![]() ![]() Considering Melville’s biography along with his travels and adventures during his young adult years, one could find a high degree of contrast between the wide and “uncivilized” basis he cruised through and the setting he creates for “Bartleby the Scrivener.” The people living in those chambers seem already dead, like ghost wandering around to tournament others. The atmosphere of the whole story is complete already within this passage since an utter impression of claustrophobia is set in place. No one is spared by the look of walls, not even the head of the office: “owing to the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my chambers being on the second floor, the interval between this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge square cistern” (2331). The description of the chambers occupied by the law firm on Wall Street indicates the power effect of the walls on those who are surrounded by them. Pinsker further considers the metaphor of the walls in the short story and their importance in defining human relationships or the lack thereof. Sanford Pinsker, who wrote the article, ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’: Language as Wall advances the theory that in order to understand the symbolism of Melville’s short story, one must focus on the details regarding the narrator instead of trying to sell the enigma posed by the scrivener himself. ![]() On the other hand, he lives and works in the same circumstances therefore, making himself subject to similar alienation effects. The head of the office seems to be perfectly aware of their flaws and wise enough to make the best use of their hindered capabilities. His employees, the only people he introduces as his entourage, appear to be suffering from the alienating effects of their profession. The double meaning of the relationship between the narrator and Bartleby must be taken into consideration considering the environment the narrator describes he lived in for most of his adult life. He further describes his lack of ambition as a virtue that helped him keep safe and sound through the years and retainage of wisdom, speared of any turbulence. Furthermore, he portrays himself as a person who finds a way to go through life avoiding complications, perfectly just into the rules and laws of society, and always choosing the easiest way out of any potential problem. The repetition of a possessive pronoun announces that the narrator presents a world that he thinks is entirely under his control. The narrator introduces himself and sets the tone for his story in terms that present the reader with the setting that encompasses a claustrophobic world, his office: “ ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employees, my business, my chambers, and general surroundings” (Melville, 2330). Everyone else worked in a separate location to the narrator, so Widmer believes that the narrator places Bartleby in his office so that he can control him and make him do things the seasoned employees wouldn’t. ![]() So when Bartleby appears at the office and interviews for the job, the narrator thinks that Bartleby will tone the office down some because he was so different than the others. In the story, the other scriveners are very unreserved. He feels that the narrator “variously attempts to exorcise his wan demon of perverse will, his own walled-in humanity.” I believe that it affects the story to the point of making the narrator seem less genuine during the times where he tries to help Bartleby. In fact, it seems as though he paints the narrator to be more of an antagonist. After reading the short story the question we must all ask ourselves is does this story have a ‘hero’? Who is it? How does this affect the story?Īlthough Bartleby and the narrator are seen as the main characters, Widmer does not identify a “hero” in the story between those two. For the contemporary reader, Bartleby’s existence could have a double meaning: an alter ego for the alienated person who is living under circumstances completely different from what nature intended it to be and a choice of passive response to societies compulsiveness to adjust and submit to a strict simple but deceptive rules. Besides considering the personality and actions of the narrator, others have concentrated their attention on the relationship between the two and the significance of their interaction or lack thereof. Bartleby’s unique character was so mysterious that it forced readers to look into the motives of the other major character, the narrator. ![]() Herman Melville’s short story, “Bartleby and the Scrivener,” has provided readers and critics with enough material to speculate upon Bartleby’s condition and the message the writer intends to send through the peculiar character. ![]()
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