Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Reading Journal

The story is narrated by an elderly lawyer whose name, as well as the exact location of his
office (Master in Chancery; “up stairs at No. – Wall-street.”) remain undisclosed. The
narrator begins the account by describing the respective characters of himself and his
scriveners (law-copyists), Turkey and Nippers, as well as that of his office boy, Ginger Nut.
He doesn’t tell their real names but the nicknames reveal some hints on their personality.
Turkey is a fifty-something year old Englishman who does a good job as a scrivener in the
morning but as the day goes on, he becomes more and more short-tempered and less reliable
as far as the quality of his work is concerned (“All his blots upon my documents, were
dropped there after twelve o’clock, meridian. Indeed, not only would he be reckless and sadly
given to making blots in the afternoon, but some days he went further, and was rather
noisy.”). Turkey’s nickname refers to the complexion of his face after 12 o’clock (“it blazed
like a grate full of Christmas coals”). Nippers is a younger man, at about twenty-five, whose
indigestion makes him less useful in the morning. Ginger Nut, the office-boy, is a “quick-
witted” lad of twelve who, among doing his usual office duties, regularly fetches apples and
ginger cakes for the others in the office.
When the Master in Chancery office is conferred upon him, the workload increases and
the narrator requires an additional scrivener. After a brief interview, Bartleby (we know his
name from the time he appears, while the names of his fellow scriveners, the office boy and
the narrator remain unknown) is employed. The narrator decides to keep him on his side of
the office (“ground glass folding-doors divided my premises into two parts, one of which was
occupied by my scriveners, the other by myself”) behind a green folding screen. Initially,
Bartleby proves himself as an excellent workforce… but after a few days he is politely
refusing to do anything requested of him. E.g. when one day the narrator asks him to take part
in reviewing copies of a certain document, Bartleby refuses to obey saying “I would prefer
not to” – the words that soon become his “trademark” refusal. (On a side note: if an employee
would do such a thing nowadays, he or she would either be immediately fired or forced to
obey by his/her bosses by some threat like “there are dozens of unemployed people waiting
for your job so do what you are ordered to or you’ll be fired!”)
Bartleby continues to do an excellent job in copying documents but keeps on politely
refusing any other request of the narrator. But instead of firing him, the narrator begins to
wonder and speculate what could be the reason behind Bartleby’s behavior. Eventually,
Bartleby ceases to do any work at all (“I … perceived that his eyes looked dull and glazed.
Instantly it occurred to me, that his unexampled diligence in copying by his dim window for
the first few weeks of his stay with me might have temporarily impaired his vision.”)
The narrator waits for a time, but not only there is no sign of improvement in Bartleby’s
health, the scrivener remains in the office like an “immovable object”, without doing anything
except for standing at the window. Finally, the narrator decides to fire Bartleby. He pays not
only the rest of the scrivener’s salary but an additional sum of some twelve dollars, too. But
Bartleby remains in the office…
Finally, the narrator is driven to leave the office himself (“Since he will not quit me, I
must quit him. I will change my offices; I will move elsewhere; and give him fair notice, that
if I find him on my new premises I will then proceed against him as a common trespasser.”).

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So he removes his office to a location closer to the City Hall. Bartleby, however, remains in
the old office and eventually the new tenants come to complain about his presence. In the end,
Bartleby is forcibly removed and brought to the Tombs (a prison), where the narrator visits
him. The story ends with Bartleby’s death (he refused to eat and died of starvation) and some
additional information the narrator reveals about his former scrivener (he “had been a
subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington, from which he had been suddenly
removed by a change in the administration”). The story closes with the narrator’s pained
sigh: “Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!”