Bartleby is a mysterious character who utilizes the method of passive resistance that surprises the lawyer. In the very beginning, Bartleby works diligently and “seemed to gorge himself on [the] documents” (page 301). However, after some time, Bartleby suddenly develops a strategy that involves passive resistance to avoid doing something that he once was working so hard on.The theme that passive resistance can be just as or even more effective than resistance through violence is clearly evident. A very effective and yet simple response of “I prefer not to” from Bartleby causes the lawyer to be startled for he felt that “there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed [him]…” (page 303). Due to the non-violent resistance presented by Bartleby, the lawyer is really patient and is often thrown into the state of self-evaluation that causes him to rethink whether or not his decisions were reasonable. After each of the three encounters with Bartleby, the lawyer asks the other scriveners “what do [they] think of it” as a method of confirming if he did the right thing (page 303).

In addition to this passive resistance theme, there is also this whole mysterious character problem going on. From the very beginning, the lawyer states that he knows little about Bartleby and he believes that “no material exist for a full and satisfactory biography of this man” (page 297). One of the possible reasons that make the lawyer lose his sense of logical reasoning when he interacts with Bartleby may be due to what little is known about Bartleby. For example, the lawyer felt confident to dismiss Bartleby “when [he] entered [his] office, nevertheless [he] felt something superstitious knocking at [his] heart, and forbidding [him] to carry out [his] purpose (310). It seems as though something mysterious about Bartleby that prevents the lawyer to act upon his decisions on firing the scrivener. People have always been known to be afraid of the unknown because they don’t know how to deal with the unknown, which in this case with the lawyer is Bartleby. However, at the very end, though it is known that Bartleby is depressed and used to work at a place opening the mail that were sent to the dead people, there is nothing more known about his past or his background.