Bartleby The Scrivener Research Paper
Bartleby the Scrivener
The narrator of "Bartleby the Scrivener" is the Lawyer, who runs a law practice on Wall Street in New York. The Lawyer begins by noting that he is an “older gentleman” whose profession has brought him "into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:- I mean the law-copyists, or scriveners"(Melville 153). Even though the Lawyer knows many interesting stories of such scriveners, “he waive the biographies of all the other scriveners” (Melville 158) in favor of telling the story of Bartleby, whom he finds to be the strangest of all the scriveners he has ever known. Bartleby is, according to the Lawyer, "one …show more content…
One day, when Bartleby is asked to help proofread one of the documents he copied, he answers simply, "I would prefer not to" (Melville 159). This is the first of many refusals. The Lawyer makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby and learn about him, but Bartleby always responds the same way when asked to do tasks or provide any information about himself by stating, "I would prefer not to"(Melville159). One weekend, when the Lawyer stops by his office, he discovers that Bartleby is living there. The loneliness of Bartleby's life struck the Lawyer, and he didn’t know whether to pity him or have contempt regarding Bartleby's bizarre …show more content…
I believe that perhaps the writer wanted the reader to allude to the fact that Bartleby is the Lawyers Psychological double. The Lawyer at the beginning of this story stated that he was a “man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (Melville 154). He was taught at an early age what society considered normal. On several occasions throughout the story the Lawyer is shown to be non-confrontational and that he looked highly on what his other associates thought of him. He can be best described as one who never rocks the boat, a
The narrator of "Bartleby the Scrivener" is the Lawyer, who runs a law practice on Wall Street in New York. The Lawyer begins by noting that he is an “older gentleman” whose profession has brought him "into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:- I mean the law-copyists, or scriveners"(Melville 153). Even though the Lawyer knows many interesting stories of such scriveners, “he waive the biographies of all the other scriveners” (Melville 158) in favor of telling the story of Bartleby, whom he finds to be the strangest of all the scriveners he has ever known. Bartleby is, according to the Lawyer, "one …show more content…
One day, when Bartleby is asked to help proofread one of the documents he copied, he answers simply, "I would prefer not to" (Melville 159). This is the first of many refusals. The Lawyer makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby and learn about him, but Bartleby always responds the same way when asked to do tasks or provide any information about himself by stating, "I would prefer not to"(Melville159). One weekend, when the Lawyer stops by his office, he discovers that Bartleby is living there. The loneliness of Bartleby's life struck the Lawyer, and he didn’t know whether to pity him or have contempt regarding Bartleby's bizarre …show more content…
I believe that perhaps the writer wanted the reader to allude to the fact that Bartleby is the Lawyers Psychological double. The Lawyer at the beginning of this story stated that he was a “man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (Melville 154). He was taught at an early age what society considered normal. On several occasions throughout the story the Lawyer is shown to be non-confrontational and that he looked highly on what his other associates thought of him. He can be best described as one who never rocks the boat, a