The storyteller of “Bartleby the Scrivener” is the Lawyer, who runs a law practice on Wall Street in New York. The Lawyer starts by taking note of that he is an “elderly man,” and that his calling has brought him “into more than standard contact with what might appear an intriguing and to some degree solitary arrangement of men the law-copyists, or scriveners.” While the Lawyer knows many fascinating accounts of such scriveners, he sidesteps them all for recounting the tale of Bartleby, whom he observes to be the most fascinating of the considerable number of scriveners.
Bartleby is a young man who is totally isolated from the rest of the characters in the story. He was hired by the Lawyer to serve as a scrivener, or law- copyist. He starts out as an excellent copyist, but several days later, when asked to examine his work for errors, he replies that he “would prefer not to.” Bartleby soon answers anything he is asked to do with “I would prefer not to,” and he slowly drives the Lawyer and his fellow scrivener’s crazy. Furthermore, people are not really accepting the way Bartelby is and I also think that they are trying to change Bartelby’s personality. Yet, Bartelby do not prefer to do that because he is proud to be himself.
In reality, I believe there are many people like Bartelby who wants to live life in their own way. Unfortunately, society forces and drives them to different direction. In this case, I would say that society is playing the role of criminal. For instance, if a son in the family wants to pursue his career in music field but his parents refuse him to do that and instead force him to catch up with different field. In this case, parents are the criminals. In the same way, I think Bartelby came across this kind of tensions which led him to live his life authentically.