Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall Street

Bartleby The Scrivener Research Paper The short story Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall Street is about a lawyer, the Narrator, who runs a law practice on Wall Street in New York. It starts out by describing Bartleby, a scrivener who lives alone in his workspace. Next the Narrator describes his office with views of brick walls. Then he introduces three other unique employees, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut. Throughout the story, Melville relates motifs of walls, food, and death to the theme of isolation. For example, the name of the story includes the name Wall Street, which is further established by the description of the walls that surround the Narrator's office. The walls around him are what he focuses on most of the time, which the Narrator describes as “a dead-wall reverie” (Melville). “Only Bartleby faces the stark problem of perception presented by the walls” (Marx). This relates to the theme by showing the feeling of being isolated in a capitalist based economy and receiving very little benefits for hard work. It is as if Bartleby is trapped in this room and the only people he ever sees are his co-workers. He is imprisoned by a financial and economic system that forces people to act a certain way in order to fit in. This is why Bartleby is typically described as cadaverous
His corpse-like disposition is reflected not only in his pallid appearance, but in his strangely calm manner. “Bartleby’s strange inertness quickly transforms into an eerie question of life and death” (Reed). After his death, there is a reference to the Grim Reaper as the Narrator comments on Bartleby's previous employment in the Dead Letter Office. There is also the idea of undeliverable letters that "speed to death," even when they go "on errands of life” (Melville). While symbolically, Bartleby’s death was caused by his withdrawal into apathy, it is physically caused by his refusal to