When Bartleby stops, is he still the scrivener? Can he be? Does he, and do we, acquire identities only through work? Or do people have inherent value whether or not they produce labor? The analogy between Bartleby and all of humankind becomes explicit in Melville's final two sentences: "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" The concerned tone of this last line, and of the story, belongs to a narrator who, like his money-driven society, ironically drains Bartleby's life of energy even while mouthing pious personal concern for him. At the beginning of the story, the title character is a scrivener, or law copyist, the mid-nineteenth-century equivalent of a human photocopying machine.
Though this short work is best known simply as "Bartleby," its full title-"Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"-is significant. He poses the question: "Why would someone prefer the independence of homelessness to the meager security that society offers the homeless?" By asking and not answering this question, he offers a puzzling story unusually open to interpretation.
In the 1853 story "Bartleby," Herman Melville anticipates the alienation theme so common in the works of contemporary American writers. In retrospect, the lawyer feels pity for Bartleby and all humankind.BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER: A STORY OF WALLSTREET Still haunted by the singular peculiarities of his deceased employee, the lawyer ponders rumors that the man was forced out of a job at the Dead Letter Office. On a subsequent visit, the lawyer observes Bartleby's huddled form lying dead at the base of a wall. Still driven by a compassionate urge, the lawyer visits Bartleby and finds him free to roam the grassy yard, but confining himself to the study of a wall. A second stratagem, moving to another office and leaving Bartleby behind, results in outrage from the new tenants, who charge the lawyer with responsibility for Bartleby's eccentricities.Īfter fleeing the scene for several days, the lawyer returns and learns that Bartleby has been arrested for vagrancy and taken to the Tombs. The lawyer, who discovers that Bartleby lives at the law office, gives him time to recover from eye strain, then tries to fire the recalcitrant employee. Instead, he stares out the window at a blank wall. Then the copyist begins demonstrating signs of mental imbalance by refusing to proofread his work, finally refusing to copy altogether. For two days, Bartleby executes his job with skill and gains the owner's confidence for his diligence. A successful lawyer on Wall Street hires Bartleby, a scrivener, to relieve the load of work experienced by his law firm.
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