Political Criticism Of Bartleby The Scrivener

In both stories, after the characters are introduced, one begins to see situational changes within the characters. Bartleby, who once was a skillful, efficient worker and a valuable asset to the lawyer, has now ceased working and his superficial façade is none changing. He presents his employer with a constant and passive answer of “I would prefer not to” to all request and inquiries presented by the lawyer. He unwilling leaves the premises of his job and the lawyer try to put up with him but he finds his annoyance of Bartleby’s actions unbearable. Such as when he found that Bartleby was staying the office after all others had gone home and refusal to do any work and take any money from the lawyer and leave. Even the lawyer seems to be walled in by Bartleby and Bartleby’s

“Bartleby is blind but he sees. The lawyer has eyesight but he is blind. Unlike Bartleby, he does not know where he is. He is in prison without knowing it. He has learned nothing. He has gained no insight into himself or into his society, and he has gained no understanding of Bartleby’s rebellion. He has denied his own capacity to love. What remains is only the sentimentality that emerges in his final words of pity and self-pity. “Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!” (Melville, p. 45) (Shulman, p. 22)

The perception of the narrator, of everything including rights of Bartleby as assets prevents the narrator from understanding the spiritual aspect of the pride in Bartleby. Although the narrator

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, is a story about the quiet struggle of the common man. Refusing to bow to the demands of his employer, Bartleby represents a challenge to the materialistic ideology by refusing to comply with simple requests made by his employer. The story begins with the employer having trouble finding good employees. This is until the employer hires Bartleby. At first, Bartleby works hard and does his job so well that everyone has a hard time imagining what it would be like without him. After three days, Bartleby is asked by his boss to examine a legal paper. He replies with “I would prefer not to”. The story ends with Bartleby being discovered occupying the office at weekends and being taken into custody for

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

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

As the story continues, his sympathy for Bartleby’s predicament develops. Throughout paragraph 90, the lawyer discovers that Bartleby resides in the office and feels pity towards how Bartleby sustains such “ miserable friendlessness and loneliness.” Readers can acknowledge how the Lawyer struggles with maintaining the changing attitudes he feels towards Bartleby: “melancholy merge into fear” and “pity into repulsion” (137). The Lawyer intended to fire Bartleby for his refusal to work, but did not, for he feared of being portrayed as a “villain” (138). According to Jack Getman, the Lawyer has “become a different, more appealing person, one who is more responsive to the needs and rights of his workers” (Getman 738). It is evident that the Lawyer undergoes many changes in the interest of Bartleby.

When the lawyer finds out Bartleby never leaves the office and has made it his home he says, “Before, I had never experienced aught but a not unpleasing sadness. The bond of common humanity now drew me

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

“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

For example, “My Finn informed me that Gatsby had dismissed every servant in his house a week ago and replaced them with half a dozen others” (114). This infers how Gatsby uses his money to protect him from rumors by paying his servants. In addition, Daisy and Tom escaped from justice and went on vacation. This example shows how Tom and Daisy are manipulated into thinking that money can solve any issue.

In Bartleby, The Scrivener, Bartleby serves as the main character with his distinct nature that everyone is trying to decipher. Despite the attention around Bartleby, much of the story also revolves around the narrator, the lawyer, who tells the story through his perspective; this implies that the lawyer’s ideology and perception of societal norms shape the interactions between the lawyer and Bartleby but also how the story is told. Take for example, if the lawyer disregards Bartleby and fires him on the spot, this story would have ended rather quickly and been much different than it actually is. With this said, the lawyer’s peculiar attraction to Bartleby’s strange behavior can be explained by the lawyer’s innate ideas of social norms and instruction that stems from the behavior of the other scriveners and his own experiences.

Bartleby tells his own boss and owner of the law office to leave his own property while he remains inside. This event solidifies the fact that the boss has no backbone for himself or the company. The boss cannot stand up for himself and tells Bartleby to leave, but rather takes the command of one of his incompetent workers. Bartleby at this point has gained complete control over his own boss.

The narrator reasons that releasing Bartleby from his job would be unnecessarily cruel which indicates his need to do the right thing. The narrator’s pity is inexplicably a reason for Bartleby’s continued employment: “What miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; but his solitude how horrible!” (673). In this case, the narrator faces the challenge of giving the poor scribe a place to stay and survive or releasing Bartleby onto the streets where another employer may not be so kind. He also feels, however, that Bartleby’s quirks are not at all easy to accommodate: “In plain fact, he had now become a millstone to me, not only useless as a necklace, but afflictive to bear” (676). The narrator, in this section, faces the need to do the socially acceptable thing. After all, a man who does not work should not be paid or allowed to remain employed. As literary critic Richard J. Zlogar explained in a commentary that analogized Melville’s short story with certain parts of The Bible, “The narrator’s challenge, then, if he is to heal Bartleby’s illness in its social aspect, is the same challenge that confronted Jesus Christ in his interaction with the leper, as discussed by Crossan: he must force his peers ‘either to reject him from their community or to accept the leper within it as well’” (Zlogar 521). Zlogar’s commentary provides insight on what the narrator’s options are; he must either