Bartleby the Scrivener and William Wilson

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Recommended: : Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener

Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville are two authors who belong to dark Romanticism. They both have created various works and have different styles of expression. However, their writing can be related with one another at some points. The story of “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville begins when a lawyer complains that this profession has took him "into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men the law-copyists or scriveners" (Melville 2). Bartleby is a person who is hired by a lawyer; even that he has three other copyists working for him in his office. He always admits to do all the work he is asked, expect one day when he is asked to examine a file Bartleby replies: "I would prefer not to" (Melville 8). At first, that seemed acquitted, but rapidly it becomes a chant. At the other hand, “William Wilson” by Edgar Allan Poe talks about a character that gives everything to fulfill his ambition, who afterward loses his identity and don’t know who he is anymore. The things start getting complicated when he realizes that another person exists with the exact appearance, name, the way of speaking, and even the same birthday as his. Subsequently, William Wilson becomes obsessed with the second William Wilson and at the start they find it hard to ignore each other, while their peers thought that they were brothers. At the end of the story, William Wilson who is angry and annoyed with the other Wilson confronts him, where second William Wilson finds death. The main similarity of the main characters of the stories of “Bartleby the Scrivener” written by Herman Melville and “William Wilson” written by Edgar Allan Poe is because they both are described in the first person. I w...

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...personality.
In conclusion, guilt is a strong feeling that not everyone could bear with it. Sometimes, no matter what happens, people still care. Narrator’s character finds it impossible to stop worrying or get over Bartleby, as much as Poe’s William Wilson who finds impossible to ignore the other Wilson. Bartleby and William Wilson are characters that are hard to get rid of them because the power of conscience is stronger than the narrators. Therefore, Melville and Poe, each in their distinctive and expressive way, derive to the same deduction: the reason humans suffer is because they care.

Works Cited

"Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville." "Bartleby, the Scrivener", by Herman Melville. N.p., n.d.
Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
“William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe.” http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/wils_.pdf N.p., n.d.
Web. 8 Nov. 2013.

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