Bartelby

Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Bartleby is certainly a sick, insane man. That is a key point that I certainly picked up from reading this lengthy "short" story. Its amazing how relative adjectives can deceive someone. So bartleby obviously has something wrong with him, for he seems absolutely oblivious to natural social cues and completely devoid of any manner of emotion. He is an empty shell of a man. However, the one who is completely maddening, is not the worthless, waste of space, Bartleby, but instead the narrator of the story, who remains nameless. The narrator has everything in his power to deal with the oddity that is Bartleby, however he seems neglectful out of either his pity or maybe his confused wonder of Bartleby. Early on in the story, it is quite clear that Bartleby is completely noncompliant. After every single request he answers with a simple and clear, "I would prefer not" (Melville 662). One would think that after a couple of days of this nonsense, any employer with any brains about him would deal with the problem in a simple manner. However, the narrator feeds his interest in seemingly brazen Bartleby by keeping him employed, thats logical. At one point the man is stuck, unwilling to work his job, yet unwilling to leave the premise. Bartleby unwittingly tries to reason to the oblivious man, with the expected result of some random creep still staring blankly at a wall in his office. At this point, any man with any bit of reason would simply call the authorities and have this piece of furniture removed from the premise, however the narrator feels too bad. Well that's too bad, because you still have a vegetable living in your office space. I do not know exactly what is wrong with Bartleby, but I will say this about the narrator; his problem is that he is just too passive. That is why his life is awful.