7:00-END
In “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Melville delivers a scathing diagnosis of the belief in individualism that was popular in philosophy and literature of his time. The short story of Bartleby captures the themes of “free will” but at the same time, the theme of isolation is apparent.
There are many contradicting characters that are in the story. The first character is the narrator. He runs the law firm that Bartleby ends up working at. The first worker that he has is called Turkey. Turkey is an excellent worker in the morning but tends to mess up a lot more in the afternoon. The second worker is Nippers, who is much more younger than Turkey. Nippers has trouble working in the morning but instead he works much more calmer and steadier in the afternoon. Nippers and Turkey are complete opposites. I believe that Melville purposely did this in order to balance out the pros and cons between the two characters. And the last character is called Ginger Nut who is known as being their errand boy who always runs to get cake (which is why his name is that).
Bartleby is the last character to join the law firm. At first he was an excellent worker until the narrator asked him to complete a task, which he responded by saying ” I would prefer not to”. After Bartleby says this he starts to refuse to do anything that is asked of him. He then moves all his stuff into the office. Each character has a different characteristic that makes them who they are. Bartleby isolates himself from everybody including his work and continues to stare at a brick wall.
When Bartleby ends up going to jail, the narrator writes him a notes. In my book review video, he calls this note the “dead letter” because it was not received by Bartleby before he died. The narrator can be characterized as selfish because he was only focused on running his business and making sure there wasn’t anything or anybody that would ruin that. By having Bartleby end up dead in jail, and the reason he was in jail was because of the narrator, puts this source of guilt on the narrator because he should have done more to help.
“he whom it would relieve, nor eats nor hungers any more; pardon for those who died despairing; hope for those who died unhoping; good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities. On errands of life, these letters speed to death.
Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”
This story was written in 1856. The end of this story reflects all of humanity. Bartleby worked in a post office and dealt with the section that deals with the undelivered mail which might have had an effect on his sanity. One of the stories main themes is isolation. I find it ironic how this is the current theme when this story was written in 1856 and at that time you were forced to socialize in some type of way. Now, with technology progressive at an increasing rate every minute of the day, we all as a society isolate ourselves without even realizing. Many of us cannot have a conversation in person for an hour without looking at our electronic device. This story shows a juxtaposition between Turkey and Nippers but also foreshadows the way we react in society today.