The Lawyer arranges for Bartleby to be fed good food in jail, but Bartleby refuses to eat. Finally, one day, the narrator visits Bartleby, who has fallen asleep under a tree in the prison yard. The Lawyer goes to speak to him and discovers Bartleby is dead. The Lawyer ends his narration of the story with the one clue he was ever able to discover about Bartleby: the late scrivener once …
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. Bartleby doesn’t respond. The Lawyer leaves, confident that Bartleby will listen to him and vacate the premises.
Bartleby dies. In a final act of protest, Bartleby refuses to eat, and subsequently starves to death in prison. By just preferring not to live any longer, Bartleby announces his individuality in an ultimately fatal, dramatic fashion: if he cannot live as he "prefers" to, he apparently doesn't want to live at all.
Bartleby began staying in the building even after the lawyer moved his business. The next man that moved his business into the place said that Bartleby was the lawyer's responsibility and he had to do something about him. Bartleby was eventually arrested. The scivener's job was to copy legal documents by hand.
Bartleby stays in the office, even when everyone else vacates, and another lawyer moves in. Kicked out of the office, Bartleby continues to live in the building, which offends all of the other tenants.
The lawyer doesn't fire Bartleby after he declines to work, instead he gives Bartleby another chance. The lawyer preference to remain calm shows that he chooses to stray from confrontation. Bartleby continuous refusal to work leads to him being fired, but he refuses to leave.
Ordinarily, the narrator would have considered firing Bartleby, but because of Bartleby's composure and rational manner and because the narrator is preoccupied with business, he moves on to more pressing matters. A few days later, Bartleby refuses to take part in scanning his own sheaf of quadruplicates.
A pattern develops within the office when the Narrator asks Bartleby to do mundane tasks that are not 100% related to copying. Rather than obliging to the Narrator's requests, Bartleby replies with somewhat of a catchphrase – saying “I would prefer not to.” to every thing the Narrator asks of him.Mar 10, 2015
Summary and Analysis Resolution. Returning to work, the lawyer finds a note from the landlord explaining that he has had Bartleby arrested for vagrancy and that the lawyer should appear at the prison to state the facts in the case.
Though the Lawyer admits that "nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance," he eventually comes to pity Bartleby, believing that he "intends no mischief" and his "eccentricities are involuntary." The Lawyer decides to "cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval" by determining to keep Bartleby on ...
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.”
He refuses to divulge any personal information to the narrator. Bartleby's death is consistent with depression—having no motivation to survive, he refrains from eating until he dies.
Bartleby lacks passion and enjoyment for his work, a clear sign that it is not what he was made to do. And because his work fails to fulfill his purpose in life, Bartleby becomes detached from it and the rest of the world.
Landlord's Tenants: Office renters who are disturbed by Bartleby's presence. Mr. Cutlets: Cook at the jail. Officer and Two Turnkeys: Prison officials who help the narrator find Bartleby after the latter's arrest.
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.
The Lawyer offers Bartleby the 20-dollar bonus and tells him he must go. Bartleby replies that he would prefer not to. The Lawyer tells him he must, but Bartleby sits there silently. The Lawyer gives Bartleby all the money the scrivener is owed, plus the 20-dollar bonus.
Finally, The Lawyer asks Ginger Nut what he thinks, and Ginger Nut replies that Bartleby is a “luny.”. So, The Lawyer again turns toward Bartleby’s screen, and urges Bartleby to come out and do his “duty.”. However, Bartleby neither replies nor emerges from his desk.
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 Lawyer searches the desk, and finds that Bartleby’s papers are neatly laid out. However, beneath the papers, The Lawyer finds an old knotted handkerchief.
The Lawyer’s storytelling is, in itself, an example of language failing to properly communicate. Active Themes. The Lawyer then states that he is a lawyer, and describes his business as focusing around “rich men’s bonds, and mortgages, and title deeds.”.
Of course, Bartleby passively resists, and in escaping behind his screen (a make-shift wall), he disconnects himself, at least momentarily, from the rest of the office. Active Themes. The Lawyer stands there, unsure what to do. Finally he advances toward the screen, and asks Bartleby why he refuses.
The lawyer's office almost fell apart because of Bartleby's persistence, and a video of the monk burning himself alive went viral, and ended up being a major world influence.
The ending of Bartleby the Scrivener is very vague. At the end Battleby starves to death in prison, meaning that he not only fasted, but he also sacrificed himself. This is a reference to certain religious martyrs who sacrificed themselves in order to peacefully preserve their faith.
When the lawyer moves his office, leaving the scrivener in his old office, and Bartleby is eventually moved into prison, this could almost be related to the story of Jesus Christ.
This caused the narrator to be upset because Bartleby intrigued and challenged him in an almost inhuman way. I think Bartleby tried to express the idea of disobedience, no one he met would forget the 'silent' and 'strange' man who didn't comply then went to jail then starved himself to death. Reply. Ford Zacks.
When the narrator fully understands free will, this is when Bartleby dies. He served his purpose and now he is gone. Reply.
I think Bartleby is more of an idea then a person. Meaning, he represents the ability to have free will and doing what he "prefers" to do. The narrator has always lived in this society that does what they are told when they are told to. Once he is introduced to Bartleby and the idea of free-will he begins to admire it.
He reaches the point where he refuses to even eat, for he knows the food the prison will provide for him has been produce by the same unjust system he is trying to disrupt.
He calls Bartleby in to do the job, but Bartleby responds: "I would prefer not to.". This answer amazes the Lawyer, who has a "natural expectancy of instant compliance.". He is so amazed by this response, and the calm way Bartleby says it, that he cannot even bring himself to scold Bartleby.
The Lawyer hires Bartleby and gives him a space in the office. At first, Bartleby seems to be an excellent worker. He writes day and night, often by no more than candlelight. His output is enormous, and he greatly pleases the Lawyer. One day, the Lawyer has a small document he needs examined.
His nickname comes from the fact that Turkey and Nippers often send him to pick up ginger nut cakes for them. The Lawyer spends some time describing the habits of these men and then introduces Bartleby.
The Lawyer begins by noting that he is an "elderly man," and that his profession has brought him "into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men the law-copyists, or scriveners.".
While the Lawyer knows many interesting stories of such scriveners, he bypasses them all in favor of telling the story of Bartleby, whom he finds to be the most interesting of all the scriveners. Bartleby is, according to the Lawyer, "one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the original sources, and, in his case, ...
The second worker is Nippers, who is much younger and more ambitious than Turkey.
Turkey has been causing problems lately. He is an excellent scrivener in the morning, but as the day wears on—particularly in the afternoon—he becomes more prone to making mistakes, dropping ink plots on the copies he writes. He also becomes more flushed, with an ill temper, in the afternoon.