Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 806 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 3

Bartleby

The Finite and Infinite: An Analysis of Melville's "Bartleby"

Herman Melville's Bartleby is a representational figure of modern malaise. A soul adrift in the universal modern ethos of self-assertion, Bartleby epitomizes the utter emptiness at the heart of it all: for him the American Dream is one he would "prefer not to" chase. Bartleby's dream, rather, is an unspoken nightmare that ultimately paralyzes him. Whether his paralysis is due to a philosophical or metaphysical paradox that he is unable to overcome is a secret that goes with him to the grave. What the narrator of "Bartleby" intimates, however, is that the Scrivener was more than a mere clerk who passed through the office one day -- and then refused to leave: Bartleby is Everyman -- a lost soul seeking some comfort, some corner to call his own -- some form of charity that asks for nothing in return. This paper will analyze Melville's "Bartleby" and show how the world that Bartleby sees is one that only pretends to know where it is going and what it is doing but in reality is as meaningless and empty as the money-making business on Wall Street, which cares for nothing but the finite -- and for the infinite has not a moment to spare.

Stuck Writing Your "Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener" Essay?

View All Our Example Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written



Bartleby's predicament -- and ours (and all humanity's as the narrator laments at the end of the tale) -- begins similarly to Bartleby's with his release from the "Dead Letter" office. Emancipation from this work is a double-edged sword, referenced again at the end of the tale, when the narrator speaks again of these letters -- letters of hope speeding to their dusty death… The symbol is clear: we are all born to die -- but as the West was once Christian, it believed in the Resurrection. That faith (and the understanding that went with it) was separated from the reality (the doctrine concerning the Resurrection) with the advent of the modern world: the Protestant Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment. These two eras conspired to leave modern man like Hamlet -- convinced of certain truths, yet perpetually in doubt of them -- emancipated from the past, yet adrift without it. To survive, modern man merely goes about his business -- thinking only of this: survival. Of the Resurrection, he has lost all thought -- for he has lost the faith of the medieval world, which was the "age of faith."….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Melville's Bartleby The Scrivener" (2011, August 16) Retrieved April 27, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/melville-bartleby-scrivener-117624

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Melville's Bartleby The Scrivener" 16 August 2011. Web.27 April. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/melville-bartleby-scrivener-117624>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Melville's Bartleby The Scrivener", 16 August 2011, Accessed.27 April. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/melville-bartleby-scrivener-117624
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example