 Bartleby (1853) – Melville

 The passage from writer to scrivener, Melville self-analyzes in the short story.
 The title carries most interpretations of the text: the culture (Wall-Street), Bartleby
(the abstraction of the character and the man as a nihilistic being) and scrivener (the
role of the writer in this time).
 First published in 1853 as a serial in a magazine “Putnam’s Monthly”, reflecting
Melville’s personal reflections as a citizen of a country in complete disarray. It is
republished with a few changes in 1856, the beginning of the civil war, which is the
greatest division of the country. Melville observes this ruptured society as a writing
citizen.
 The tale itself begins in Wall Street, a symbolic place for the rich and powerful, one
which lacked in humanity. A street made of walls transfers itself to this story which
speaks to the division of the people. It ends still in New York, but at the tombs. A still
existing jail which is situated underneath the Halls of Justice. This promulgates a very
closed environment for narration and for the evolution of the main characters, a
short distance in which to ground the story. Its self-enclosed image represents the
logic of the writer, the self-analyzing and ad nauseam train of thought that pervades
the literary process. Suicide looms over Melville’s work, as his father committed
suicide at a young age due to a depression caused by the economic depression of
1836. Bartleby is nothing if not a Melvillean reflection on the meaning of life itself.
 The narrator, an elderly lawyer (supposed to be a representative of law and justice,
dear subjects of Melville’s ponderings), and Bartleby are both parts of Melville
himself, they represent the facets of his own existence. Bartleby is his pure and utter
honesty, but the lawyer represents the sinful disposition that he found within
himself.
 Is this narrator who pretends to be conscious of the situation someone who really
understands Bartleby’s message? Does he have enough insight and distance to
comprehend Bartleby’s sacrifice and what it means to humanity?
 Bartleby is a revolutionary gear in a supposedly perfect system, destroying the good
running of an enterprise that depends upon utter obedience to a working system (in
a rather large conjunction of systems) that negates the human aspect by negating his
tasks in favor of his own preference. Can the lawyer, then, understand Bartleby’s
criticism of this overbearing system as an act of humanity?
 Capitalism dehumanizes its workers; the clerks react in inhumane ways to mere
biological needs, and yet they continue working, as it is the hand that was dealt to
them in life.
 Bartleby is never physically defined, as opposed to all other workers. He is isolated in
his indescription, an outsider to all systems. He is the only one able to make a choice,
because he doesn’t depend on others.
 Melville works within a verisimilar encadrement, the world he puts in place is a
parallel to his own, the setting is familiar to him. Within this banal and real
background, he inserts Bartleby as a surreal element that will deconstruct the world
he sets in place.
 In reading Melville, one must decipher the underlying themes: on the surface, one
finds the cultural elements, a criticism of modern America. Below it:
The narrator’s true self and his perversion (in both senses) represent the
corrupt and corruptible nature of morality and law (supposedly bastions of this
 nation’s identity). A deconstruction of a father figure. His words do not match his
actions, he represents the hypocrisy of moralists whose only cares of his own
interests. The paradox of his actions and words reveal the haunting presence of
Bartleby which pushes him to write Bartleby’s biography. Duplicity. He purports to
write a biography of Bartleby, but actually sets to present a defense of himself, a
confessional writing to search for atonement.
Bartleby is profited upon by the lawyer, arriving as an exemplary employee.
His first refusal towards a mindless task might lead the reader to think of a blindness
that has overtaken him, but is soon accompanied by the repetitive negation that
comes to characterize his relationship with his job and the metaphysical aspect of it.
He gives no explanation beyond his intention “I would prefer not to”.
 Social-cultural: the blatant corruption of the American judiciary system at the time
pushed Washington to lead a complete reform at the worst possible political time.
Slavery as a separation of the world in between masters and slaves, a condemnation
of America as a dichotomy of good and bad, masters and servants, employers and
employees.