Why Bartleby Cannot Be Reached
While Herman Melville’s lawyer in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" appears to have undergone a significant change in character by the story’s completion, the fact remains that the story is told through (the lawyer’s) first-person point-of-view. This choice of narration allows the lawyer not only to mislead the reader, but also to color himself as lawful and just. In the lawyer’s estimate, the reader is to view him as having not only made an effort to "save" Bartleby, but as a man who has himself changed for the good, ethically speaking. What the lawyer fails to acknowledge in his retelling of events is his inability to communicate with Bartleby not because of Bartleby’s shortcomings, but because of his own. The lawyer’s perception of "man" is tainted, for he does not view people as individuals, but as tools -- as possessing a usefulness and/or function. He is not attempting to reach the soul of a man; rather, he is attempting to exploit the use of a machine.
In order to illustrate Melville’s emphasis on failed communication, he created Bartleby as a scrivener, or copier, an occupation that blatantly suggests the possession of machine-like qualities. A scrivener’s purpose, more or less, is to act as a human version of the modern-day Xerox machine. For an individual to purposely choose a profession such as this one would say a great deal about said individual. He would, more likely than not, be both mundane and dutiful. His vision would be small, and his goals, perhaps, nonexistent. The lawyer wants, and employs, men who fit this description -- men like Turkey and Nippers. He describes Turkey as "a most valuable person to me, . . . the quickest, steadiest creature too, accomplishing a great deal of ...
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...n himself and the lawyer, a fact that the lawyer is oblivious to. In spite of his late efforts to resurrect Bartleby, so to speak – to mend the suffering and break down the self-created walls that exist between himself and the scrivener (and all of humankind, for that matter) – Bartleby’s demise is inevitable. The lawyer has already proven his inability to communicate with anything human, and when he wants a chance to rectify the situation, it is too late. Look at, then, his final words on the subject: "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" (2427) Here the lawyer condemns the irony of the dehumanized society that he himself is not only a part of, but, early on in the story, admittedly searching for. After all, it was he who so cherished Bartleby’s machine-like functions, and he who now fails to realize the tragedy of the situation, despite his seemingly profound exclamation.
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 ...
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.
Art Spiegelman used animals to stand-in for human characteristics is appropriate to the cultural context of the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler’s twisted idea of Jewish people are not part of the human race but are vermins is the base of the tragic events of the Holocaust during the World War II. As Hitler said: “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human” (Ma 3). Under his domination, Der Sturmer, a Nazi newspaper publication, and other anti-Semitic publications used the image of mice to describe Jewish people because they believes Jewish people should be eliminated just like vermins (C.Ewert 7). At the time, mice were cultural stereotype of Jewish people in most eyes of Nazi supporters. In Maus, Art Spiegelman used Nazi Germany’s idea of Jewish people as disease carrying vermin to depict Jewish people as
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.
"Bartleby the Scrivener" is a complex story, so I am going to zero in on one particularly interesting and intelligent aspect of it. Due to the power of the message even this one particular aspect will be complex, of course. The first thing to note is that the story has a first-person narrator. The narrator, an anonymous lawyer, is in fact a major character in his own right. Ostensibly the story is about Bartleby and his actions as a scrivener. However, what the story is really about, in a sense, is the effect Bartleby seems to have on the narrator. We learn a great deal about the narrator, but more importantly, we see him undergo several rather significant changes. These changes bring to light Melville’s comment on the oppression and lack of compassion in the emerging capitalist economy
We have the entrance of the motionless young man, Bartleby. Bartleby appeals to the lawyer in part, because unlike the other guys in the office, he is not going to make any trouble. In fact, the lawyer has this fantasy that he is going to bring Bartleby into the office and maybe Bartleby’s calmness and placidity will spread to the obstreperous other two, Turkey and Nippers. Several times the story said that the lawyer is disarmed by him when he does those outrageous “I would prefer not to,” he thinks to respond with, “But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and disconcerted me. I began to reason with him.” (Melville, 9) There are times when the lawyer responds to this in
One of the most unique aspects of Spiegelman’s Maus was his portrayal of the characters through anthropomorphic caricatures. He depicted the various groups involved in the Holocaust through different types of animals. Mice were the first group introduced, they represented the Jews, and Spiegelman builds off the present anti-Semitism and the fact that Jews were treated much like pests and vermin. The Polish were drawn as pigs who are often greedy and fat. This was seen numerous times throughout Maus when poles offered a hiding spot or a deal to smuggle them out the country, but would turn their backs on the Jews as soon as they had their money. The Germans were cats, this suits the Germans perfectly as they hunted and preyed on the Jewish mice.
Spiegelman used different kinds of animals to portray people of different races and nationalities. The famous quotation from Adolf Hitler, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human” impacted Spiegelman’s decision to portray the Jews as mice in his novel. Spiegelman uses
“Bartleby the Scrivener: A story of Wall Street” (1853) was a short story written by Herman Melville. The story begins with a short introduction of the narrator, an unambitious, prudent, lawyer who has an office located on Wall Street. In the introduction the narrator also briefly introduces Bartleby, a scrivener that the narrator has hired. The narrator goes on to say that Bartleby is the strangest scrivener he had ever seen or heard of, and almost makes the reader pity Bartleby throughout the story. This story, like all pieces of literature, can be interpreted differently by each reader. This essay’s purpose is to discuss some these interpretations.
Extramarital Affairs are looked down upon around the world. Once people get married they pledge to stay together till death to them apart. In many cases these couples are unhappy with their marriage, and they become uninterested in their life partner.Many of these couples have extramarital affairs. Statistics show that “60 percent of men and 40 percent of women are involved in extramarital affair.”(divinecaroline.com, 2013). Also more couples are breaking their vows of commitment to their marriage and staying together.They result in family members such as the spouse being emotionally scarred especially children. Also children living with one parent are more likely to go into depression, commit illegal acts, and do worse in school.
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My conclusion, then, is that the lawyer strays from the zone of comfort to only lead him back to it. For instance, he does not try to understand Bartleby through Bartleby’s perspective, but he wants to understand who Bartleby is so that Bartleby will conform to the way he is. The lawyer’s empathy that he shows towards Bartleby is not a genuine display for Bartleby, but as a selfish way to restore the order in which he does not have to deal with this conflict.
...r hand, Bartleby is unable to conquer the confines of the lawyer, but he does find a way to manipulate them in order to subvert the authority of the lawyer. The walls that the lawyer and the scrivener use disguise the bonds of common humanity that Melville is interested in uncovering. Because the lawyer ignored the fraternal bond between them, he refused to recognize Bartleby as an individual, ultimately causing Bartleby’s erasure, through starvation.
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