Home > Gothic Literature > Melville, Herman (1819 - 1891) - "Bartleby The Scrivener"

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"Bartleby the Scrivener"

STEVEN T. RYAN (ESSAY DATE 1978)

SOURCE: Ryan, Steven T. "The Gothic Formula of 'Bartleby.'" Arizona Quarterly 34 (1978): 311-16.

In the following essay, Ryan reveals how, in "Bartleby the Scrivener," Melville infuses the traditional Gothic formula with realism while still retaining "the character conflict, atmosphere, plot progression, and even the language of the Gothic thriller."

The most striking aspect of Melville's "Bartleby" is the story's amazingly contemporary quality. The story of the scrivener in form and philosophy appears as an eerie foreshadowing of our modern fabulations which balance between a surface reality and an epistemological terror. An ironic explanation for "Bartleby"'s modern flavor is that beneath Melville's original story form are the underpinnings of an old Gothic formula which also underlies the stories of many contemporary...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Herman Melville (Story Date 1856)
4. General Commentary
   1. Newton Arvin (Essay Date March 1949)
5. Title Commentary
   1. "Benito Cereno"
   2. "Bartleby the Scrivener"
   3. Moby-Dick
6. Further Reading

1. Herman Melville