It is apparent that both narrators use symbols, narration, and metaphors; furthermore, both stories have passionate characters and indicate the classic nature of America. In addition, the stories contrast such that, Bartleby the Scrivener is about a Wall Street lawyer while the Great Gatsby centers on love issues between Gatsby and a woman.
Full Answer
The Lawyer gives Bartleby all the money the scrivener is owed, plus the 20-dollar bonus. He tells Bartleby that he wishes him well, and that if he can be of service to the scrivener, Bartleby shouldn’t hesitate to contact The Lawyer.
Like most reasonable people, The Lawyer’s charitable urges have a breaking point—he’s willing to tolerate Bartleby until Bartleby’s presence threatens to hurt his business.
The Lawyer is speaking metaphorically when he says Bartleby emerged from his screened-in area like a ghost, but it is a poignant metaphor: although The Lawyer and Bartleby are physically in the same space, ideologically they’re in two very different planes of existence.
The Lawyer is the unnamed narrator of "Bartleby the Scrivener." He owns a law firm on Wall Street, and he employs four men as scriveners, or copyists: Turkey, Nippers, Ginger Nut, and Bartleby. The Lawyer is about sixty years old. He is level-headed, industrious, and has a good mind for business.
Story DetailsCharacters/ThemesExplanationsBartlebya new scrivener at the law office and the story's antagonistThe lawyerthe protagonist and narrator of the storyTurkeyan old scrivener who is the same general age as the lawyer, 60Nippersan ambitious scrivener with a fiery personality.4 more rows•Oct 11, 2021
Prior to Bartleby's entrance, the narrator describes himself as an experienced, self-possessed professional. He knows what he wants and he has acquired it. “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” (1).
With the sudden changes of Bartleby, the Lawyer feels overpowered, and it is like he does not have any power over his employees like Bartleby. Marcus explains that Bartleby is a psychological double for the Lawyer. The author says that Bartlebys power over the Lawyer quickly grows as the story progresses (Marcus 1).
As a narrator, the lawyer is unreliable because the reader cannot always trust his interpretation of events. The lawyer, as he himself admits, is a man of “assumptions,” and his prejudices often prevent him from offering an accurate view of the situation.
Character Analysis Of Bartleby He is now an older man with a job for a family. The lawyer attempts to ease Bartleby back into reality because it assures him that he has not wasted his own life. From this moment on the lawyers conflict with Bartleby will only grow the rising tension between the lawyer and his own past.
The Narrator does this because he cannot bare to be mean to Bartleby, because he just does not have it in him to do anything negative towards him. He even tries to bribe him with extra pay for him to leave the office, rather than simply firing him.
The lawyer who narrates the story is initially glad to have Bartleby as an employee because he does good work and does it for long hours, but the lawyer wishes Bartleby had a less gloomy demeanor....
Bartleby is neither lazy nor crazy. We are led to believe (though the lawyer stresses that he doesn't know with certainty) that Bartleby suffers from despair. He starts off in his job as a hard...
The last words of “Bartleby the Scrivener” can be seen as a lament for the sheer absurdity of Bartleby's existence. They come after the lawyer narrator, Bartleby's former employer, has heard a...
Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced before Bartleby to show how tolerant the narrator generally is of eccentric and somewhat unproductive employees. For example, Nippers is irritable in...
We never find out definitively why Bartleby shuts down and decides he "prefers not to" do any work whatsoever. However, the sympathetic and kind-hearted lawyer employer who takes an interest in him...
Near the end of Bartleby, the Scrivener, Bartleby dies in the Tombs prison, where has been sent because of his homelessness. Bartleby dies of starvation in prison because he prefers not to eat...
Turkey and Nippers are copyists. Turkey is approaching 60 years old...
Even before his usefulness wanes, The Lawyer is already skeptical of Bartleby because he doesn’t take joy in his work. However, because the office is so personally disconnected, he chooses not to discuss this with Bartleby at all. Additionally, The Lawyer stating that an important part of a scrivener’s job is to correct copies is in itself an example of the imperfection of language: even those whose job it is to write exact copies all day often make mistakes.
The Lawyer learns some of Bartleby’s qualifications —the most he learns about Bartleby in the entire story —and he fails to share it with the reader (another example of language being unreliable). The layout of the office is a clear example of the disconnected modern workplace: the boss sits in a separate room from his employees, and even when he places Bartleby near him, The Lawyer puts a screen around the scrivener so that he cannot see his employee.
At first, Bartleby provides The Lawyer with an enormous quantity of writing, working nonstop all day and not pausing for lunch. The Lawyer notes that he would have been quite delighted by this, if not for the fact that Bartleby writes “silently, palely, mechanically” rather than with any delight. The Lawyer then mentions that an important part of a scrivener’s job is to re-read what they have written in order to check for mistakes. Traditionally, when there is more than one scrivener present, they help each other with their corrections, and, because it’s tedious, The Lawyer believes this is not work that someone like “the mettlesome poet, Byron,” would be willing to do.
The Lawyer trusts Bartleby fully despite not knowing anything about him, and he cannot figure out that the fact that Bartleby arrives early to and leaves late from the office is caused by his condition of living there. This epitomizes how disconnected the office is, as well as how sharing language has failed to create a close-knit bond in the office. Additionally, Bartleby’s passive resistance becomes even more controlling of the office, changing The Lawyer’s habits and leaving Bartleby’s unchanged.
Although Bartleby spends literally all of his time in the office, The Lawyer is unable to get to know him better, and the only member of the office Bartleby interacts with is Ginger Nut, a twelve-year-old boy. Though The Lawyer could potentially learn about Bartleby from his young employee, he never ventures to ask Ginger Nut about his elusive scrivener. The Lawyer’s strange thought-process about Bartleby’s diet is derived from the Theory of Humorism, and its nonsensical conclusion is another example of language (and logic) failing to illuminate the truth.
In the past, The Lawyer says that he has helped with correcting copy himself, and one of the reasons he placed Bartleby so close by was so that he could easily call him over to go through this correcting process. However, on the third day (The Lawyer thinks) of Bartleby’s employment, The Lawyer hastily calls Bartleby over to correct a paper he is holding. He holds the copy out for Bartleby to take, but Bartleby never comes to his desk, instead calling out from behind the screen, “I would prefer not to.”
Next, The Lawyer details his employee Nippers, who is also a scrivener. Nippers is about twenty-five years old, has yellow complexion, wears a mustache, and, in The Lawyer’s view, is “victim of two evil powers—ambition and indigestion.”.
The Mask of Melville’s Lawyer in Bartleby. (2017, Mar 26). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-mask-of-melvilles-lawyer-in-bartleby/
The Mask of Melville’s Lawyer in Bartleby. (2017, Mar 26). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-mask-of-melvilles-lawyer-in-bartleby/
Herman Melville's 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' is a short story about a scrivener who refuses to conform to his employer's demands. Review a summary of the story's plot, then analyze its characters and dual themes of conformity and belonging. Updated: 10/11/2021
The conflict of the story begins when the lawyer hires Bartleby to be a third scrivener. At first, he seems to be working out great. The lawyer's first problem with Bartleby begins when it is time to proofread the documents.
With Bartleby living at the office and doing no work, the lawyer finally decides to move his office to another building. But it is not long before the tenant of the new building shows up, wanting to know who the heck Bartleby is, and why is he living there. The lawyer attempts to hold no responsibility for Bartleby, but the new tenant brings the landlord, and they persist until the lawyer agrees to speak with Bartleby. And so he tries. He offers to help Bartleby get any kind of job he wants. But Bartleby says he'd not prefer any of them.
The reason the narrator is so dumbfounded and at a loss for what to do is because none of the power he holds over Bartleby is effective as it should be.
The story paints a picture of the daily goings-on in the law office before the arrival of Bartleby. The lawyer has three employees: Turkey, Nippers and Ginger-nut. Turkey and Nippers are both scriveners, while Ginger-nut is an assistant. The conflict of the story begins when the lawyer hires Bartleby to be a third scrivener.
The narrator's final exclamation - 'Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!' - shows that the narrator sees the hopelessness of Bartleby's lack of belonging and purpose in the world. And, similarly, he sees that lack of belonging and purposelessness - to a certain degree - reflected in the entire human race.
Finally, the new tenant has Bartleby removed by the police and taken to a New York jail called the Tombs. The lawyer visits Bartleby there. He pays the grub man to provide Bartleby with better food. But Bartleby stops eating altogether, saying he'd prefer not to dine. At the end, the narrator shows up and finds Bartleby dead.