Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Herman Melville, an American novelist and major literary figure explored psychological themes in many of his works.
Herman Melville was born in 1819 in New York City into an established merchant family. The family's fortune had taken a decline that led to bankruptcy and caused insanity to enter into his father's Life.
Through his writing, Melville recreated a part of life that existed then, and is prevalent in our society today. Low self esteem along with self perception and how others percieve us, can be a factor leading to depression.
Depression, if left untreated can become so severe that it is possible to cause someone to lose the will to live.I will clarify this illness and it's ill effects in the story Bartleby the Scrivener
By Herman Melville. .
Bartleby the main character in this story starts out a worker in the dead letter office in Washington. Exposing someone to a depressed situation can have an effect on one's mental health. He later becomes a scrivener on Wall Street.When first hired Bartleby is a very consistent employee. " I can see that figure now- pallidly neat, pitiably respectful, incurably forlorn, it was Bartleby."
Circumstances as well as fate have a varying effect on every human being. They could have a detremental or positive effect in our life. Bartleby is an extreme example of a character trying to achieve his individualism in society and failing with the price of death. Bartleby's existence as we were led to believe seemed like a death in life existence. Bartleby was a man incapable of expirencing emotions and isolated himself from his environment. " A lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade." A lot of Bartleb...
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...ramatic progress in the treatment of depression. New medications are available that are generally safe and effective. Many People today lead stressful lives and it seems to have its effect on society. Psychiatrists, psychologists and psychoanalysts are available to help people with their illness and hopefully cure the patient . This cure can only occur with the help and willpower of the person in need. Life is a precious gift that one should never want to lose. Each and everyone of us possess different strength and weakness, but we must know and feel in our hearts that the way to escape from this illness, is not to escape from life.
This was not the scenario for Bartleby. Death was a high price to pay.If Bartleby lived today, could he be cured? I tend to think not. A person has to have the will and desire to live. Bartleby lacked what he needed to even try.
Depression is considered a mental disorder that can lead an individual to commit suicide, experiment fatal risk that can injure his or her life. Furthermore, an individual feeling depressed lacks motivation to do anything progressive with his or her life. With that said, these individuals sometime gives up interest in activities that were once enjoyable, gets in a phase were he or she loses appetite, begins to overeat, loses concentration on what he or she is trying to complete, and becomes indecisiveness. Moreover, depression is a condition that makes an individual feel miserable, have no motivation to any activity that can influence his or her views, actions, welfare. Furthermore, depressed individuals at times may feel sad, apprehensive, desperate, destitute, useless, awkward, short-tempered, and agitated. In addition, the melancholy of depression is categorized by a greater concentration and length that is attached to severe symptoms. According to Wedding & Corsini (2014) states, “Physical disease, severe and acute stress, and chronic stress area also precipitating factors” (Pp. 240) of an individu...
People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
Bartleby demonstrates behaviours indicative of depression, the symptoms he has in accordance with the DSM-IV are a loss of interest in activities accompanied by a change in appetite, sleep, and feelings of guilt (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, 320). Very shortly after Bartleby begins his work as a Scrivener he is described by the narrator as having done “nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall revery”. (Melville, 126) In contrast, Bartleby had previously been described as a very hard worker and this process of doing increasingly less shows how his a diminishing sense of interest both in his work but also of the perception others have of him. It is also noted that included in this lack of interest is a social withdrawal (DSM—IV, 321) which corresponds well to Bartleby in that his workspace becomes known as his “hermitage”. During small talk which included Bartleby he says that he “would prefer to be left alone”. (Melville, 120) Bartleby only emerges from his hermitage when called upon and quickly returns when faced with confrontation.
...e into his soul in order to help him and possibly to understand him better. " I might give alms to his body; but his body does not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach." (Page134-135, Paragraph 4) This is the real struggle the narrator is facing, the narrator confusion and frustration with Bartleby would all go away if only he knew what was wrong so he could help him but it isn't a physical pain but a spiritual pain in which Bartleby would have to open up in order for the narrator to help. Tone is just one of the literary deceives used that help convey the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby.
“Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall-Street” is a story with many different elements of literature. The author explores the use of choice, chilling isolation, and diverse linguistic phrases to create an intense atmosphere of theme and morality.
To begin, the focus will be set on the issues posed by the story of Bartleby. The audience may wonder why Bartleby goes from the employee who does his work without being problematic, to one who repetitively
Have you ever seen a person so disconnected from society and from what is considered to be normal that he or she made you question their sanity? If so, you could relate with the lawyer in the story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” In this story, the narrator, who is a lawyer, has a simple man named Bartleby respond to a job opening as a scrivener. Unbeknownst to the lawyer, Bartleby did not act in the manner the lawyer would have expected. Bartleby is so outside of what is expected that it is almost as if he had died and no longer had to live up to society’s standards. In this story, Bartleby is portrayed as a lifeless zombie and is alone with nowhere to go, no one to see, nowhere to be, and no purpose to live for.
of the book and the single person whom we are meant to learn the most from. On
Herman Melville, like all other American writers of the mid and late nineteenth century, was forced to reckon with the thoughts and writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson celebrated the untapped sources of beauty, strength, and nobility hidden within each individual. Where Emerson was inclined to see each human soul as a beacon of light, however, Melville saw fit to describe and define the darkness, the bitter and harsh world of reality that could dim, diffuse, and even extinguish light. Each man wrote about life in specific terms, while pointing toward human nature in general. The problem of evil paradoxically separates and unites both authors. Emerson looked inward and Melville pushed outward, each searching, each trying to effect change. The problem of evil remains ever-present, driving both men to reinvest in understanding the interconnectedness, the interdependency of human relations. Though "Melville alternately praised and damned 'this Plato who talks thro' his nose' ", Emerson's influence direct or indirect helped to shape Melville's ideology and thus his fiction (Sealts 82).
The lawyer, also the narrator, hires Bartleby to work as a scrivener at his business that involves bonds, mortgages and titles. The lawyer thinks he has all of his scriveners behaviors “on lock”. Although Bartleby started as a hard working employee, he eventually and in a calm manner refuses to do any requested work by the lawyer by simply saying, “I would prefer not to”. The lawyer doesn’t fire Bartleby after he declines to work, instead he gives Bartleby another chance. The lawyer preference to remain calm shows that he chooses to stray from confrontation. Bartleby continuous refusal to work leads to him being fired, but he refuses to leave. The lawyer’s philosophy and careful balancing of his employees is compromised by Bartleby actions. The lawyer moves his entire practice to another building to only find Bartleby there. Bartleby is arrested and continues in his bizarre daze. The lawyer visits Bartleby to convince him to eat and get through to him, but it doesn’t work and Bartleby dies. The lawyer sensitivity and empathy towards Bartleby raises questions to the lawyers sincerity. Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate what was the lawyer’s intent to help Bartleby?
His efforts though are fruitless because he was not able to get to Bartleby and never truly understood him, even in prison as the man eventually dies of starvation. Although after his death the lawyer does learn of Bartleby’s previous and listless job at a ‘Dead Letter Office’ which made the lawyer sympathize for him and wonder if that job is what made Bartleby so distant. Bartleby was a loner who distanced himself from everyone, even in death, he was aloof and never interacted with anyone which is not considered normal human behavior because humans are supposed to be social. This story went a little deeper and gave the idea of humanity as a whole being apathetic towards each other, because only the lawyer showed any sort of humane concern for Bartleby while the others cared less. Bartleby himself displayed apathetic behavior as he showed little to no care for how his behavior affected others or even himself. Outside in the world, many people who are stressed out and constantly working tend to only focus on themselves and have little to no care for other people most of the time. It’s another negative view on humanity, but at the same time it’s not that wrong, as society made by humans also makes others so busy and stuck in tedious schedules that they gradually become more jaded and some even become distant and
Depression is a disabling condition that should be taken seriously. Ever one in ten people worldwide are affected by depression for an estimated 676 million people. People living with a depression have greater than forty-percent chance of dying from premature death that the rest of the population. In many cases suicide is a result of depression due to the lack of attention to the physical problems. In 2012 depression became one of the leading causes of death, 804,000 young adults age fifth teen to twenty-nine committed suicide worldwide. Mental illness like depression rank as the second worldwide as the cause of years loss off one’s life. Depression is the main reason for years lost in cases of disabilities (Al Qahtani & Al
An unnamed Wall Street lawyer is the narrator of Bartleby. His tale subtitled “A Story of Wall Street,” introduces the reader to his firm and employees—known only by their nicknames: Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut—and to Bartleby the scrivener. From the beginning, the workers of Wall Street have their identities stripped so that none of the characters enjoy full and proper names, names that would indicate individuality. Even the successful bourgeoisie narrator is known simply by his profession the lawyer or by his role as narrator. Bartleby, too, is first addressed by his profession: “the strangest [scrivener] I ever saw” instead of being a person; “scrivener” has become the name that defines him and makes sense of him for others. It is as if without this his existence cannot be acknowledged. However, Bartleby and the Narrator are not the only two characters stripped of their individuality. Ginger Nut is called by that name as he is the provider of food for the office workers and he is only as important as far as he accomplishes his task. His individuality and personality are left unnoticed...
Depression is not only caused by the self induced emotional state of a person. It can also be forced onto someone by external forces that influence depression. These events can sway a person into their depression, and with nothing or no one to catch them when they fall, they could keep going down deeper. The novel The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, portrays ways that depression was pushed onto the main character, Esther. People that had once been there for her were not there for her during her fall. Her career choice had been destroyed and she had nothing to work for. Esther was thrown into a depression from many negative events and people that she had no control over, and she had no help to stop or prevent this from happening.
Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is believed by some to be the greatest literary works of all time. The book takes place in the 1840s and seems greatly advanced for its time. Herman Melville uses many literary techniques that bring about severe imagery as well as insight and education to the readers. One concept that is conveyed in Moby Dick is the journey itself. This is broken into the physical journey, the spiritual journey, and life’s journey.