Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville - Book Report/Review Example

Journal Entry Thesis:  Commercialism “mechanizes” people, and is eventually dehumanizes them. The short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” brings intosharp focus and contrast the structure and rigidity of daily life in the world of commerce, on the one hand, and the stark individuality of Bartleby on the other. The opening of the story at once introduces the elements of the tightly regulated world of business and finance. The setting is at Wall Street – the seat of high finance and business. The narrator remains nameless throughout the story, which Melville may have intended to show that he was not a “person” but a part of the commercial machinery. Even the other scriveners are described mechanically. With clocklike precision, Turkey is sober and reliable in the mornings, but gets drunk and unruly in the afternoons. As if to compensate, Nippers is cranky and quarrelsome in the mornings due to indigestion, but becomes more calm and productive in the afternoons. Together, they are like two balancing parts on the same machine: “Their fits relieved each other, like guards. When Nipper’s was on, Turkey’s was off; and vice versa.” The third employee, Ginger Nut, is named after the cakes he buys – not for any personal characteristic, but for his function in the office. On the other hand, Bartleby is a constant and reliable worker, but “like a ghost”, he does not show any emotion. He resists conformity, however, by insisting on what he “prefers.” He refuses to comply with rules; first, while mechanically working from dawn to dusk, he keeps to himself in his little corner, facing empty walls, with only a ray of light from the window. Eventually, he practically lives in the office, and when told by the narrator to leave he follows his own preference to stay. He refuses to do tasks, and in the end even to write, because he does not prefer to. Bartleby put personal will over social compliance, and in the end he pays the price for his non-conformity and his individuality. He is ousted by the establishment, and eventually dies. Journal Entry 2 Thesis:  “Bartleby the Scrivener” highlights the shortcomings of capitalism. Among the characters in Bartleby, there is a clear class distinction between the capitalist (the narrator) and his employees (Turkey, Nipper, Ginger Nut and Bartleby). Firstly, in the physical appointment of the room, a ground glass partition separates the office of the narrator from that of his scriveners. Immediately, there is a demarcation between their designations, a physical separation between the capitalist and the labourers, (put in their own place, so to speak). Secondly, there is the distinction as to work and compensation. While the narrator, as capitalist, complained about the apparent laziness of his employees, that each of them is productive only for half a day (Turkey in the morning and Nipper in the afternoon), he himself was outraged at the abolition of the office of Master in Chancery because it was an easy job with little work but substantial pay (“I had counted upon a life-lease of the profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years.”) Further, the narrator represented rich men in his lawyering. Bartleby represents the workers who perform their tasks under dehumanizing work conditions. He faces blank walls all day with very little light in the window. He is forced to tolerate the loneliness and barenness of living in the office. (The story shows him literally living in the office, though that figuratively may also apply, in that some labourers work long hours with little time for their families, and thus devote their lives to their work for meagre pay.) In the end, Bartleby draws the line and refuses to be forced to do work that he prefers not to do. Marxist disciples will be quick to point to this event in the story as representative of the rebellion of the working class against the dictates of capitalism. It could also be viewed as the enactment of peaceful opposition against the ruling class. In a way, it may be seen as the empowerment of Bartleby over his employer, the narrator, by way of refusing his labour. Journal Entry 3 Thesis:  “Words” are life; “Dead letters” represent the death of personal interaction. The written word has an importance in this short story. At the beginning, the narrator carefully and almost nostalgically describes the name of his former employer, John Jacob Astor, a name “… which, I admit, I love to repeat; for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion.” However, this love for words contrasts strongly with how their present business uses words. Even while words are important to scriveners, they are however devoid of their artistic beauty that the narrator loved. In their job, the use of words is just a means to earn money. Words are copied from one document to the other, and the scrivener is not concerned with their literary or artistic use, just that they have been copied correctly from the original. In the case of Bartleby, while initially doing his work reliably and efficiently – that is, copying words into documents – he refuses to proofread the documents he himself copied. This may be interpreted as a refusal to face the meaninglessness of the work he has done – in shame, in fear, whatever it may be, Bartleby would not want to face the fact of his meaningless work after he had done it. Finally, he even refuses to do the writing itself, finding no meaning in it, and therefore rebelling against it. Almost as a postscript, Melville relates at the story’s end that Bartleby’s previous job was in the “Dead Letter” Office at Washington. The author places this at the story’s conclusion, as if it explains finally the mystery behind Bartleby’s life and death. The Dead Letter Office evokes every implication of its name – that is, “dead”. Letters are supposed to be personal communications between individuals, conveyances of emotion, intention, ideas, even just greetings. A “dead letter,” however, will never reach its intended party. It is a personal reaching out that is cut off, unanswered, unappreciated, with the person at the other end never knowing what the sender wanted to tell him. It is the death of personal relations. Journal Entry 4 Thesis:  The narrator represents the failure of leaders to truly provide leadership. Melville’s narrator is not just a character in the story, but is an important symbol. He introduces himself with the opening statement that his profound conviction, the principle by which he lives, is that “the easiest way is the best.” This is a life principle with out any principle – no noble or redeeming truth. While he is a lawyer, he admits that he is “one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury…[but] do a snug business among rich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds.” In short, the narrator is not a lawyer who strives for ideals and challenges injustice (he describes this as “energetic”, “nervous” and “turbulent”), but one who gets paid handsomely just to make rich men richer (this he calls “my peace”). Throughout the story, the narrator is a man in a constant state of indecision concerning his own employees. Rather than impose what is right in how his business should be run, he sidesteps every issue concerning his employees’ undesirable behaviour, preferring to give in to their shortcomings than hurt their feelings. He rationalizes Turkey’s drinking and Nippers disagreeableness; and with Bartleby, he totally abandons his prerogatives and his responsibility as leader, that even the other employees and office visitors notice. He plans continuously of how to get rid of Bartleby without confronting him or hurting his feelings. Finally, instead of sending Bartleby out, he took the pains to move out himself. He does not face his problems squarely but sidesteps around them. He finds that his problems come back to haunt him when the landlord visits him and threatens to cause trouble if he does not settle the problem once and for all. Lastly, he chose to use money to get better treatment for Bartleby at the Tombs, even if money would not solve the problem, and Bartleby died anyway. Thus, despite his titles, profession, and privilege, the narrator is a flawed leader. Read More