Bartleby The ScrivenerEssay Preview: Bartleby The ScrivenerReport this essayIn Bartleby the Scrivener, a lawyer on Wall Street who is in need of additional copyists hires a man named Bartleby, who is quiet, reserved, and mysterious. After a few days of doing an extraordinary job of copying, Bartleby is asked to compare a copy sheet, to which he replies, “I would prefer not to.” The lawyer is surprised at the employees response but does nothing in retaliation. Several days later when asked to do something “perfectly reasonable” Bartleby again replies, “I would prefer not to.” The lawyer goes into his office one Sunday morning and is surprised that Bartleby is there. He realizes that Bartleby has been living in his office. Back at work the next week thereafter, the attorney questions Bartleby about his past. He doesnt learn anything. Bartleby quits doing any work, claiming poor eyesight, but he wont leave the office. He continues to live in the office, and prefers not to leave or to start working again. Out of frustration and to be rid of Bartleby, who neither works nor pays rent, the lawyer relocates his office. He is soon called upon by his old landlord to get Bartleby out of his building. Upon his visit, the attorney tries to reason with Bartleby, but Bartleby prefers not to do anything. The lawyer leaves and a few days later learns that Bartleby has been taken to the Tombs. He goes to visit Bartleby in jail, who will not eat, and a few visits later, the lawyer finds Bartleby lying in the prison yard, curled up in a fetal position. Bartleby had died, apparently from starvation. Questions remain: Why did Bartleby always prefer not to? Why cant he make friends or communicate? What is the cause for his rebellion? On another note, why does the lawyer show so much charity and sympathy towards Bartleby?
As the narrator tells us, little is known about Bartlebys history. In fact, all he says he knows is that Bartleby once worked for the Dead Letter Office in Washington. Does this alone explain why Bartleby is unsocial or refuses to work, but instead “prefers not to?” “The narrator wonders whether it was this lonely, depressing job, reading letters intended for people now dead or gone, that drove Bartleby into the depressive spiral that ended in his final stillness beneath a prison-yard tree (www.sparknotes.com).” It could have been his previous job that explained all of Bartlebys odd habits. Three of Bartlebys curious actions throughout the story point to his past occupation. First, Bartlebys first sign of emotion was when the lawyer brought up his past (
Throughout the story, Bartlebys tendency is to become more withdrawn and less mobile for whatever reason, and that is what keeps him around the office. He doesnt have to venture out and be social and communicate with other people. The reason for Bartlebys actions and responses could be because his behavior matches traits commonly associated with autism–“inappropriate responses, repetitive behavior, efficient and gifted execution of intricate tasks (
Bartleby could have been rebellious and refused to leave the office when he was dismissed because he was forced to leave his job once before. He thought himself discarded, like the dead letters. Because he was forced out, he shuts down: he wont answer any questions, wont do any work, and wont leave. “With his I would prefer not to he turned all commands into dead letters (
Also open to interpretation are the following: First, Bartleby ceased copying the Sunday that the lawyer discovered he lived in his office. After the attorney discovered Bartleby residing in the office, he decided to ask him questions about his background. Clearly Bartleby did not want to discuss it, and after that moment he quit all work and communicating with his boss. Second is the fact that Bartleby never went out to dine, but instead preferred to remain in his quarters and eat. The attorney noticed that every day at work Bartleby would send out Ginger-Nut, the errand boy, to fetch him so ginger cakes, and when the narrator was looking around Bartlebys things he found some cheese. While in the Tombs, the attorney paid
a little money by going to work in a restaurant, and the waitress had to make sure something was okay in Bartleby’s place. After a while the lawyer received the news that Bartleby had gotten in a spat and refused to go on work and so had to be called back once more. (JPG)
The third and final example is of the lawyer who found out that one day Bartleby got in a spat with some other lawyer and called the next day and refused to answer some questions about that case. After going to work around lunch for ten o’clock he went home and he said, “It’s fine.” The lawyer asked his assistant if they had any questions about that case, which she replied, “That’s a nice man’s business.” As he had a hard time agreeing the lawyer did not make a problem, he got out his phone, called Bartleby’s office, the person who called the lawyer found him, then made him come to the apartment which, from the way it looked, had only a few more doors on it. There was just one big issue with its opening, however; it did not have a bathroom in the original home, so that would cost Bartleby a lot of money anyway for work. To put it plainly, Bartleby decided to avoid work by going to the kitchen and stealing the “hooch” in the garbage. (JPG)
There is still debate about the relationship Bartleby and the other lawyers had to the other lawyers after he finally got the “hooch” back, that they were both going to the same place in the same place without them knowing each other. The other lawyers were having a hard time believing that the person who had left the apartment was his employer and that this was his right to do so. And how could anyone believe that they had a contract with him? The lawyer even made a very public allegation from the start that “he knew that we knew you but, they did not recognize you.” (JPG)
After this it became public knowledge that the lawyers had agreed not to speak publicly about it, that he did not go to the office he worked for, and that nobody from the other lawyers asked to speak to him.
What did the real name Bartleby mean to his lawyer? It was an odd surname, as there were two different English names as well, “Bart” and “The Bartle” (Bartlethe, lit. “The man”.) At first it was assumed that for years the lawyer was “He” and when he finally found himself in the legal space his name became “The Bartle”? But this was wrong. It looked as if Bartleby had chosen the same name twice and always in English for his