great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Susanna Domosi:

Bartleby in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville can be viewed as a satanic hero. A satanic hero is a character who has a certain insight into life others do not, and proceeds to act on this insight in a non-conformist way. In many cases of satanic heroes, as well as Bartleby’s, the action taken by the hero is socially inappropriate: “‘I would prefer to be left alone here,’ said Bartleby, as if offended at being mobbed in his privacy” (Melville 310). It is socially inappropriate for an employee to refuse to follow the directions of his boss, especially when the employer is asking the employee to perform the task that the job requires. Bartleby “preferring” not to work is symbolic of how people in society should not be required of performing monotonous jobs. Even though other employees are performing the tedious and unfulfilling work of making copies, Bartleby, as a satanic hero, makes a statement by not performing his duties. This statement is that humans are meant to strive for fulfillment in life, which cannot be achieved by working day after day as a scrivener.

Jiwoo Han:

Susanna’s post is really well organized and interesting to me, but I have a different perspective from hers. Bartleby is not a satanic hero, but a traditional hero. From the viewpoint of his status as a scrivener hired by his boss, his refusal to the boss’s request is the least he can do.   

Even though it is extremely easy to see that Bartleby looks like an impotent and lazy man throughout the story, he also can be seen as a traditional hero. A traditional hero is the one who knows the truth, when others do not, and acts on it. It can be put it simple that Bartleby, in the story, is the one who wants to escape from routine of the world and the rest of the characters are the one who conform to a tedious routine, even they do not feel bored. “I would prefer not to” (Melville 302). When Bartleby is asked to do a boring and tedious thing, he keeps saying the simple answers. This short expression itself simply represents his resistance to a routine job. Later in the story, the refusal of his meal in a prison is pretty much the same thing. Bartleby is refusing to follow routine with every part of his being.   

Daphne Young:

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a very complex story and I can see how the characters can be portrayed as many different types of heroes- for example, Susanna sees Bartleby as a satanic hero while Jiwoo sees him as a traditional hero.

The story is narrated by an elderly man of around 60 years old, who is the boss or employer of Bartleby. Just like Bartleby, I believe that the narrator is also a hero. One can argue that he is an anti-hero. Unlike the name suggests, an anti-hero is someone who sees the truth when most cannot, but does not act on it. In the story the narrator says, “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity” (321). The narrator puts both Bartleby and humanity in the same remark. Why? As the story progressed Bartleby’s character is slowly revealed, at first he does his work but slowly he stopped doing everything. As my group members quoted, he simply says he would prefer not to do work and prefer to be left alone. Instead of doing something about this the narrator lets him be. Sometimes humanity or human kind does things that most view as immoral or socially unacceptable, but at a level so extreme that many do not know what to do about it. The narrator lets his frustration out by saying, “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!” because he knows that he should do something about Bartleby but he doesn’t.