The narrator sees himself reflected in Bartleby , and this drives an obsession with him. ... The narrator's remark that he ‘never feels so private as when he knows Bartleby is there' is palpable. The narrator cannot rid himself of Bartleby, even though everything in the preceding description suggests that he should.
How does the narrator change in Bartleby?
Looking through Bartleby's things, the Narrator's feelings change from pity to fear , and he resolves to give Bartleby some money and send him away from the office for good. The next day, the Narrator attempts to pry into Bartleby's personal life and history, but the scrivener prefers not to say anything about himself.
Why is the narrator happy to hire Bartleby?
The Narrator immediately hires Bartleby, in the hopes that his calmness will influence Nippers and Turkey . The Narrator sets Bartleby up behind a screen in a corner of his office, where the new clerk can always be accessible. ... Bartleby, however, is no normal scrivener; he refuses to complete this job when asked.
What kind of person is Bartleby?
Bartleby. Bartleby is a young man hired by the Lawyer to serve as a scrivener, or law- copyist .
What kind of person is the narrator in Bartleby the Scrivener?
The narrator of “Bartleby the Scrivener” is the Lawyer , who runs a law practice on Wall Street in New York.
What does Bartleby symbolize?
Characterized as a symbolic fable of self-isolation and passive resistance to routine , “Bartleby, the Scrivener” reveals the decremental extinction of a human spirit.
How is the narrator in Bartleby unreliable?
As a narrator, the lawyer is unreliable because the reader cannot always trust his interpretation of events . The lawyer, as he himself admits, is a man of “assumptions,” and his prejudices often prevent him from offering an accurate view of the situation.
Why did Bartleby refuse work?
He has no life outside work – he doesn't even seem to have a home outside work. However, he must have realized how pointless the work is ; just like the time put into those dead letters had become pointless. And so, he starts to refuse to do things. Bartleby has found work to be insignificant.
Why does Bartleby go to jail?
Bartleby is arrested as a vagrant and thrown in jail . The Lawyer visits him, but Bartleby refuses to speak to him. The Lawyer arranges for Bartleby to be fed good food in jail, but Bartleby refuses to eat. ... The Lawyer goes to speak to him and discovers Bartleby is dead.
Do you not see the reason for yourself Bartleby?
When asked why he had cease to wright, Bartleby replied saying “Do you not see the reason for yourself” (311). This part of the story depicts Bartleby's beginning of “doing nothing”. As shown by Bartleby ‘s reply, he believes there is a rational reason for which ceasing to act as on responsibility is justified.
Is the narrator responsible for Bartleby?
Bartleby is like a dead part of the narrator , and he is haunting the narrator's office, until he is finally put into the Tombs and laid to final rest.
What does the narrator represent in Bartleby?
Foremost among them is his capacity for sympathy ; the Narrator remains rather oddly sympathetic to the enigmatic and frustrating Bartleby throughout the story. He also has a profound sense of personal responsibility, which drives him to keep checking in on Bartleby.
What was wrong with Bartleby?
Bartleby is neither lazy nor crazy. We are led to believe (though the lawyer stresses that he doesn't know with certainty) that Bartleby suffers from despair . He starts off in his job as a hard worker who impresses his new boss, the lawyer. Then he decides that he would “prefer not to” work.
What do the dead letters symbolize in Bartleby?
Melville uses the dead letter office to symbolize the repetitive and dreary job that more people were doing . ... Bartley's job in the dead letter office, was the reason for his depression and his loss of motivation.
What happens to Bartleby at the end of the story?
In a final act of protest, Bartleby refuses to eat, and subsequently starves to death in prison . By just preferring not to live any longer, Bartleby announces his individuality in an ultimately fatal, dramatic fashion: if he cannot live as he “prefers” to, he apparently doesn't want to live at all.
