Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

I can see that figure now—pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! it was Bartleby

Subtitled as “A Story of Wall Street”, it’s one of the most famous stories of Herman Melville, published a few years after the colossal Moby-Dick. Even though it’s a short story with an undoubtedly simple plot, its interpretation might be the most challenging to grasp, with critics having very different interpretations. Based on the financial street of New York, the narrator, an unnamed head of a law firm hires a young scrivener to perform the functions of a legal document copyist. At the beginning, this new copyist called Bartleby doesn’t seem to be very different from the other copyists who already work at the law firm. Furthermore, he even demonstrates good performance at work, creating high-quality work at a faster pace than his colleagues. It wasn’t until one ordinary, uneventful day that the busy lawyer enlisted Bartleby’s help, that the words that would define Bartleby’s spiritual motto were first uttered in a singularly mild, firm voice: “I would prefer not to”.

From that moment on, and without any reason, this would be the answer to all of Bartleby’s requests, causing annoyance to the rest of the copyists and disconcerting the lawyer, who eventually referred to his attitude as “passive resistance”. Always with a calm and polite attitude, but at the same time firm, Bartleby continues to reject even the most simple and routine task—despite apparently remaining in the office all the time available—,including question of personal nature in the same way, as if it were the only learned message that he was able to articulate, and until eventually being reduced to a pale figure looking out upon a “dead brick wall”.

What a miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here reveled! His poverty is great; but his solitude, how horrible!

One Sunday, when the lawyer was settling some matters and decided to go to the office, he realized that Bartleby had been living there. It is then that the lawyer, in an attempt to ease the tension between the copyists, and in turn, showing some mercy to Bartleby, decides to move the law firm to a new building. However, some time later he learns that Bartleby remains in the office without caring about the new owners, and despite his attempts to reason with him, Bartleby ends up being evicted and sent to a police cell. The lawyer visits Bartleby to make sure he is okay, but later learns that he has died of starvation caused by the extreme stance of rejecting everything.

The reasons for Bartleby’s behavior have never been clear, and is the subject of, as I mentioned at the beginning, many conjectures on the part of critics. At the end of the book, the lawyer knows of a vague report that Bartleby had been working in the dead letter office, suggesting that this may have deeply affected him after reading letters meant for those who were gone.

As we can see, the story is minimal, and practically nothing happens. In fact, besides Bartleby and the lawyer, there are only three other characters who have even a minimal portrayal—the other copyists: Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut. Melville’s style throughout the story results in a slow, descriptive development, using simple language that only accelerates in the few short moments where the story reaches its climax.