Bartelby

Melville’s Bartleby has a purpose rooted deeply in this as its main character attempts to enlighten the working population to the indefinite strife of low level employees. Bartleby the man is opposing the monotony of life in a work place where production equals success. Essentially a talking Xerox machine, the scrivener uses passive means of resistance to make his main and is fellow subordinates understand the faults in their way of life. Melville does this by taking the downfalls of what was then modern day Wall Street and challenge them with title character’s actions. As an employee whose only responsibilities incl

“With any other man I [the narrator] should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence. But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but, in a wonderful manner, touched and disconcerted me.” (Melville, 11)

Bartleby, however, had become such a fixture in his office, and therefore his life, that simply dismissing him or having the police take him away would not have been an acceptable means of separation for the narrator. Could Bartleby have been that unusual that something in his being, some distant echo in the scrivener’s sole, was too much for his employer to bear?

The narrator took this into consideration and let it be, rationalizing that he could deal with Bartleby as simply a copy machine and nothing more. He could not justify forceful removal from his office or even muster the strength to dismiss his truant secretary. It was not until Bartleby complained of eye problems and decided to quit copying documents all together that the narrator could do anything to him. “Decently as I [the narrator] could, I told Bartleby that in six days time he must unconditionally leave the office.” (21) “At the expiration of that period, I peeped behind the screen and lo! Bartleby was there.” (22) The employer had fired the employee. He had presented a reasonable severance package, nearly tripling what he owed Bartleby, but the scrivener simply did not care.

For Bartleby, life had become more than the quest for success. Somewhere between stacks of dead letters and legal documents he had found the treachery of monotony that he simply could not free himself from. For the benefit of his cause, the fight against perpetual monotony, taking the job at the law office was his best move. That office gave him a medium to protest his perpetual structure. When he refused to complete his vocational requirements, Bartl

Some topics in this essay:
Ginger Nut, Wall Street, Unlike Franklin, Melville’s Bartleby, Legend Bartleby, Benjamin Franklin, Chancellery York, scrivener simply, passive means, franklin narrator, passive resistance, law office, wall street, legend bartleby,