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Life alone, with no
relative or friend to share the joy of life eventually leads to a dejected
life. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville is a story of a man name
Bartleby who generates a great deal of curiosity to its readers because of its
incomplete knowledge on this man (Weinstock). Bartleby who’s hired by the
narrator to work as a copyist, starts off doing “an extraordinary quantity of
writing” (Melvillle 26) but decides to “prefer” not to do anything in the
latter half of the story. However, the narrator keeps his patience with
Bartleby for quite some time before he decides to let Bartleby go. Other than
Bartleby, the narrator has two more copyists in his office name Turkey and
Nippers. Both Turkey and Nippers have flaws in which the narrator oversees
because of their usefulness to him. In similar fashion, the narrator tries to
compromise with Bartleby just like how he has with Turkey and Nippers as well
as pities Bartleby until the compromise between the narrator and Bartleby was
broken.
At the very beginning of the story, the narrator proves
he is quite reasonable with his workers as long as they are able to provide him
with a reasonable amount of work. In the first couple of pages, the narrator
explains that although Turkey and Nippers aren’t the best workers in the world,
they are still doing their job. Turkey works in a quick and steady pace in the
morning (Melville 23) while Nippers writes with a neat and swift hand in the
afternoon (Melville 24). The narrator sees their abilities and weights the good
over the bad. In the same manner, he tries to do the same with Bartleby. When
the narrator asked Bartleby “to examine a small paper with [him]…Bartleby, in a
singularly mild, firm voice, replied, “I would prefer not to”’(Melville 27).
Any other employer would’ve done some kind of disciplinary action; however, the
narrator “concluded to forget the matter for the present” (Melville 27). Because
the narrator saw how much work Bartleby is able to do, he was able to overlook
the imperfection. After a couple more instances where Bartleby refused to
examine his own work, he concludes:
The
conclusion of this whole business was, that it soon became a fixed fact of my
chambers, that a pale young scrivener, by the name of Bartleby, had a desk
there; that he copied for me at the usual rate of four cents a folio[…]but he
was permanently exempt from examining the work done by him. (Melville 31)
Not only does the
narrator not fire Bartleby but also decides he is a useful addition to his
workforce. The compromise for Bartleby not examining the works of his own and
others’ is for him to continue copying works for the narrator.
In addition to the narrator’s flexibility towards the
flaws of his workers, he displays pity to Bartleby up to a certain extent. The
thought of firing Bartleby are apparent several times in the story; however, the
narrator’s sympathy for Bartleby stops him from doing so. He feels that if he
turns “[Bartleby] away, the chances are he will fall in with some less
indulgent employer, and then he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven
forth miserably to starve” (Melville 30). The narrator feels obligated towards
Bartleby’s present actions and future’s well-being. He doesn’t want to create
further damage to an already injured person. This is even truer when the
narrator finds:
Bartleby
has been making his home [in the office][…]Immediately then the thought came
sweeping across me, what miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here
revealed! His poverty is great, but his solitude, how horrible[…]every night of
every day is an emptiness.
The pity for this man
is gradually increasing as the narrator learns more about him. However, he soon
realizes that any help he tries to give is useless because Bartleby “was the
victim of innate and incurable disorder. I might give alms to his body, but his
body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not
reach” (Melville 35). From this, the narrator begins to give up on Bartleby; however,
it is when Bartleby “informed [the narrator] that he had permanently given up
copying”(Melville 38) the narrator decides to finally let him go. Going back to
the compromise the narrator had made with Bartleby; Bartleby is no longer
valuable to the narrator’s establishment any longer if he didn’t write. The
narrator puts a clear line between Bartleby’s personal life and work life.
Although the narrator pities Bartleby, he has no reason to keep someone who
does nothing in the office.
In the end, it seems Bartleby became a journey of
discovery for the narrator (Morgan). The narrator stated himself that he has
always found “that the easiest way of life is the best” (Melville 20); however,
his usual conventional methods didn’t work when faced with Bartleby. First, he tried
to find a solution to Bartleby’s unwillingness to examine works by completely
getting rid of the duty. Then he felt a sense of obligation towards Bartleby and
shown pity towards him until he had to finally let him go. The narrator was
able to tolerate and compromise with everyone around him. Many of us have to
compromise in our life in order to achieve our goals. At the same time, we face
events which cause us to do something unconventional because of our emotions.
Work
Cited:
Melville,
Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener. A Story of Wall Street.” Literature: A
Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner et al 2nd ed. Boston:
Bedford, 2009. 20-50. Print.
Morgan, Winifred. "Bartleby and the Failure of
Conventional Virtue." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature
45.4 (Summer 1993): 257-271. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center.
Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew. "Doing justice to
Bartleby." ATQ [The American Transcendental Quarterly] 17.1 (2003):
23+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.
