Bartleby The Scrivener Analysis Essay

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Bartleby the Scrivener Analysis

“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville was written in 1853. The main character Bartleby is an odd individual that was hired by the unnamed lawyer to work in the office on Wall Street, New York. The lawyer, who is also the narrator of the story desperately needed a person to be consistent with their work and be the middle ground between Nippers and Turkey, who cannot perform equally good between morning and night shifts. Bartleby becomes an antagonist of the story when one day he refused to do his daily tasks by saying “I would prefer not to” (8). He caused the conflict with quiet, calm temperament without putting forward any legal counter arguments, only says that he "prefers" to remain on …show more content…

He is useful to me” (11). At this point of the story, the lawyer feels sympathy toward Bartleby. The narrator tries to buy himself a good conscience by offering him to stay at his house and keep him at the job, “...if I turn him away he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend Bartleby will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience"(11). The narrator believes, that by keeping the scrivener, it will bring him a meaning in life and will be grateful to the lawyer. He even offered him to stay at his house, although, he was only trying to avoid the complaints from the tenants of the

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