I see the story of Bartleby the Scrivener as one of choices. Bartleby was a good employee to the judge until he chose one day to simply not complete a task. Of course, he spiraled from there. It’s obvious that Bartleby is a negatively dynamic character and that there’s something mentally wrong with him. The judge stresses this point by saying:
“What shall I do? I now said to myself, buttoning up my coat to the last button.
What shall I do? what ought I to do? what does conscience say I should do with
this man, or rather ghost.”
Bartleby is emotionally drained and almost dead by the end of his life. We discover at the end of the short story that Bartleby had a job as a clerk in the Dead Letter Office. Maybe this leads to the question of what was it that he saw in those letters. There’s a possibility that the letters were traumatic, or possibly full of regrettable choices the authors made.
This story is mysterious, and I believe the digital creator of this video did a good job of keeping that mystery. I think that moving through the plot so quickly lets the audience get a sense of the story story but also leaves an open ending for viewers to wonder what really happened.