Herman Melville’s Utilization of Bartleby the Scrivener: the Story of
Wall Street As a Means of Criticizing Capitalism and Its Crimes
Against Humanity
Herman Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"
scrutinizes the alienation of labor, the social ideologies and the
dehumanizing consequences of the American capitalist society in the
19th
century. Bartleby is the main character in the story. The other
characters
in the story, Ginger Nut, Nippers and Turkey, barely survive their
pragmatic enslavement because they have been brainwashed by the
ideology of
complying and acknowledging their given place in society. Bartleby
separates himself from the other scriveners by daringly preferring not
to
surrender to the capitalistic authority. In 1856, Wall Street in New
York
City was solidly established. The 19th century brought an
"organizational
revolution"(Marx 102) to America which resulted in the creation of the
banking and credit establishments, brokerage houses and a prosperous
stock
exchange. A few years before Melville wrote Bartleby there were heated
conflicts between wage slaves and capitalists. Goods were beginning to
cost
less to produce
Lander Shafer 1 and craftsman could not produce goods so easily or
quickly.
Hostility and anger between craftsman and capitalists began to cause
street
riots. Visualize the drudgery of a repetitive task for hours a day.
Think
of losing all your inspiration and intelligent independence to the
degree
where your career becomes nothing more than a robotic reaction. We can
see
clearly how dissatisfying and hollowing a mundane task can be everyday.
So,
what can the unsatisfied worker do about their lowly position? First,
the
worker becom...
... middle of paper ...
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The Marx- Engels Reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York: W.W Norton and
Company, 1978. 66-132
Kuebrich, David, " Melville's Doctrine of Assumptions: The Hidden
Ideology
of Capitalist Production in 'Bartleby.' New England Quarterly Vol.69,
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In Herman Melville’s work “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street”, the idea of a capitalist agenda is intentionally reinforced. This short work tells the story of a lawyer on Wall-Street and those of his employees, but he is particularly fascinated by Bartleby. Bartleby at first a hard worker who divulged tirelessly in his job as a law-copyist begins to “ prefer not” to do what is asked of him. This leads to the lawyer to grow increasingly curious about Bartleby. The idea of capitalist values in “Bartleby the Scrivener” are supported through the way the narrator, the lawyer, presents his employees to the reader, describes meeting Bartleby and Bartleby’s
In the 19th century, America had a basic economy and small industry. It was also a new country, with few customs and traditions. It had not had time to acquire any, because it was still so new. America has grown a lot since then, and a lot of the steps we have taken to get to today's bustling economy and immense industry took place in the nineteenth century. Commerce and industry contributed to America's nineteenth century identity because it provided the framework for a larger economy in the future, helped drive western expansion and growth of cities, made an improved transportation system necessary, and forced many new inventions onto the market
For decades scholars and writers have attempted to find the historical analogies and symbolic figures that created Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”. The story describes the setting of a small “law-copyists or scriveners” office on Wall Street and the unexpected arrival of an unknown character named Bartleby (Melville...
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The growth of industry in the 19th century affected Americans in various ways. Cities grew and developed rapidly, women began to work outside of their homes and farmers felt the impact as rural living developed. Each aspect of American society felt the change in either a positive or negative way. Our country was changing because of industrialization.
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” uses symbolism to criticize capitalism. “Bartleby the Scrivener” is “A Story of Wall Street” and uses a building next to wall street as the setting. The building is described as a very depressing building, which, “of week-days hums with industry and life, at nightfall echoes with sheer vacancy, and all through Sunday is forlorn.” Melville first attacks capitalism by symbolizing his characters as victims of the corporate world. First it starts off by showing the miserable, yet humorous lives of Turkey and Nippers. Turkey and Nippers both have to work the entire day, but neither of them can fully operate for the entire day of work. Turkey works well in the morning, where “his face was of fine florid hue”. However, from noon to the end of the day Turkey is exhausted after drinking where he “blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals; and continued blazing—but, as it were, with a gradual wane”. Nippers is the exact opposite. Nippers poor behavior was, “ma...
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