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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Bartleby could appear to be crazy, but he is quite misunderstood. He is a true artist at heart and is not fulfilled because he is not able to reach his potential as such. He is stuck in an office...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Although Bartleby never explains why he has refused to do work, Melville gives us many clues. The best of these clues comes on the last page, when we learn that Bartleby had worked in the dead...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Well, to answer this question you would need to consider the ubiquitous references to walls in this text, that starts, of course, with the fact that this story is denoted as a tale of "Wall...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Bartleby is a very funny story, but as is the way with Melville, the humor is very dark. I think the humor comes from Bartleby's complete passivity and the lawyer's inabilty to have any impact on...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
This is a really long short story, and the setting is consistent throughout the work. It is a law office in New York, presumably Wall Street (as noted in the original subtitle). In this office are...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The narrator of this work is the unreliable lawyer. The lawyer admits in the work that he makes assumptions, so when we see other characters' actions, they are coming through his lense. This...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
One role that Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Nippers play in "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street" is to present a contrast to Bartleby's characteristics. First, they are industrious and willing...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
1. The other scriveners are introduced before Bartleby in order to present their individual characteristics before they are affected by Bartleby's presence. While they are not the perfect workers,...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
In Herman Melville's case, we know that he was interested in exploring the human impulse to make decisions, and the ratio of human action to cosmic or natural forces in the outcomes of earthly...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
One of the themes is the pressure in the business world to conform to the rules of conducting business. There is no individuality on Wall Street. The scriveners copy the work of others and add...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
In "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street," Melville chooses his order of character introduction, introducing the narrator's qualities, then the clerks' descriptions, and finally Bartleby,...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
In "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street," the lawyer's initial attitude toward Bartleby is one of optimism and good will. He recognizes a proficiency and skill in Bartleby's clerical...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The lawyer (who also serves as narrator) experiences many conflicting emotions towards Bartleby throughout the text. Initially, the lawyer views Bartleby as an efficient copier who happens to be a...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Sympathy with characters is one way of reacting to a work of fiction, but it is not either the only way of reacting nor are all stories designed to elicit such reactions. In this case, the...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
I am not a therapist, but by a process of elimination, my guess would be major depression. There is nothing to suggest that Bartleby is out of touch with reality. He is not hearing voices, for...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The protagonist of this story is the narrator, a Wall Street attorney whose name we never learn. The very obvious antagonist is Bartleby. Even though the gist of the story is how strange Bartleby...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Herman Melville's Bartleby in "Bartleby the Scrivener" is both a simple and a complex character. This is actually a good question, since almost the only thing we know about Bartleby is what he...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
When Bartleby begins his automatic response "I would prefer not to," the lawyer can not believe it. What makes the lawyer bewildered and unable to discipline or fire him is how calm and confidently...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The subtitle of this excellent story, to my mind, should draw our attention to the way in which walls are a prevalent symbol in the story. Consider how the setting of the narrator's offices are...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
A thesis statement for "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street" depends on the idea you have about the story, just like any other thesis statement (which is short for hypothesis statement:...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
It characterizes him first as an authority, by establishing how long he's been in the profession and how many scriveners he's seen. It establishes him second as a different kind of authority. That...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Melville is very concerned with capturing the "human condition" in "Bartleby the Scrivener." Consider the working conditions of all characters in the story. They're in a cramped space,...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The lawyer is an unreliable narrator. The reader is not getting an unbiased account of events, he is getting the lawyer's version, which includes evasions, personal prejudices, and biased reporting.
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The two terms you are using here are later developments in literature. Marxism is primarily a political term, which when applied to literature, has to have more than just a business connection –...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener is often used in literature classes as an illustration of the application of Derrida's theory of deconstruction to literary texts. This aspect of...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
The protagonist is the character who changes the status quo. For example, in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire it is obvious that Blanche Dubois is the protagonist, since she enters...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
With the apparent propensity of Herman Melville for writing narratives in which characters have doubles--in Moby Dick, Ahab has two alter egos: Pip as his imaginative side, and Fedulla as his...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
A literary climax is defined as that moment or event at which the final outcome of the story is determined. This may be the most emotional and exciting moment in the story but that is not a...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
This short story by Herman Melville is an excellent example of the author's style and his power in creating memorable images and scenes through his words. Although in this short story the first...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
In Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener," the narrator shows apathy toward Bartleby in a number of ways, although I find the narrator's most remarkable example of apathy to be his passive...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
According to the eNotes Study Guide: "Bartleby the Scrivener" was written by Herman Melville in 1853 and was first published in Putnam's Magazine in the November/December issue of that year....
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
In "Bartleby", Melville practically hits readers over the head with the references to "walls." The story takes place on Wall Street. The office is surrounded by walls on all...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
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...
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Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street
Though it may not seem like it at first glance, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is almost as much about work as is Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street."...
