Alienation Unit: Bartleby the Scrivener

"Bartleby the Scrivener"

Herman Melville

Melville "delights" the reader with this monstrosity of a view into the mostly undocumented life of a
scrivener. First, one may note, considering this is the alienation unit, the fact that few ever take the time to
understand those who dedicate their lives to simply transferring words from one document to another will
be discussed, if not judged. Sure enough, through the utilization of varying tone, Melville creates a work
of didactic literature which warns the reader to take the time to look into others' stories before acting
harshly.

In the first part of the story, the speaker characterizes his (sometimes) irksome assistants. Turkey is an
old man who works diligently during the morning but acts hastily in the afternoon; Nippers is substantially
younger, but mornings involve severe indigestion that does not abate until the afternoon; and Ginger Nut
is a determined boy who supplies the office's snacks. Although Turkey and Nippers appear to be
insufferable, the speaker analyzes their natural constraints and combined values. As a result, the speaker
speaks in a restrained tone constantly balanced by reason.

However, when Bartleby arrives, the speaker takes a different route in characterization. Immediately, the
speaker seems to judge Bartleby simply based on his almost ascetic work ethic balanced with his lack of
enthusiasm. Later, when Bartleby refuses to come into the speaker's office, the negatives start to
outweigh the positives. For the majority of the rest of the story, the speaker portrays his struggle with
Bartleby as an inescapable and hopeless fight against stubbornness. Eventually, the speaker's desperate
attitude drives him to relocate, leaving Bartleby residing in the old office. Bartleby soon after is sent to
prison and passes away most likely from starvation.

Upon learning more about Bartleby postmortem, the speaker learns of extenuating circumstances that
effected Bartleby's unusual stubbornness. Bartleby used to destroy letters destined to the deceased.
Surely, this depressing atmosphere is to blame for the "I'd prefer not to"s. In evaluating Bartleby, the
speaker now assumes a regretful tone: "Dead letters! does it not sound like dead men? Conceive a man
by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it
than that of continually handling these dead letters and assorting them for the flames?" (Melville, 675).

The speaker's lamentable experience of turbulent alterations in mood and tone offers the reader a simple
lesson: one should learn the stories of everyone in order to avoid unfair or damaging actions and attitudes.

Protagonist and Antagonist aren't really applicable terms here, but if we must put labels on people, the
more conventional way of doing so is probably to call the Narrator the protagonist. Why? Well, first of all,
he's the character we know best, we identify with him, and we see the story through his eyes. In addition,
the Narrator is the most accessible, comprehensible, and essentially human character here unlike
Bartleby, the Narrator is not alien in any way, and unlike the other clerks, he's not just a caricature. He's
the closest thing we get to a real, live human being in this story, and through that basic identification, his
quest (to understand and help Bartleby) becomes our own.

Bartleby doesn't actively try to antagonize anyone but he ends up doing it unintentionally. If we look
closely at his actions, we see (like the Narrator does) that nothing he does is malicious; actually, he never
really does anything to hurt anyone. Well, to be more precise, he never does anything at all. It is this very
inactivity that makes him the problematic figure in this story. We usually expect negative action of some
kind from our standard antagonists, and Bartleby just doesn't come through in that way. Instead, we are,
like the Narrator, driven a little mad by Bartleby's mysterious nature, and it is that instinctive reaction that
sets him apart from all the other characters.