Herman Melville's Bartleby: The Scrivener

The character of Bartleby in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby: the Scrivener,” the author’s most well-known short story, has baffled readers for years as he stands with his cadaver-like poise and visage and prefers not to do anything accept what he particularly choses. Critics have taken many different perspectives in trying to explain Bartleby. Some have concluded after long studies that Bartleby is irrational and not meant to be explained. Others persist to consider the story to be about community and the effects of society on the way workers of the capitalist world are treated—impersonally and stifling. Surprisingly, little has been explored concerning the direct themes of communication in the story, and much of what has been said about

He argues that there is a quest for understanding in communication in “Bartleby: the Scrivener” that forms a major theme for the story. About the collection as a whole, Lester postulates that “In his short fiction Melville wanted to dissect the problem of human communication failure, locating one of its sources in the isolate, the individual who refuses to acknowledge the common continent of men and prefers living unto himself on a separate island of his own” (20). Lester’s argument works hand in hand with my reading of the story, as he explores the narrator’s attempts at communication, although it neglects to explore the emphasis on the futility of communication and understanding as expressed in “Bartleby: the Scrivener” particularly, especially as the theme is developed in other elements of the story. Lester tells us that narrator tries different methods of communication in the story and his purpose in telling it is seen as an attempt to console himself for being unable to establish communication rather than that communication itself is futile. He also focuses mainly on the interactions between Bartleby and the narrator which narrows the viewpoint of the story while the end statement suggests that this story is better applicable to all of humanity. The interactions with the narrator and the other characters that appear first in