Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street

The last words of “Bartleby the Scrivener” can be seen as a lament for the sheer absurdity of Bartleby's existence. They come after the lawyer narrator, Bartleby's former employer, has heard a...

Bartleby is neither lazy nor crazy. We are led to believe (though the lawyer stresses that he doesn't know with certainty) that Bartleby suffers from despair. He starts off in his job as a hard...

Near the end of Bartleby, the Scrivener, Bartleby dies in the Tombs prison, where has been sent because of his homelessness. Bartleby dies of starvation in prison because he prefers not to eat...

First of all, Bartleby does not exactly "refuse" his work; instead, he repeatedly insists that he "prefers" not to do it. At first Bartleby "gorges himself" on his work and labors "silent, palely,...

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street" is a darkly comic short story that satirizes the nature of work and its role in ascribing meaning to our lives. The comedy in the story also raises...

Walls repeatedly symbolize Bartleby's walled-in existence, representing his lack of anything in life to look forward to. Not only do they reflect his despairing mental state, they reinforce it. In...

The subtitle, “A Story of Wall Street,” appears to refer to the famous street in Manhattan, and would seem to support a particular reading of the story, in which Bartleby can be seen as an...

Wall Street is of course the heart of New York's financial district, the epicenter of the global capitalist economy. Even in Herman Melville's day it was a thriving hub of commerce. In the midst of...

These individuals, who range in age from 12 to almost 60, are Bartleby's coworkers. The lawyer who hires Bartleby at first hopes this new employee, because of his "singularly sedate" personality,...

Turkey, Nipper, and Ginger Nut are introduced first to prepare us for why the lawyer is initially so delighted with Bartleby. We learn from the first three employees that it is apparently hard to...

At the beginning of the story, the lawyer describes himself as an older man and a person who has sought an easy path through life, although also one that makes him a good deal of money. He uses as...

One of the themes of this story revolves around urban society in that late 19th century. It was important then, as it often is now, to conform to a certain role in order to be recognized. Once...

The first paragraph of the story has a lot of information in it, but most of the information has to do with things we infer about the narrator from the way he writes, rather than what he actually...

It's Bartelby's story. He is the main character, and what happens in the story is all about him and what he does or doesn't do. This most singular of characters is unusual in that he's both the...

Without wishing to sound in any way evasive, I sympathize with both characters. I sympathize with Bartelby, because it's clear that there's something wrong with him; I also sympathize with his...

Early in the story the tone is "normal" and reflects the work setting. The scene is set in a typical office with typical workers, albeit each with idiosyncrasies. In short, it is a normal office...

Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced before Bartleby to show how tolerant the narrator generally is of eccentric and somewhat unproductive employees. For example, Nippers is irritable in...

The lawyer who narrates the story is initially glad to have Bartleby as an employee because he does good work and does it for long hours, but the lawyer wishes Bartleby had a less gloomy demeanor....

Bartleby’s response does upset his lawyer employer, although his fellow employees, Nipper, Turkey, and Gingernut, are hardly without their eccentricities as well. It always struck me as odd that...

Melville's title itself, "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street" indicates the significance of the setting as well as characterizing it. For, the lawyers chambers look upon a white wall...

We never find out definitively why Bartleby shuts down and decides he "prefers not to" do any work whatsoever. However, the sympathetic and kind-hearted lawyer employer who takes an interest in him...

One of the themes of the story is the way that society often finds it hard to deal with those who are different. And Bartleby certainly couldn't be more different if he tried. The whole culture of...

In Chapter 21 ("XXI,") as the men make their way to the cell known as "One Hundred and Five, North Tower," the mood is tense and spooky. They enter the room, and here's the narrator's direct...

Bartleby has a strange effect on the narrator, a lawyer who employs Bartleby as his scrivener (a person who copies documents). The lawyer increasingly falls under Bartleby's spell as he comes to...

The lawyer who hires Bartleby as a clerk is at first pleased with his diligence and good work habits. He later becomes becomes frustrated and perplexed as Bartleby begins picking and choosing what...

The lawyer narrator describes himself as a pillar of salt long before he refers to Bartleby either as a "fixture" or as a "column" in a "ruined temple." The pillar of salt comment comes as Bartleby...

The story's narrator puts up with his negative opinions about Bartleby for some time. Finally, however, when the fired Bartleby refuses to leave and remains a statue-like fixture in the office, the...

It may well be that the narrator of this tale, a rather successful Wall Street business man, had hired Bartleby at the very end of Bartleby's ability to cope. Indeed, Bartleby did, at first, work...

From the start of Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street," the scrivener is presented as a man of extreme "motionless;" he is pallid (or pale), pitiable and forlorn. Pallid is...

To start a good thesis, I'd suggest honing in on which parts of the story really speak to you. What message do you think the author is trying to deliver, and how can you present that as an...

It can be argued that Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut are introduced to readers before Bartleby for two key reasons. First, the author wants to demonstrate why the narrator is initially drawn to...

Yours is an intriguing question. However, I don't see how anyone can hope to make an accurate diagnosis of a fictional character. Bartleby is just a creation of Herman Melville. If Bartleby seems...

Pertaining to the three employees of the narrator of Bartleby, the Scrivener, their nicknames are Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut. Turkey and Nippers are copyists. Turkey is approaching 60 years old...

It is interesting to note that the narrator remains unnamed, even though the other characters have either names or nicknames. This makes the narrator a bit of an everyman, and allows the readers...

Yes, it is interesting to note the way in which the enigmatic character of Bartleby is presented as always being hemmed in in some way. Consider how the office of the narrator only overlooks walls...

In many ways, Melville’s story "Bartleby the Scrivener" can be read as an allegory for the human condition. Man is fated to die, as are other animals. However, unlike other animals, man is aware of...

“Slippage” refers to the idea that meaning is not neatly contained by words but is always in a state of flux, subject to the arbitrary relationship between (for example) the word “tree” and what we...

One could certainly argue that the titular character in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street” is representative of the alienation of modern life. Bartleby works himself...

The words "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" equate Bartleby's situation with humanity's: we all are subjected to the kind of grief, loss, and isolation Bartley experiences because our attempts to...

In "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall street," by Herman Melville, there are several passages in which the narrator would seem the main character with his internal struggle of how to best deal...

Melville chooses the lawyer who hired Bartleby to narrate Bartleby's story. The lawyer writes in the first person. I believe Melville made this decision because he wanted to convey an outsider's...

I believe the narrator, the lawyer who tells the story of Bartleby's strange "I would prefer not to" attitude to working wants his readers to experience the same confusion and disorientation about...

If we consider the narrator's sorrowful last speech in Bartleby the Scrivener--"Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"--then we are drawn to at least one conclusion about the story's purpose: that is, to...

We are mediated and instructed by the lawyer’s narration. So he is an unreliable narrator. But he is our eyes and ears of the world of the story. In that respect, he is the main character because...

In Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street, some experts look at our title character "in symbolic terms." I do not agree. One theme in the story is individualism. He is...

The lawyer, who has just taken on new work, is looking for a copyist or scrivener, not another lawyer. Since there were no copy machines in those days, lawyers had to have all legal documents...

The narrator is a kind-hearted man, but he cannot get Bartleby to budge from his offices or do any work. He first tries to coax him to leave. He also tries to bribe him with money, but Bartleby...

Using the lawyer to tell the story makes it more difficult so that the story can be interpreted in a number of ways. The lawyer admits he is a man of "assumptions" and that he's...

The true antagonist in this story, according to the lawyer who narrates it, is not Bartleby, but the hopelessness that arises from failed communication. At the end of the saga, the lawyer reveals a...

This quotation comes at the end of an addendum the lawyer supposedly added to the story. In it, he tells of a rumor that Bartelby had been fired from a job at the dead letter department in the Post...