Bartleby, the scrivener

In the story “Bartleby, the scrivener: a Story of Wall Street” written by Herman Melville in 1853, focused on few character based on the New York city law offices . There are few character in the story, but the main focus is on the vivid relationship between the narrator, who is a lawyer and his scrivener Bartle by. It is a story based on Bartleby who is employed by the narrator for office work. The office is based in New York Wall Street, with a good old office with emerging modern city. As getting hired Bartleby works efficiently and performs all the clerical work, but slowly starts slcaking and ignoring the work. Later when narrator offers paper-work and typing letter he responds by saying “I would prefer not.” Being a generous person the narrator tries to tolerate and accommodate Bartleby in the rising modern city. The narrator tries to examine Bartleby’s character and confused of his response of “ I would prefer not”. Working as a lawyer, the narrator has achieved lot of experience and has a strong persona, but has ethical and moral dilemma towards Bartleby’s situation. He is confused whether he should keep tolerating and rescue Bartleby from his mental-stress by keep helping him more with everything possible needed for support. Or on the contradictory, leave him on his faith to survive and struggle on his potential.

In Bartleby, the narrator illustrates a busy law firm office with few other staff, and Bartleby. Turkey, Nipper and Ginger nut were few other staff members who were working in the law office, helping the narrator in preparing copies, typing letter and other documents. Turkey was short, old and efficient in the morning. Turkey was weird, reckless and had unusual actives going around in the office, for example would lean over chair for no reason and start boxing with papers in an indecorous manner (6). Nipper the second scrivener was young, whiskered and sallow. Productive in afternoon but impatient and irritable in the morning. Thus, the narrator hired Bartleby for producing better work in efficient manner. At First Bartleby performed well, typed the letters and documents in high-quality work, but as time passed by the degraded his quality of work and performance went down. The narrator was surprised and wanted to help him  improve and get his office work done efficiently.

Narrator wants to guide and help Bartleby but is unaware of his past and background . There is no background information about his religion, family or friend which can create any good or creative thought towards Bartleby. The narrator makes several attempts to understand him and learn something, but Bartleby replies “I would prefer not to” was the standard response. Narrator is a professional and understand how the world is concised with different kind of people. He makes efforts to understand Bartleby’s strange behavior at workplace. Due to limited access to his past and personality the author is helpless in understanding his character completely. “ If we are to understand Bartleby or Nipper or Turkey or Ginger nut or even lawyer himself, we may so only though the words of the lawyer. All actions, all dialogue, all statements, all interpretations come to the reader through the report of the lawyer. Therefore, if we contend we know anything of Bartleby, it is only what the narrator knows of Bartleby, and if we are to have any insight into the narrator, it must be through  the examination of his own words” noted by Todd Davis. Thus, the narrator illustrates daily office incidents in which Bartleby shows absence of mind, dull and differed reactions on questions with similar response “ I would prefer not to”

Bartleby can be in clerical depression facing the chronic tension of the Wall Street in New York. Narrator describes how Bartleby shows symptoms of depression as how he lacks motivation in life. The narrator studies how his work performance is altered due to the hectic paper work in the office. Bartleby was exposed to new modern office work which would have curtail characteristics of which he was not aware of. Having refused to make copies and type documents suggests that he was bored of doing similar work and wanted to achieve something different in life. The Wall Street impression of power, control, money and greed for growing more are some threats he faced. Bartleby was not willing to accept that society and wanted to live in his dark work with limited opportunism and be satisfied with his life. Moreover according to J. Bottom’s “A close reading of “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” his most sustained study of New York, reveals in fact that Melville had profoundly theological understandings of the nineteenth-century city. It is true that he never possessed much notion of effective social reform; in “Bartleby” the urban social order is as fixed and determined as the order of Nature. Packing hordes together in its poverty-stricken tenements and slums, the city breeds endless crime, filth and disease.” This shows how low motivation, workload and corporate office work created a negative effect on Bartleby as a work environment as the law felt like unconstitutional.

Thus, narrator keeps Bartleby at work with a hope to improve his mental stress and improve his life. But narrator later looses hope due to Bartleby’s lack of understanding the effort and give up on him. After several efforts he had one response to all the “I would prefer not to,” which shows how Bartleby was constrained to his own world with limited access, opportunities, hope which are good but took his life due to starvation. He had to pay for following his path of life, which led him to death .