Bartleby the Scrivener

Bartleby the Scrivener

In the story Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, the lawyer hires a character named Bartleby to be a scrivener, whose duty is to copy legal documents manually. In the story, Bartleby is described as being forlorn, neat, and pale. However, Bartleby’s demeanor shows unhappiness and discontentment, but he never expresses any emotion in the story. He is never seen as happy or sad. The lawyer employs Bartleby as the Scrivener, but by day three, he refuses to complete any tasks. When asked to copy the documents, he says, “I would prefer not to” (Melville 18). The lawyer tolerates his behavior for some time, but he realizes that as time goes by, Bartleby becomes even more rebellious in the office. He later realizes that Bartleby does not have a place to go to, and he sleeps and spends all his time in the office.

The lawyer sympathizes with him and tries to get him to talk about his problems. Bartleby still refuses to say anything and goes ahead to say that he would prefer not to say anything. The lawyer gives Bartleby his dues and asks him to leave, but the next day, he still finds him in the office. He realizes that he cannot get rid of Bartleby and so he decides to move to another building. After several days, officials from the former building complain that Bartleby still occupies the office, and he ends up being thrown in jail (Melville 54). In prison, Bartleby further slips into depression, and eventually starves himself to death.

In this story, Melville never reveals the reason why Bartleby was so disturbed. Critics have, however, tried to come up with different theories and explanations of his behavior. First of all, critiques have attributed Bartleby’s behavior to Melville’s own experiences and personality. They argue that Melville may have created the fictional character to elucidate the problems that he had himself (Couch 172). Bartleby refuses s to copy legal documents and eventually ends up staring at blank walls and finally starves himself to death. He suffers from social alienation and rejection, and he does not see the need to talk to anyone. His withdrawal from the world even surprises the lawyer. He says, “How can a person exist without communication with others?” Is it possible to be so utterly alone in the universe?” This state of mind can be seen within Melville’s life.

Throughout his entire life, Melville felt like an outcast from the community. He lost his innocence at a young age when his father faced financial ruin, which led to his early death, leaving Melville fatherless while still a young boy. He took up a job as a sailor, but he was never happy (Couch 189). Even though he later obtained a good reputation and started earning decently, Melville never got fulfillment from his life. He continuously wrote difficult books that challenged his readers and always offered some degree of pessimism about humanity. Even though he was asked by literary critiques to change his way of writing, he utterly refused even though he was not making much money from his work. He said that “Dollars damn me. . . . What I feel most moved to write, that is banned—it will not pay. Yet. . . write the other way I cannot.” (Melville 37) His refusal to change may be what inspired him to create the character Bartleby.

Bartleby’s behavior can also be explained through the symbolism that is used in the story. The two most prominent symbols in the story are the dead letter and the blank walls (Davis 183). The lawyer’s office is located on Wallstreet, and its windows only look onto walls on all sides. Bartleby tends to stare blankly at the adjacent walls lost in “a dead-wall reverie.”  These dead walls show that Bartleby is psychologically imprisoned. He feels trapped and walled-off from society. The lawyer in the story believes that Bartleby is experiencing depression because of the experiences he had at his previous job where he worked at the Dead-Letter Office of the U.S. Post Office (Davis 183). At the end of the story, the lawyer speaks about the dead-letters. He believes that the dead letters represent charity of words of comfort to Bartleby, but they had arrived too late to help Bartleby.

As the lawyer puts it, he says, “pardon for those who died despairing; hope for those who died unhoping” (Melville 32). The lawyer suggests that because these communication channels had failed, they had created a sense of isolation and alienation from society in Bartleby, thus making anyone else unable to reach him. According to the lawyer, Bartleby’s behavior is a direct consequence of working in a sad and depressing job like the dead-letter office. He was always handling letters meant for the people that had passed away. This task may have placed on Bartleby a significant burden and sadness that may have traumatized him. He says, “Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters…” (Melville 28).

One can also explain Bartleby’s behavior as a way of expressing himself. Bartleby does not like change. His constant phrase “I would prefer not to” (Melville 22) may be taken to mean that he would like to be stationary and not make any changes to the way things were at the time. Bartleby prefers not to move at all; he would prefer to work, eat, and sleep in the same place. Because of his dislike for change, he cannot move out of his comfort zone and make any public interactions. He copies documents at the office, but he refuses to compare them because this would mean working and interacting with someone else. Bartleby does not like the idea of interacting with someone else because he likes being self-contained and autonomous (Davis 183). He further realizes that the more he continued copying documents, the more he would be likely to work with someone else comparing them. To avoid this interaction, he decides to refuse to copy the materials entirely. His anorexic behaviors further emphasize Bartleby’s neurotic behavior. Ultimately, he refuses to take any food because it can be assumed that he figured food would lead to more change.

Melville wanted the readers to know about the effects of capitalism during the time he wrote the story. He wanted to highlight the concept of passive-aggressive resistance that was a way of rebelling against capitalism (Couch 173). The lawyer knew that the only way any worker would get to be heard was by being passive-aggressive. He says, “Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.” By refusing to honor his employer’s demands and working on his independent rule, Bartleby signifies a challenge to the corporate ideologies of the capitalist system. Melville wanted to show the readers the power that employees had in the system.  Melville tried to show the effect that employees had on the capitalists and how they could affect their lives. For example, in the story, the lawyer becomes restless and tries everything to help Bartleby. However, when his working conditions still remain the same, he fails at his attempts to help him, and eventually, he ends up bearing the guild of his death.