Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street

 

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street is the sad telling of a man who has lost all will to live. At first look, this is a dry account of a gloomy man who comes to work as a copyist. However, once you dig a little bit deeper into the sub context, to find the story within the story, you start to realize it is so much more. Bartleby represents the human condition. He is the range of emotions and problems that are prevalent in societies spanning the history of civilization. The narrator of the story represents the part of society that would rather hide its face when confronted with adversity than acknowledge it is there. “Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay; but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.” (Melville, par 89)

At first, when the narrator is confronted with Bartleby he is annoyed. He thinks of Bartley only in terms of the negative effects that he might have on himself, his employees and his office. “And I trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already seriously affected me in a mental way”. (Melville, par 115) The narrator represents how society can judge a person before knowing anything about them. In fact, the narrator cares little about Bartleby as a person until he fails to keep up production.

                Secondly, when ignoring Bartleby is no longer affective, the narrator decides that the only option is to fire Bartleby. Although, he expresses that he feels bad for him, he doesn’t want to have to inconvenience his life any further, and instead tries to buy Bartleby off. “The time has come; you must quit this place; I am sorry for you; here is money; but you must go.” (Melville, par 138)

                As the story progresses, the narrator starts to become fond of Bartleby. Bartleby states “ I would prefer not to” as he has so many times before, but this time, the narrator has a change of heart and decides that Bartleby really isn’t hurting anyone by being there, and lets him stay. That is until his clients and colleagues start to comment. “I believe that this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued with me, had it not been for the unsolicited and uncharitable remarks obtruded upon me by my professional friends who visited the rooms.” (Melville, par 168) In the end, the narrator cares more about what is being said about him and his office than what he knows is right. Often, we as society do not help those in need because of a greater fear of what others might think of us.

                Next, the narrator decides that the only thing left to do is to move to a new office. This is ironic because in the story he mentions that calling the police himself when Bartleby refused to leave would be too harsh of a consequence. However, the narrator is fully aware that when he leaves the office building the new tenants will likely call the police. The narrator is fine with Bartleby going to jail as long as he cannot be held responsible for him being there.

                Finally, the narrator decides to take responsibility for Bartleby once he is already in jail. He tries to become his friend; however, Bartleby is too far gone. Bartleby dies in jail. It is only now once it is too late that the narrator acknowledges that Bartleby was in fact his friend. In society, we habitually ignore our problems until it becomes too late. If the narrator had taken the time to get to know Bartleby before he passed away there is a very good chance this story could have had a different ending. However, as it is, this story taught me about social responsibility and compassion for our fellow “sons of Adam” (Melville, par 89).

Click HERE for information on the history of the scrivener.

Works Cited:

Melville, Herman. "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street." Bartleby. N.p., 2011. Web. 19 Feb 2012. <http://www.bartleby.com/129/>.