Mellville's Bartleby, the Scrivener Melville's Essay

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The narrator was thrown off guard by Bartleby's non-threatening responses for which he did not really know how to handle. He mentions that he is aggravated by Bartleby's passive resistance. it's as though he could accept Bartleby's resistance if it had some fire and passion to it.

As time goes by, Bartleby begins to refuse even more work requests from our narrator. Each refusal becomes more passive and with each refusal, instead of firing him, our narrator says he becomes reconciled to Bartleby. He even tries to negotiate with him on different jobs aside from copying that he was hired to do. This only causes our narrator to reconcile himself even more to Bartleby's odd behavior by trying to become friendly with him and find out about his background. He knows that something is not quite right with Bartleby and he remains perplexed about his passive demeanor. He even at one point begins to refer to Bartleby's responses to his requests as cadaverous.

When the narrator thinks he can take no more of Bartleby's odd and passive behavior, he announces that he is moving. Even though Bartleby is using the office as his place of residence, he does not flinch at this announcement. The narrator feels badly about leaving him, but cannot seem to realize that Bartleby is just waiting out his time until his death. Bartleby's behavior shows that he is ready to die and will go out passively without a fight. He just wants to be left alone to die in peace. The Lawyer tries unsuccessfully to get Bartleby to confirm to his standard of behavior and it does not work.

It appears that Bartleby had planned to die a slow and quiet death and he wanted to do it in the narrator's law office because he had made this his home. Once he was removed from the premises and taken to the Tombs and refuses to eat it is apparent if not to the narrator, then to the reader that Bartleby's intent is to die.

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Once we learn of his death it becomes apparent upon reflection that he was already dead on the inside and was waiting for the physical manifestation of death. Once he is taken to the Tombs, Bartleby decides to speed up his fate by refusing his meals. It is not until after Bartleby's death that the narrator hears a rumor of what may have lead the man to give up on life. It appears that Bartleby worked at the Post Office in the Dead Letter division. The narrator feels there may be some truth to this rumor. He makes a connection with Bartleby working in the Dead Letter Office and can see how this type of work will slowly lead a man to becoming dead on the inside. After hearing the rumor, the narrator has a different opinion of Bartleby and his behavior and now seems to understand why the young man was all of the descriptions he had given him throughout the story. Bartleby was mentally dead upon arriving at the Lawyer's office. He was only waiting for his physical death to take place......

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"Mellville's Bartleby The Scrivener Melville's" (2010, June 16) Retrieved May 20, 2024, from
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