This difference in character development is probably due to Hawthorne’s more serious writing style. Melville’s narrator knows and interacts with Bartleby saying “Poor fellow! Thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence, his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary” conveying a compassion that is absent in Hawthorne’s narrator’s similar statement “Poor Wakefield! Little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world!”. Melville’s narrator more effectively draws the reader into the world of the protagonist by making them feel sympathy for Bartleby, while readers are more prone to deem Wakefield a dimwitted “nincompoop”
This difference in character development is probably due to Hawthorne’s more serious writing style. Melville’s narrator knows and interacts with Bartleby saying “Poor fellow! Thought I, he means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence, his aspect sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary” conveying a compassion that is absent in Hawthorne’s narrator’s similar statement “Poor Wakefield! Little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world!”. Melville’s narrator more effectively draws the reader into the world of the protagonist by making them feel sympathy for Bartleby, while readers are more prone to deem Wakefield a dimwitted “nincompoop”