Character, Setting, and Point of View in Bartleby the Scrivener

Character, Setting, and Point of View in Bartleby the Scrivner

Herman Melville, who is now considered one of the greatest American

writers was "deprived of an optimistic view on life after the bankruptcy and

death of his father".(Thorp) Melville lived a very unhappy life with his

writings not becoming famous til after his death, " he is a strong willed man

who always said no to his friends and family meaning he is not a very

optimistic person." (Thorp) By way of the character Bartleby, of his best

known short story "Bartleby , the Scrivner" written in 1851, Melville

expresses a lesson he learned during his own life which is that isolation is

like a death of the human spirit. This lesson is shown through character,

setting, and point of view in the story.

The story opens with a lawyer setting up the tale he is about to tell.

This lawyer maintains an office on the second floor of a building on Wall

Street in New York City where he employs two copyists named Turkey and

Nippers. He also employs an office boy named Ginger Nut. The lawyer

specializes in real estate and financial matters for wealthy men. The office

receives a lot more work over the summer so the lawyer must take an ad out

for more help. Bartleby answers the ad. He is a "pallidly neat, pitiably

respectable, incurably forlorn!"(Melville) Bartleby is set up in the corner

of the lawyers office separated by a folding screen, right next to a window

with a view of the building next door. The building is only three feet away

from the window and the bricks are black with age. Light only shines from

high above the two buildings. He keeps to himself in the corner. He doesn't

speak to a...

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...ery well in this story by the characters and the setting.

Melville tries to convey that people must not isolate and seclude themselves.

They have to communicate with others and participate in regular if not daily

activities. Melville's point is that the ideal is that people need to look

out for one another. Sometimes though, no matter what assistance or support

one may offer, their efforts are incapable of providing the desired effect,

and the person needing help is unable or unwilling to accept the charity of

others nor to help themselves. Melville wrote this story because he needed

income and he found it a simple story to develop from familiar experiences.

Works Cited:

Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." [1863]. Literature. 5th ed. Eds.James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice, 1997.