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Comparing Bartleby And Biff Loman

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The potential for change to Biff Loman and The Lawyer lies in their experiences with the title characters of their respective pieces (Willy Loman and Bartleby), as well as changes in the environment in which they have grown accustom to. Willy inhibited Biff from being able to successfully change and become the person he wanted to be because Biff was guided by Willy’s impractical expectations. Though Biff does revere Willy’s values and ethics throughout his entire childhood, he catches his father having an affair, which causes him to realize he never desired nor was able to uphold Willy’s expectations. Only until Willy died was Biff truly free from his father’s expectations and able to pursue his passion. Unlike Biff, the Lawyer’s inhibitor of change was not a person, but rather his job and environment. The Lawyer lived a majority of his life as the perfect model for a hardworking lawyer on Wall Street. The Lawyer approached life safely and automatically. It …show more content…

The Lawyer’s fatal flaw throughout the novel is his lack of confrontational skills. This lack is the critical reason why his relationship with Bartleby gets to the point where he lives in his carriage and changes office buildings to avoid confrontation. The Lawyer does try to compensate by being sympathetic to Bartleby’s situation, but is never truly able to connect with Bartleby on an emotional level. Though the Lawyer does not initially understand the nature of Bartleby’s attitude, he eventually puts it together when he contemplates Bartleby’s experiences at the Dead Letter Office. While this may be interpreted as being too late since Bartleby had already died, this actually enables The Lawyer to effectively understand that the people in society do not appreciate automatic and safe interactions, but seek

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