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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.
Bartleby is a hero. He not only demonstrates his braveness in confronting the unfair society using his will power, but also shapes up the narrator’s conscience. Bartleby is an idol. He is poor and homeless, but he takes charge of his will and uses it as a weapon to challenge the unfair society.
The depiction of Bartlebys surroundings makes the life of this man seem to be dull and boring, but not unlike the bureaucracy and redundancy of many jobs that people have, so this in itself does not explain why Bartleby decides to isolate himself further unless it can be assumed it was because he felt ashamed that his …
Thus, Bartleby may represent Melville’s frustration with his own situation as a writer, and the story is “about a writer who forsakes conventional modes because of an irresistible preoccupation with the most baffling philosophical questions.” Bartleby may also represent Melville’s relation to his commercial, democratic …
As a rather odd end note, the narrator informs us that Bartleby previously worked as a clerk in an obscure branch of the Post Office known as the Dead Letter Office, sorting through undeliverable mail. We have to wonder what kind of effect these “dead” letters must have had on his psyche.
He is supposed to see that after pushing him to write in the dim light, his eyesight after a while became impaired and his eyes glassed over, causing him to not be able to preform the tasks that the narrator asked, and ends up just staring outside the window, useless.
Near the end of Bartleby, the Scrivener, Bartleby dies in the Tombs prison, where has been sent because of his homelessness. Bartleby dies of starvation in prison because he prefers not to eat there.
Ginger Nut is the the Lawyer’s errand boy in “Bartleby the Scrivener.” His name comes from the fact that Turkey, Nippers, and Bartleby often send him to get ginger nut cakes.
Crispy, Spicy Cookies. Ginger snaps are a small, round cookie version of gingerbread cookies, the traditional German Christmas cookie known as Lebkuchen. The cookies—flavored with ginger plus cinnamon, cloves, and sometimes allspice—are called “snaps” because they’re a snap to make.
Story Details
Characters/Themes | Explanations |
---|---|
Bartleby | a new scrivener at the law office and the story’s antagonist |
The lawyer | the protagonist and narrator of the story |
Turkey | an old scrivener who is the same general age as the lawyer, 60 |
Nippers | an ambitious scrivener with a fiery personality. |
Who is the antagonist? The lawyer’s view of Bartleby changes; however, he doesn’t actually change much himself. At first the lawyer is pleased with Bartleby, but then slowly becomes very displeased.
twelve-year-old
The Narrator feels that Bartleby has been wrongly imprisoned. He tries to cheer the prisoner up. On his way out, the Narrator meets up with the prison grubman (cook), and gives him some extra cash to make sure Bartleby lives comfortably. A few days later, the Narrator returns to check in with Bartleby.
Walls. The walls represent isolation and separation. Bartleby’s office is carved out of the office of his boss, the narrator. At such time when called upon, Bartleby is to come out from behind the wall and answer to the narrator.
The narrator can’t do anything to get rid of him, so he just lets him sit around and gets Nippers and Turkey to pick up his slack. 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.
Bartleby ends up getting thrown into “The Tombs”, for refusing to leave the premises (the old office building). The Narrator goes out of his way to visit him and make sure he gets food while there, even though Bartleby continues his apathetic behavior, until he commits suicide by starving himself to death.
I would prefer not to
Bartleby is removed from the building and taken to jail at the Tombs; he doesn’t put up a fight. Bartleby refuses to speak to the Narrator when he comes to visit; he may blame his former employer for what has happened to him. Bartleby dies in prison, presumably because he prefers not to live any longer.