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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth analysis of the plot, characters, symbols, and themes of Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Scrivener.
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Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" details the passive resistance of a young legal clerk through the eyes of his boss, an older lawyer.
The elder man makes his living copying legal documents in his Wall Street office and hires young Bartleby to assist. Bartleby, however, soon becomes intransigent, calmly but resolutely refusing to do the work for which he is paid.
He simply stops accepting assignments, and remains motionless in the office, even after hours. His boss is unable to persuade him to resume work and begins to pity him. However, Bartleby's inexplicable idleness ultimately drives his master to distraction.
Despite changing office space, he cannot escape Bartleby, who has moved into the old office space and refuses to leave. He is eventually taken to prison for vagrancy, where he refuses to eat and passes away, leaving the narrator to deal with his mixed emotions.
This work has been interpreted as a commentary on the futility of modern urban life, with its featureless and interchangeable offices and absence of purpose.
American author Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener was first published in 1853. He wrote Bartleby the Scrivener amid a storm of criticism from the literary world, and its themes of capitalism, absurdity, and protest have long intrigued readers.
The short story Bartleby the Scrivener contains many important themes, including responsibility, as the lawyer debates his responsibility toward Bartleby when he is no longer useful; isolation, as Bartleby slowly cuts himself off from everything, eventually even food; and passivity, as Bartleby quietly refuses to comply with requests, and his boss responds passively. Important symbols include dead letters and walls.
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7 сен 2024
