Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The power of literary analysis
After twenty years of literary analysis
The power of literary analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The power of literary analysis
Everyone knows how dreary office life can be. Sitting there in your own little cubicle surrounded by walls, working at a desk twenty four hours a day. Dreary indeed and yet a scriveners job could be considered ten times worse. Not only were they stuck in an office most of the day, but they were responsible for hand writing and copying legal documents needed in excellent handwriting with no mistakes. In “Bartleby, The Scrivener” the narrator is a lawyer who begins telling a story of a most peculiar scrivener. Although the entire story is focused on this peculiar scrivener, Bartleby, the narrator, Lawyer, made it a point to introduce two workers in his office: Turkey, Nippers. By introducing these three scriveners and their eccentricities and how the lawyer reacts to these eccentricities it shows the lawyers patience and conformity to those eccentric traits. This forced the reader to expect the lawyer to react to Bartleby in the way he reacted with Turkey and Nippers before Bartleby was even introduced surprising the reader later on in the story.
The lawyer began with the introduction of Turkey. Turkey was an Englishman and a copyist. He was an excellent worker in the morning, but had a very drunken habit of binge drinking for lunch everyday. So naturally, once the clock strikes twelve his efficiency went down the drains. His temper would flare at random, and would go through the rest of his day in a very bi-polar fashion, blaming his mistakes on his old age. The lawyer notices this eccentric habit and although frustrated with it he lets it go by him. The lawyer introduced himself as a safe man, one who would naturally avoid confrontations and enjoys his peaceful life. So naturally the lawyer can't be bothered to confront Turkey a...
... middle of paper ...
... patience and rationality to move past that and see them as the workers they are. So when the lawyer started confronting Bartleby, showing his frustration and anger with him to his other employees going so far as arresting Bartleby the impressions made were shattered completely.
All in all the lawyer was clever in introducing Turkey and Nippers first. He had emphasized how extraordinarily peculiar Bartleby the scrivener was and to give a base of comparison he introduced Turkey and Nippers first. To show the readers that he was not originally a short tempered and forceful man. To show them that he normally did not react the way he did to others as he did with Bartleby. To show that he was a calm man who avoided confrontations and knew how to rationalized, he introduced Turkey and Nippers. And in doing so, it gave the story being told more of an impact to the reader.
In the beginning of each story, characters are both shown as “ideal” characters in that their characteristics give the characters their first perceived amiableness. In “Bartleby the Scrivener” Melville uses distinguishing characteristics to solely represent Bartleby from the others in the story. He enters the story first, as a response to an advertisement for a position as a scrivener in a law office. Melville states, “A motionless, young man one morning stood upon my office threshold, the door being open for it was summer. I can see that figure now – pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!” (Meyer 149). Here he makes it known that just by seeing Bartleby’s presence when he first enters the law office; he is exactly what the unnamed lawyer was inquiring about. He was by far unlike other characters in the story. He had no vices or hang ups, the first presence and his stature, he came their wiling and ready to ...
Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: St. Martin's, 1995: 513-539.
Bartleby, the Scrivener, a story of lawyer and scrivener, questions like: What is worth living for in the world? What does society value or shape, what it means to be successful or of worth in the world that is inhabited? This is done through the various implications of Bartleby’s actions and responses, as well as the lawyer’s, and the descriptions and imagery of the environment. Walls in the story represent the entrapment, a blockade of sorts to prevent focus from wandering elsewhere. Bartleby in the story shares an office with the lawyer/narrator but their line of sight is blocked by a wall set up to separate them and is placed in the corner of the room, against another wall and his desk is facing a window that again, faces a wall.
The example stated above can be related to the aspect of “bad bosses” in many ways, one of which is the lawyers’ inability to fire Bartleby when he begins nonchalantly preferring not do the job he was hired for. The symbolic boss in this particular story ...
In Melville’s, “Bartleby the Scrivener,” a lawyer’s idea of relationships is tested. As a bachelor, his disconnection with people is an obstacle he has to overcome. The relationships between his coworkers and himself are simple and detached until Bartleby is introduced. The lawyer is befuddled at the unique behavior that this character displays and cannot help but take particular interest in him. When Bartleby is asked to work, he simply says, “I would prefer not to,” and when he quits working, he begins to stare at the wall (1112). This wall may symbolize the wall that the lawyer has built up in an attempt to ward off relationships, or it may simple symbolize Wall Street. When the lawyer finds out that Bartleby is l...
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.
In Herman Melville's short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is constantly changing, the narrator's attitude is conveyed through the author's use of literary elements such as; diction-descriptive and comical, point of view-first person, and tone-confusion and sadness.
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
McCall focuses his argument within the way in which Melville has written Bartleby, The Scrivener, he goes into detail about the comical aspects within the story and uses Melville’s description of Bartleby’s saying “I prefer not to,’ he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly disappeared.” (272). McCall suggests that the adverbs Melville uses, “respectfully” , “slowly” and “mildly” , “create[s] a leisurely little excursion into the uncanny” (279). I agree that the lawyer must have had some wit and good intentions in making the claim about Bartleby up to a point, I cannot accept this fully because many people still believe that the lawyer is unreliable. Most critics within the majority, as McCall reinstates, “believe, “the lawyer is “self-satisfied”, “pompous”…”a smug fool” who is ‘terribly unkind to a very sick man’ “(2660. I disagree with the idea that the lawyer was unkind and Bartleby was sick. The lawyer was fascinated by Bartleby’s responses to the job, and Bartleby, I feel knew exactly what he was doing in stating his responses. McCall acknowledges that “these cure two central problems in the story: the nature of Bartleby’s illness and the lawyer’s capacity to understand it,”
The Lawyer assumes he has all the power when he is dealing with Bartleby. He states “he is an elderly man” (http://www.bartleby.com/129, p. 1) and has practiced law for thirty years. The Lawyer assumes that his age and experiences make him a better judge of what is right or wrong with the people he employs. The Lawyer also worked for a prominent member of his community, John Jacob Astor, and would like to think he is on a similar level as his idol. So, if a reader had any question of his qualifications this should suffice. The Lawyer exerts his power over his employees like Turkey, an employee he gives a coat not because Turkey needed a coat but because the Lawyer believes he should be more presentable if Turkey is working for him. Turkey di...
Bartleby- The Scrivener In Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”, the author uses several themes to convey his ideas. The three most important themes are alienation, man’s desire to have a free conscience, and man’s desire to avoid conflict. Melville uses the actions of an eccentric scrivener named Bartleby, and the responses of his cohorts, to show these underlying themes to the reader. The first theme, alienation, is displayed best by Bartleby’s actions. He has a divider put up so that the other scriveners cannot see him, while all of them have desks out in the open so they are full view of each other, as well as the narrator. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This is proven when Turkey exclaims, “ I think I’ll just step behind his screen and black his eyes for him.”(p.2411) The other scriveners also felt alienated by the actions of the narrator. His lack of resolve when dealing with Bartleby angered them because they knew that if they would have taken the same actions, they would have been dismissed much more rapidly. The narrator admits to this when he said, “ With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence.” (2409) The next theme is man’s desire to avoid conflict. The narrator avoids conflict on several occasions. The first time Bartleby refused to proofread a paper, the narrator simply had someone else do it instead of confronting him and re...
Doloff, Steven. "The Prudent Samaritan: Melville's 'Bartleby, The Scrivener' As Parody Of Christ's Parable To The Lawyer." Studies In Short Fiction 34.3 (1997): 357-61. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
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...
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?
The town starts to wonder who Griffin is and where he came from. Many rumors start to float around the town. Mrs. Hall even says to others he is not that bad of a man. When protecting his secret all the time, he is always on his guard. This creates an uneasy feeling for everyone around him. Finally a man named Mr. Cuss asks to interview Griffin. When Mr. Cuss is interviewing Griffin, Griffin takes his hand out of his pocket. Mr. Cuss can now see that there is no arm in the sleeve. Griffin then leans forward and pinches Mr. Cu...