Bartleby

Katie D.  Johnson

Professor Laura Cline

English 102

22 February 2012

In “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street,” Melville shares the story of a scribe working in a law office in order to convey a social change in the common man’s work ethic and the negative effects it will have on society.  The narrator of this story is an average, yet successful, lawyer who represents the Protestant ethics of work and charity.  Bartleby, on the other hand, represents a new social class that shows no regard for this outdated mode of thinking.  Throughout the story, the narrator makes countless attempts to aid Bartleby in his struggles with no success.  Melville makes it apparent that the ways of Bartleby, and this new social class, will inevitably lead to their own destruction.   

The narrator of this story is a middle-class man who has made his way in the world by meeting society’s status quo.  He is not one to challenge social norms or draw attention to himself in anyway; his success lies in conformity.   “I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds… my first grand point to be prudence; my next, method.”(Melville).

             It is obvious that the narrator looks for similar virtues in the company he keeps: “…Nippers, like his compatriot Turkey, was a very useful man to me; wrote a neat, swift hand; and, when he chose, was not deficient in a gentlemanly sort of deportment. Added to this, he always dressed in a gentlemanly sort of way; and so, incidentally, reflected credit upon my chambers.”(Melville).  From the narrator’s standpoint, a successful business life requires a man to be dedicated to his work and to comply with social expectations with a professional and genteel demeanor.  This was a typical outlook for a Wall Street businessman at the time that Melville wrote this story.  New York in the 1850s was plagued by poverty in the lower class and an ever-increasing population due to immigration.  Any businessman who challenged social norms and stood in the way of success was destined to lose his position in society and face poverty.    

Initially, the narrator believes his newly hired employee, Bartleby, to be a man who shares in his views of propriety and industry, “Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light.” (Melville).  Bartleby seemed to be the ideal employee.  He completed an extraordinary quantity of work and never showed any signs of mood swings which were characteristic of the narrator’s other employees.  Indeed, the narrator was quite pleased with his new acquisition until one day Bartleby refused to comply with his supervisors request to help him review a document, “Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, “I would prefer not to.””(Melville).  “I would prefer not to” becomes Bartleby’s response to all miscellaneous requests that are put to him.  He refuses to review his work, or run errands, or do any task other than copying documents at his desk.  Then one day he announces, “I have given up copying.”(Melville). Although Bartleby prefers not to complete any of the tasks associated with his job, he also prefers not to quit or leave the narrator’s office.   Bartleby’s actions represent a new social class that is no longer willing to conform to the demands of bureaucratic society.

The narrator is perplexed by Bartleby’s refusal to fulfill his duties or to quit his job, and is not sure how to address the situation.  He later discovers that Bartleby is living in the office and pities his condition, “it is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here, keeping bachelor’s hall all by himself. Immediately then the thought came sweeping across me, what miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; but his solitude, how horrible.” (Melville).  Bartleby has refused conformity and his choice is leading him down a path of social deterioration.  The narrator pities his condition and resolves to be charitable and shelter him from the punishment society has in store, “Poor fellow! thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary…  If I turn him away, the chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve… To befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience.” (Melville). The narrator’s Christian charity moves him to offer aid to Bartleby in any way he can.  His only hope is to help Bartleby until he is able to help himself. 

In order to survive on Wall Street, Bartleby must choose to assume is proper role, but it is evident that he “would prefer not to.”  The narrator patiently tries to coherse Bartleby to fulfill his duties as a scrivener, but is unsuccessful.  He finally chooses to abandon his trials and relocate his office, deeming the situation hopeless.  His fear is that since he is unable to cure Bartleby of his condition, it is more likely that Bartleby’s attitude will become contagious and ruin those around him, “Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word “prefer” upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and seriously affected me in a mental way. And what further and deeper aberration might it not yet produce?...  I thought to myself, surely I must get rid of a demented man, who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads of myself and clerks.” (Melville).  Bartleby is left for the next tenants to deal with and is seen, “…haunting the building generally, sitting upon the banisters of the stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by night.” (Melville).  Without the charity of the narrator, Bartleby is left unsupported and picked up as a vagrant.  He is taken to the Halls of Justice and held on a vagrancy charge until his death.  At his death, the narrator closes Bartleby’s eyes and remarks that he, “Lives without dining.” (Melville). This statement reflects the misery that Bartleby endured living a life in disagreement with social expectation.  Had he been willing to play his part and appreciate his good social standing, he would have also been able to find joy in life be it by success or relationships. 

            Melville’s Bartleby represents a new social class that is growing from the social unrest in New York during the 1850s.  The lower class, made up mostly of immigrants, was experiencing extreme poverty.  The narrator represents a middle class that is bound to a rigid social structure in order maintain its affluence.  Melville uses these characters to expose the harsh reality that without this adherence to the “old ways” the middle class and society at large faces deterioration.

Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall-street. New York, 1853. Bartleby.com . web. 22 February 2012.