to work and a willingness to do what he truly desires, which is extremely unusual to both his colleagues and their society and creates a massive social divide between them. Due to the abandonment of those around him resulting from their growing frustration with his inactivity, Bartleby ultimately faces a swift

Melville’s short story Bartleby the scrivener, describes the narrator as an elderly old man that wishes to give details of the life of Bartleby the scrivener. Bartleby was a completely emotionless human being who refuses to interact with the world around him. These actions shape the short story, picking at its viewers mind as to why Bartleby is disconnected from society. Bartleby worked in the dead letters office this may have triggered his inability to relate to the world around him. This motionless docility covered his inner troubles that he withheld from the world. The narrator states “I have known very many of them, professionally and privately, and if I pleased, could relate divers histories, at which good-natured gentlemen might smile, and sentimental souls might weep.” (Melville’s). In this he means that many persons might choose to smile as they find pleasure in reading “Bartleby” as much as those who might weep because they find the short story to be discouraging. In the 1970’s adaptation is one of those sentimental souls that the narrator is talking about in that it weeps for Bartleby, however the narrator brings the humor to life as he becomes speechless to Bartleby preferring not to do his work.

Men and women are faced with inevitable walls as they go through their daily lives, the strength of their character is derived by how they tackle these walls. Herman Melville gives us a glimpse at how walls can eventually destroy us if we give into them. In his short story, Bartleby the Scrivener, the narrator tells the story of a clerk he once employed, Bartleby. At first, Bartleby seemed to be the perfect employee, but he eventually began to shirk his work and depart into himself. Through the narrative, the narrator gives his account of how he dealt with Bartleby and gives the reader a look at the walls Bartleby dealt with in part of his life. The walls Bartleby continuously encounters throughout the text are a symbol of his isolation

In both “Bartleby the Scrivener” and “Young Goodman Brown”, we find themes and characteristics of “Dark Romanticism”. They represent characters who do not completely know what the most right thing to do is. But what both these works do is create an urge in the reader to wish for perfection. These two stories are more like bridges to transcendentalism. Even though the dark romanticism period in the New England led by Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson did not fully embrace transcendentalism, these two stories particularly leave the reader wanting and pondering more. The human mind works in a complex way and it has to be prepared for certain things to emerge. These two stories serve as a mirror that will help us to look within us for something more divine, that will help us find a greater understanding of what we ought to do.

He was able to see that the man he hired was using his office for his own living home. “For the first time in my life a feeling of overpowering stinging melancholy seized me. Before, I had never experienced aught but a not unpleasing sadness.”(Herman Melville, page 320). the narrator is feeling sad for Bartleby, he feels sad that the man who works for him is lonely and has no one to be with. However, as the story keeps going Bartleby refused to do anything. When asked to do something his simple words are, “I prefer not to.” the narrator did not like this and he got mad that he decided to move his business somewhere else. He didn't want to be in charge of Bartleby when the man would not do any work. He was proud of himself for leaving him behind without getting angry but being able to control his anger. “When again I entered my office, lo, a note from the landlord lay upon my desk. I opened it with trembling hands. It informed me that the writer had sent to the police, and had Bartleby remove to the Tombs as a vagrant.” (Herman Melville, page 329). everyone knew that the narrator knew more about Bartleby then they did. They wanted the narrator to be able and do something about Bartleby. As Bartleby was in the Tomb the narrator took time out to go and visit him. The first time he visited him Bartleby ignored him. The narrator out of his good character went to the person who cooks for them and gave him money so he can get Bartleby some good food. As stubborn as

Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” reveals different themes such as isolation and human morality test. In the story, the narrator runs a law firm and has a new Scrivener [Bartleby] who the narrator describes as“ the strangest I ever saw or heard of” (661). For the first few days, Bartleby is seen to be working fine, however, one day Bartleby just responds with “I would prefer not to” when anyone assigns a task to Bartleby (674). The real problems start to arise when Bartleby sleeps and eats at the office while denying to work or leave. The narrator illustrates the two main themes of human morals and isolation throughout the story with the use of biblical references to Bartleby as a leper and shows symbolism of the

What motivates you to go to work everyday? What motivates you to dress the way you do? What motivates you to be reasonable when it comes to normal requests? Ah, the ultimate question in need of an answer: Who determines what is reasonable and normal, and should we not determine these matters for ourselves? Chaos would result, you say, if every individual were granted that freedom. Yet, we all do have that freedom, and Herman Melville (1819-1891) through the interpretation of a man who prefers to follow his own path in "Bartleby, the Scrivener", subjectively conveys the mental anguish he experienced as a writer and man when the literary world attempted to steal that freedom.

Bartleby- The Scrivener In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the author uses several themes to convey his ideas. The three most important themes are alienation, man’s desire to have a free conscience, and man’s desire to avoid conflict. Melville uses the actions of an eccentric scrivener named Bartleby, and the responses of his cohorts, to show these underlying themes to the reader. The first theme, alienation, is displayed best by Bartleby’s actions. He has a divider put up so that the other scriveners cannot see him, while all of them have desks out in the open so they are full view of each other, as well as the narrator. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This is proven when Turkey exclaims, “ I

Herman Melville is an acclaimed author of the American Renaissance period and his most commendable works include “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. The story of “Bartleby” is not only a revelation of the business world of the mid-19th century but at the same time, it is also the manifestation of the emerging capitalistic lifestyle of perhaps New York’s most prominent street, Wall Street. Bartleby is a rather peculiar yet captivating figure. Bartleby’s life and death contribute to a sort of enigma for the reader and his employer. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a story that criticizes the monotonous day-to-day cycle that the modern working man is forcibly put in by society. With that being said, the death of Bartleby not only serves as a reflection

The narrator also adds that “while of other law-copyists I might write the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done…Bartleby was one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable” (p.1483). Bartleby distinguishes himself from others on

“Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. Ah Bartleby, Ah Humanity.” (Melville 131) This is the key to Bartleby, for it indicates that he stands as a symbol for humanity. This in turn functions as a commentary on society and the working world, for Bartleby is a seemingly homeless, mentally scrivener who gives up on the prospect of living life, finally withdrawing himself from society. However, by doing so Bartleby is attempting to exercise his freewill, for he would “prefer not to” work. His relationship to the narrator (the Lawyer) and the normal progression of life. However, this