Module Lecture

Herman Melville: "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Week 14, Lecture 1

Next Class. Walt Whitman: “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed” (1160-68).

Literary Argument Essay due.

NOTE: Literary Response 4 will be posted on Wednesday (17 Nov.).

Today: Herman Melville. “Bartleby, the Scrivener.”

Herman Melville and “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” (12:58)

Herman Melville and "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

A biographical sketch of Melville.

Typee (1846). Melville’s first book, which was a commercial success. Set on an island in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands.

Moby Dick (1851). A critical and financial failure.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Melville’s first short story written for a magazine (Putnam’s Monthly). This story was an artistic compromise on Melville’s part: a story with philosophical ideas (e.g., freewill) that was also palatable to the reading public.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville / In-Depth Summary & Analysis (12:08)

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville | In-Depth Summary & Analysis

Symbol: Walls. These represent separation and isolation.

Bartleby’s desk is screened off in the walled office of the narrator, which in turn is in a larger office whose windows look out on the walls of other, adjacent buildings. The story is also set on Wall Street.

Turkey – a morning person.

Nippers – an afternoon person.

Ginger Nut. 12-year-old errand boy.

Narrator: feels pity and compassion for Bartleby, who is a “lost soul.” He wishes to help him, but Bartleby refuses to accept his assistance and charity.

When the narrator learns that Bartleby refuses to do anymore copying, he asks, “And what is the reason?” Bartleby indifferently responds: “Do you not see the reason for yourself” (1081).

Theme: seeing. The narrator, who is blind to the reason why Bartleby prefers not to work, believes that the scrivener’s eyes need a rest, so he allows him to stay in the office for the time being.

Narrator: feels pity for Bartleby, and invokes the commandment, “ye love one another” (1085).

Eventually, Bartleby is escorted to the Tombs, which is the nickname for what is now known as the Manhattan Detention Complex. After some time, the narrator discovers Bartleby’s lifeless body in the fetal position next to one of the walls of the facility.

Ending (epilogue). The narrator discovers that Bartleby had previously worked in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C.

This intelligence is the only information that the narrator learns about Bartleby’s past.

“The letters represent a wide spectrum of unrealized potential, both good and bad”

The missed letters: information transmitted, but never received.

Major Themes of the Story

Language. Bartleby is a copyist, not a creator. In the Dead Letter Office, his job is to destroy letters, including those that are intimate and personal.
Passivity. Bartleby offers passive resistance. He initially does not say that he will not work; he comments that he “prefers not to.” He refuses to go on errands to the Post Office.
Responsibility. Bartleby abdicates his responsibility for doing his job. In contrast, the narrator feels responsible to help Bartleby and see that he is take care of.
Isolation. Bartleby’s lack of interest in communicating isolated him from the world at large.
Christianity. Biblical allusions. “Is Bartleby a Christ-like figure sacrificed to the cold Wall Street mentality?”

The narrator: the only person in the story who is affected by Bartleby’s behavior.

“Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” Perhaps a recognition in the futility of human existence: a world of boundaries and walls where people engage in often unoriginal and monotonous labor; a world where communication is lost; a world where the only escape from the pointlessness of life is death.

OPTIONAL VIDEO: NOT SHOWN IN CLASS

"Bartleby, the Scrivener," by Melville (Analysis & Interpretation)

Bartleby the Scrivener, by Melville (Analysis & Interpretation)

Story published in 1853.

Freewill: Bartleby demonstrates freewill by preferring to not work. Bartleby is crushed, so to speak, by the nature of capitalism.

Civil disobedience.

Comic relief. Nippers and Turkey. Each character is, effectively, half a man. Turkey works well in the morning, but not the afternoon; Nippers works well in the afternoon, but not the morning.

Scrivener: a copyist of legal documents.

An exaltation of freedom.

Is Bartleby a hero for standing up in what he believes in.

Absurdity. Bartleby stares out of the window looking at a wall.

The Narrator. An elderly lawyer (about 60 years old). A good Samaritan.

Ending (epilogue). The narrator discovers that Bartleby had previously worked in the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C. Despair

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