Nov 05, 2018 · Bartleby’s Affects on the Lawyer. In Herman Melville’s story story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, a lawyer tells the story of a strange scrivener that had once worked for him. The scrivener, Bartleby, is strange because of his refusal to do anything with the calm reply, “I would prefer not to”. After realizing that Bartleby was affecting him, the lawyer says, “I trembled to …
In a sense, the lawyer's entire life revolves around objects and ideas which do not make sense to him although he is not aware of this. The walls of Bartleby conflict with the lawyer's walls, but both are designed to keep both the lawyer and Bartleby safe from the outside world. The lawyer's safe haven is where his office is: Wall Street. On Wall Street, the lawyer knows exactly what …
Nov 15, 2008 · Since the lawyer is in a hurry to hire someone to do the extra work, and Bartleby seems to be qualified, the lawyer hires him. At first, everything goes …
The Lawyer Bartleby ’s actions throughout the story come to embody the idea of passive resistance. By the story’s end, Bartleby therefore becomes an antagonist to The Lawyer ’s goal of getting the most productivity out of his workers.
Some critics think that, therefore, the Lawyer represents Melville's readers, asking Melville to write the same old fiction he had been writing all along, and Bartleby is Melville himself, replying that he would "prefer not to" and eventually withdrawing into himself and his misery.
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.
The problem is, however, that he doesn't leave the office; in fact, he lives there secretly. The narrator can't do anything to get rid of him, so he just lets him sit around and gets Nippers and Turkey to pick up his slack.
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.
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.
“On errands of life, these letters speed to death.” With the death of Bartleby, the end of his life takes place and with the use of the word 'death' the end of the story takes place. The author finds it difficult to express the emotion seizing him.Aug 15, 2016
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.Mar 10, 2015
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