Bartleby is the Satanic Hero. He does see the truth, that there is no end to this forever spinning circle of nothingness at his place of work. It feels very pointless and has no pride in his work. He acts by slowly rejecting his tasks. The lawyer describes Bartleby’s actions when he first started taking action by, “His face was leanly composed; his gray eyes dimly clam. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him” (Melville, 302). Even though Bartleby is taking action and standing up for himself, he gives his coworkers the wrong idea. His actions lead them to believe that he is unstable and that he needs mental help. I feel as though he is very innocent and is not trying to cause many arguments or make a sense. He is trying to stand up for himself. Have meaning to his life, not just being in the side lines and working pointless jobs. The lawyer feels compassion towards Bartleby and states, “Poor fellow, poor fellow! thought I, he don’t mean any thing; and besides, he has seen hard times, and ought to be indulged” (Melville, 314). Everyone basically gave up on him and let him be, therefore his protest was more for him standing up for himself than for others. He is not the ideal leader and fails to assert what he wants, socially correctable to society. His actions sticked everyone as strange and unnecessary than liberating or inspiriting.
-Kelly Kay
I agree that there is certainly enough evidence to support the claim that Bartleby is a satanic hero, yet I would caution against stating that unequivocally. Little is known about Bartleby, perhaps intentionally. In assigning motive to the actions of a man we know so little about, often our own predilections and values are brought to the forefront. Although I would agree that if Bartleby’s intentions were to promote personal liberties and decisions, he failed in his efforts to communicate those goals to the people around him.
Kelly brings out some interesting points regarding how Bartleby is a satanic hero. He believes life is pointless and working as a copyist is no way of living for him. Bartleby’s reaction to the truth is shutting the world away and he’s misunderstood by the people around him. His behavior is perceived as socially unacceptable. However, I’m not quite sure if Bartleby is a hero at all. He knows that his life is this bland cycle, but he does nothing about it. Bartleby could have changed his life or pushed himself harder. Yet, he just stays in this same cycle.
I agree with Kelly because Bartleby did know about the truth, but just didn’t know how to convey it to the narrator. It is interested how Kelly pointed out that Bartleby was trying to avoid arguments with his peers because I didn’t really see that. But it does seem like Bartleby wasn’t trying to stir up anything; but in the end he got Turkey and Nippers really agitated. To the point where one of them wanted to punch him in the face.
I do agree that he in an satanic hero, since at one point in the story when he was looking out the window and decided to stop writing altogether. Which caused the narrator to ask why, Bartleby said ‘don’t you see why.’ So Bartleby had no intention to do anything that would have upset the others, but his actions were quit inappropriate to the point that it made everyone else annoyed.
~Myra K.
I agree that Bartleby can be considered a satanic hero. After all there are many parts in the story that can have Bartleby’s actions be considered socially unappropriated. Such as his refusal to do anything. In my option, I think Bartleby was becoming depressed in his past job at the post office as he was responsible for disposing of letters that would never make it to their intended destination, and upon looking for some sort of change of pace he decided to work for the narrator. However after realizing that there is no running away from this depressing repetitive lifestyle he decides to give up. His doing so however is misperceived by others, just as you said.