Who Is Bartleby The Scrivener

Often in literature, a reader will find a character that is alienated from his or her peers, or even from society. Many a time, these characters fail to evoke emotion in the reader; the reader fails to sympathize with the character due to his ostracization. Yet, sometimes an author creates a character of this kind in such a way that he is relatable. One such character is the titular character of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” as he is originally described as a hard worker, is polite with and thus entertained by the narrator, his boss, and eventually enough of his history is revealed that the reader gets context as to his isolation. The story Bartleby is a part of takes place on Wall Street, where he works as a scrivener, copying and checking legal documents by hand, a very tedious job. Among the first descriptions of Bartleby, the reader learns that, despite the aforementioned tediosity, he “did an extraordinary quantity of writing” (155). This provides the reader with an excellent first impression of Bartleby, namely that he has a strong work ethic: something that most people strive for, if not simply envying it in others. Thus,
the reader begins to sympathize with Bartleby as one like ourselves: one of equal diligence, if not better. Because of this, the reader, much like the author, is able to sympathize with Bartleby when he begins to “‘prefer not to’” (155).
The first time he says this, despite the opinions of his coworkers, his boss allows him to simply copy and not take part in the checking process. This seems perfectly reasonable to the reader as well (he does an exceptional job copying anyway), so through the beginning of his decline, the reader remains sympathetic, and is hooked for the rest of the story (155-158). As his decline is gradual, the reader generally pities Bartleby, especially when it is discovered that he lives in the office, until he finally stops working altogether (160-161, 164). At this point, there is still pity due to the emotional connection, but there is also growing contempt as Bartleby seemingly becomes a leech to
society. Eventually, when he is arrested and finally dies in prison, the reader feels a renewed pity for Bartleby, as his mental state is clearly unstable (172-174). This, of course follows the emotions of the narrator, who after Bartleby’s death gives more context to Bartleby’s life, apparently all he had himself: before working for the narrator, Bartleby worked at the post office working with dead mail (174). Such a meaningless and tedious job (much more so than that of a scrivener) would clearly deteriorate anyone’s mental state, and the reader is back to fully pitying the poor scribe, as none of this was actually his fault. As a dynamic character, Bartleby changes throughout the story, mainly caring less as time goes on. As such, the reader’s reaction to him changes: from an initial praise, through confusion, and pity to contempt, and eventually back to pity. Despite being alienated from society by his work and his lack of emotion, Bartleby is able to evoke strong emotions in the reader through his vivid introduction and development, thus putting him in a class above the rest of literature’s emotionless, alienated characters: a class of emotion.