Bartleby The Scrivener Analysis

Literary theorist Michel Foucault explores in his article “The Means of Correct Training” the theme of self-discipline through carefully constructed architecture. He discusses how buildings do not exist solely for their aesthetic value, but rather, to transform and discipline individuals who are contained within them. He describes the perfect example: “A central point would be both the source of light illuminating everything, and a locus of convergence for everything that must be known” (173). Power is exercised over others within their respective infrastructures through means of observation. With Foucault’s ideal apparatus in mind, this can be applied to the office of the narrator in Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”: “…they looked upon

Foucault describes the perfect camp and how its power only exists through observation. He states: “For a long time this model of the camp was found in prisons”(171). Relating this to the speaker in Dickinson’s poem, she is forced to observe herself and how she functions as an individual while feeling a strong sense of imprisonment. In Lines 7-8 she says, “But I tug childish at my bars,—/Only to fail again!” She tries to tug at the bars that imprison her mind, but her efforts are no stronger than that of a little kid. In lines 5 and 6, she says: “I never hear of prisons broad/By soldiers battered down,” The speaker reveals that she never heard of soldiers being able to escape prisons. When she learns of these prisons, she reflects upon herself and how she functions within her own mental prison. Like Foucault’s theory, the guards of prisons function as the source of power because they are stationed so acutely that they can constantly watch prisoners. Although the speaker in Dickinson’s poem is not physically hindered, she is still forced to undergo a mental metamorphosis and observe herself, therefore precipitating the fact that she is the guard of her own