Bartleby The Scrivener Literary Analysis Essay
A Literary Analysis of Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Question 1:
Bartleby appears to be a man that is respectful in terms of his job performance and appearance in the narrator’s office. In fact, the narrator defines Bartleby as being “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Melville para.15). This description defines a respectable and responsible man, but he also seems depressed and unwilling to do the bidding of his employer. In this manner, Bartleby does not seem like a lazy person, but a person that has become severely depressed in his refusal to work for his employer.
Question 2:
Bartleby “prefers not” to work as a way to reject the authority of the narrator as a “boss” in the workplace. At the end of the story, Bartleby’s employment history defines one possible reason for his refusal to work: “Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington” (Melville para.250). This background tells the reader that that Bartleby worked in a very depressing environment for many years before coming to the Lawyer’s firm. Bartleby appears to “prefer not” to work or find his own living space because he can no longer do the work of a copyist in this
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Bartleby begins his rebellion against the Lawyer by refusing to work. The capitalistic setting of Wall Street is superficial because life is only measured in terms of money. Bartleby’s rebellion against this type of economic system is symbolic of rejecting the Wall Street setting in terms of the workplace and living quarters. After all Bartleby has to be forcibly removed from the Lawyer’s office because without money, he cannot rent a place to live. The setting is very significant in this story because it shows a limited interpretation of humanity in a place that measures life in terms of profit, production, and
How Is Bartleby The Scrivener Relevant Today
243 Words | 1 PagesAfter reading Melville’s short story Bartleby the Scrivener, I started to think about how the story is relevant to today. Melville is able to capture the tedious and repetitious work environment of people who work in offices not only through the description of the office, but also through the interactions of the workers. In the story, Bartleby is put in an office space without a view to the outside world. Instead the lawyer positions him facing the a wall. The wall symbolizes the class difference between the two men.
Bartleby The Scrivener Character Analysis
1006 Words | 5 PagesWhen only one gentleman shows up for the job, the boss gives the strange man, Bartleby, a job as a filer. After a few days, the new employee will not listen to the boss. This extraordinary man merely states, “I prefer not to,” when requested to complete a duty. Consequently, the boss gets weary of Bartleby’s behavior and attempts to get rid of
Conformity In Melville's 'Bartleby'
249 Words | 1 PagesThe story has come to a point where Bartleby has refused to work and the narrator lets this slide by. This refusal to work would result in dismissal of one’s job, but the narrator continued Bartleby’s employment. However, this charitable act may just be a feint so the narrator’s “can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval; to befriend Bartleby…will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience”. (Melville 56). Rather than for the good purpose, the narrator is conforming to what he thinks society would like him to do in this kind of situation.
Examples Of Nonconformism In Bartleby The Scrivener
832 Words | 4 PagesDay after day, Bartleby works significantly hard, “copying by sun-light and candle-light” (1070). At first, Bartleby nullifies Emerson’s views by going forth with what every person is expected to do, and becomes a zombie in the work life, living every day the same. There are many theories behind the mysterious change of events of Bartleby when one day he randomly stops abiding to the tasks given and asked of him, and begins to solely reply to everything with “I would prefer not to” (1071). Bartleby stops his work altogether, and becomes a zombie in another way. In many ways, Bartleby both nullifies and fulfills Emerson’s view because he stops engaging in what is expected of him, but it is not to better himself since he begins to “prefer” not to eat, which kills him in the
Similarities Between The Birthmark And Bartleby The Scrivener
550 Words | 3 PagesAt the start of “Bartleby the Scrivener”, Bartleby already is miserable and unhappy. Though the narrator originally leads the reader to believe that this is because Bartleby works day and night with “...no pause for digestion” and hardly speaks to his co workers, it is because life has already worn him out (Melville 11). Just by working as “... a subordinate clerk inilarly to Mr.Wakefield, Bartleby has given up on being normal because being normal killed him
Bartleby The Scrivener Consequences
1041 Words | 5 PagesIn the story we are introduced to an odd character by the name of Bartleby, a scrivener who at “At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing” ( Melville 11) and proceeded to write “silently, palely, mechanically.” (Melville 11). But this soon turned around when Bartleby decided to turn in the opposite direction, when he was given orders “Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied “I would prefer not to” ( Melville 11). He seems to be committed to the idea of “preferring” not to do something, and he would respond this every time and seems to have given up on his job. This ultimately makes the lawyer say “you are decided then, not to comply with my request-a request made according to common usage and common sense?”
Bartleby The Scrivener Essay
2169 Words | 9 PagesHerman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener” gives the reader a task to try to construct who Bartleby is when all the information known about him is through the title of his job “a scrivener” for the lawyer’s company on Wall-Street. The lawyer attempts to control Bartleby time after he joins him just like he has been doing with his other employees who he has already figured out but is stunned when he suddenly sees a change in his work ethic and responds with “I would prefer not to” (Melville 1489) whenever he is told to do something at the office. “Bartleby, The Scrivener” is representative of how readers tend to analyze pieces of literary works and this is shown through the lawyer and his attempts to figure out his employees, especially Bartleby, through the use of corporate control. Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut are the other three characters/employees in the short story who have been figured out by
Compare And Contrast Bartleby The Scrivener
292 Words | 2 PagesIn “Bartleby, The Scrivener” by Herman Melville and “A&P” by John Updike, the characters Bartleby and Sammy have different views on the American workplace, but they both go against authority and thus portray the cowboy image. The difference in their views but similarities in defiance are best exemplified in their departure from the workplace. Bartleby is told to leave if he will not work, but he does not leave and goes so far as to follow the narrator to his new office because he lives in the office and uses it as a means to survival. Not knowing what to do, the narrator leaves work for a few days and when he returns, there was a letter informing him that “the writer had sent to the police, and had Bartleby removed to the Tombs as a vagrant,”
Bartleby The Scrivener Conflict Essay
434 Words | 2 PagesNot too long after there is a new superior in the office and Bartleby gets arrested for vagrancy. Although the lawyer from the office tells the prison he is of no harm to anyone and better set in a poorhouse, Bartleby stays resident of the prison. His isolation and nonconformity is more obvious when Bartleby is close to death and still refuses food. He entirely shuts himself out of the normal world staying in seclusion preferring not to do anything whatsoever. “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Herman Melville’s short story, is a perfect example of a conflict within yourself.
Analysis Of Bartleby The Scrivener
675 Words | 3 PagesWe are introduced to Bartleby in medias res, which demonstrates this lack of communication; like entering into the middle of a conversation without orientation, we do not get a backstory of why is working at the law firm or where he came from. Bartleby is described throughout the text as a ghost or a cadaver, spectral and grey. Communication is fading as the walls are erected. Bartleby’s famous line, “I would prefer not to” is one example of this concept. He simply states that he would prefer not to do whatever is being asked of him, giving no explanation or expansion, which baffles the narrator.
Depression In Herman Melville's 'Bartleby'
149 Words | 1 PagesHerman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby” is a story of a successful lawyer that hires a man named Bartleby as his scrivener in his firm on Wall Street. The man Bartleby does his office tasks but not for too long. Throughout most of the story you can see that the phrase, “I prefer not to” being used. Bartley looses his job, ends up in prison and dies because he prefers not to do anything for example, even things like not eating. I believe that this character Bartleby was severely depressed to the point where it took over his life, because he starved himself to death.
To Kill A Mockingbird Historical Reality
832 Words | 4 PagesOn the other hand, some may argue that the economic state during the Depression is not accurately represented due to how seemingly fair the characters are living. Yet, many of the character complain about their financial situation, such as when Atticus tells Scout they are indeed poor or when on chapter 24 page 312 Mrs. Merriweather exclaims about her maid Sophy, “It’s never entered that wool of hers that the only reason I keep her is because this depression’s on and she needs her dollar and a quarter every week she can get it.” These moments in the book sublimely point out the effects of the recession, such as low wages. On average during the 1920’s, maids made around twenty-five cents per hour, adding to a total of seven to twelve dollars a week (‘Monthly Labor Review by United States’ v11 no5. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Kindred Commentary
458 Words | 2 PagesRufus became so accustomed to having everything he wanted handed to him that he never learned the true meaning of work. In his later years as an adult, he still has not liked to write his own
Significance Of The 'Dead Letter Office In Bartleby'
654 Words | 3 PagesUnderstanding the significance of the dead letter office in the story also helps to explain Bartleby. At the end of the story the narrator reveals the only piece of information he ever obtained in regards to Bartleby was the possibility he was previously employed at the dead letter office. This piece of information leads the narrator to establish a correlation between Bartleby and dead letters. This is seen when he states, “"Dead Letters! does it not sound like dead men?”
Relationships Between Narrator And Bartleby
193 Words | 1 PagesThe paragraph emphases the unusual relationships between the narrator and Bartleby that they are paired characters. Paired characters are two characters who have the same meaning and can not be separated. In Melville’s “Bartleby”, although the lawyer and Bartleby cannot understand each other, they cannot deviate from each other either. In the texts “doubtless I should have violently dismissed him […] This is very strange, thought I”.
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