“Bartleby the Scrivener”
Uploaded by felicia beth on Jan 07, 2006
“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville has been understood in various ways by critics and most are based on literature’s principle which tells the reader to use their own imagination. Bartleby’s vivid and desperate character is one of an insignificant person, with a psychological and philosophical meaning of human condition within it. Bartleby’s physical characteristics are described as he being “pale and forlorn” “quiet”, “motionless”, “steadiness”, showing a person who is unbelievably submissive, quiet and pallid having no passion for life as well as hiding from society. It seems as if he were a dead man or just a man living totally isolated from humankind. All of these characteristics indicate abandonment from the human race as well as showing that segregation from society can imperil a person’s well being. Bartleby’s physical distinctiveness is in many ways comparable to those of Melville himself.
The story is about Bartleby and to a definite degree the author focuses on Bartleby’s actions and words only as they relate to the narrator revealing how he thinks about, and the way he acts towards him. The narrator shows an image of Bartleby as if he were a dead man; a person completely inhibited from humanity and life itself and has no ordinary human characteristics or facial appearances.
Thus, the portrayal of Bartleby is astounding. He is constantly portrayed as if he were a ghost or a dead man: Bartleby “like a ghost” “pale form” “long-continued motionless” “loneliness” (B.120) “sitting behind a “dead brick wall’” “absolute alone in the universe” Melville wants the reader to get familiar with an image of a man who lacks any aspirations in life; “quiet”, “sedate”, “motionless”, “inflexible”, “unmoving”, “passive. Bartleby imagines his individuality as a frightful subjugator reflecting over the ruins of civilization. Eventually society segregates a man who had already isolated himself. Bartleby is clearly a depressed man, who finally sees no meaning to life and starves himself.
Mordecai Marcus said:
“Bartleby is a psychological double for the story’s nameless lawyer”
Thus, the lawyer seeks to find the simple ways in life and Bartleby does nothing with the intention to actually live his life. Bartleby’s life makes the narrator question...