Similarities Between Bartleby And Willy Loman

I would like to start by making a character analysis. First, both characters Bartleby and Willy Loman have serious social and psychological issues that are evident. The employers of both these men attempt to assist them. Neither one is able to continue in their daily work tasks for one reason or another. Both have opportunities but choose not take them. Although Willy Loman is a deeply flawed character, there is something compelling about his nostalgia. Modernity accounts for the obsolescence of Willy Loman's career --traveling salesman are rapidly becoming out-of-date. Significantly, Willy reaches for modern objects, the car and the gas heater, to assist him in his suicide attempts. Society also plays a part in Will Loman’s down fall.
Society stripped him of his dignity, piece by piece. Society stripped him of his lifestyle, and his own sons who stripped him of hope. The most obvious flaw in society is greed, the desire to get ahead of the next person. It is the philosophy of business and comprises the dreams of man. Sometimes, this can drive man to great things, sometimes it can drive a man to ruin. Willy was driven to ruin.
He was unable to cope with the reality of life the encroaching apartment buildings, the new way of doing business were too much for him. A similar situation occurs in "Bartleby the Scrivener" which is one of the first great stories of corporate discontent. The description of the office is incredibly bleak, and the landscape of Wall Street is completely unnatural. The work environment is sterile and cheerless. Yet most adapt to it, with varying degrees of success. Though the narrator is a successful man, he is a victim, in some ways, of progress. He has lost the post he occupied during the central events of the story. His position was considered redundant and eliminated. We learn later that Bartleby may have lost a job due to similar bureaucratic change. The modern economy includes constant and unfeeling change, which comes at a cost. The plot involves one man's difficulty in coping with his employee's peculiar form of passive resistance. One day, Bartleby the scrivener announces that he "would prefer not to" follow his employer's orders or even to be "a little reasonable." The resulting tragedy follows from Bartleby's inability or unwillingness to articulate the reasons for his rebellion and from his employer's inability to comprehend Bartleby's reasons for resisting and ultimate unwillingness to accommodate him. Critics have interpreted Bartleby the Scrivener in numerous ways.
Most have viewed it as a work of social criticism dealing with the psychological effects of capitalism as it existed in the 1850s. Others have viewed it as a philosophical meditation on the human condition, or as a religious parable on religion itself. The narrator attempts to learn about Bartleby and help him. No matter what the narrator does, even going beyond what most employers would do for an employee meet with failure. A similar situation exists in “Death of a Salesman” with Willy Loman being offered a steady job within Charley’s (neighbor and only friend) business. Charley has been loaning Willy Loman money since he started working on commission so that Willy’s wife would thing that nothing is wrong. Charley continues the offer of employment but the answer is always no because Willy is forever on the brink of moving up at his current company. Bartleby continues to deteriorate ultimately ending up in a prison, where the narrator goes to visit him in the hopes of helping him. The narrator pays a cook to ensure that Bartleby has sufficient food and is cared. This is more than any employer would do let alone an
ex-employer. In Willy Lomans situation, he stayed on with the company after the owner’s son took over. Willy stays on, working for commission only. In this case, the owner felt a certain amount of responsibility to Willy, even if Willy was no longer able to meet the company’s needs. The owner shows a limited amount of responsibility and compassion towards Willy Loman, but ultimately Willy must leave the company. The final blow is in the confrontation Willy has with his boss, unable to tolerate the outbursts; Willy is fired and asked to leave. Responsibility and Compassion: How responsible is the narrator for Bartleby's salvation? The narrator feels he failed the scrivener, who clearly needs help; in fact, the narrator seems to go to greater lengths than most people would in his efforts to help Bartleby. However, it seems far short of what is necessary, and indisputably, the narrator stops short of his limits. Should there be limits to our will to help a man, if his life is at stake? Is writing off a suffering man by saying he has responsibility for himself only a way to excuse our own lack of compassion? It is my believe that the narrator went above and beyond what most human beings would do for another, especially in an employer – worker relation. Willy Loman like Bartleby “would prefer not to” find or accept other employment options. Unlike Bartleby, Willy did not have an employer that went beyond the employer-employee relationship. Willy’s inability to accept what life has given him also let to his downfall. Society also played a part in Willy’s descent, without the proper safety net such as retirement and health care, Willy might have been able to get the help he needed to avoid his tragic end. However, one interprets its ultimate meaning; both stories provide an exploration into such universal issues of the human experience as alienation, passivity, nonconformity, and psychological imprisonment.