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Who Is The Antagonist Of Bartleby

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Taylor Beatty English 1125 Section 001 2-17-16 Bartleby The Antagonist The definition of an antagonist is a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something throughout the story it was made clear that our antagonist was none other than Bartleby himself. You may think why he is the antagonist he doesn’t anything to hurt anyone or really anything at all but because of that that makes him our antagonist. At the beginning of the story you see him as just an average character, but are you read on he ends up becoming one unintentionally. Throughout the whole story everyone around the office is always asking him questions trying to figure out what’s up with him and every time he answers with the same answer “I prefer not to” (Melville 139). The lawyer still constantly tries to figure him out and still asks him questions and even though Bartleby responds with the same answer every time and the lawyer still doesn’t give up. So as you read the story and get more in depth with it you can definitely tell that Bartleby is ours story’s antagonist. As your reading the story you realize that Bartleby is one who is very deeply disturbed and it is almost impossible to figure out exactly why because he doesn’t share very much of his life with his coworkers. In the office …show more content…

As Bartleby is in prison he still is acting the same as he did when he was at the office. He just sits there and is staring at the brick wall. He also is choosing to starve himself. When the lawyer goes to visit him in the jail a man named “Grub-man” (Melville 155) goes to him and asks him “Does he want to starve” (Melville 155). This again goes along with him being the antagonist because he constantly is opposing everything that everyone offers

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