An Evaluation of Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener

By Arielle Potter, 11/21/07

This short story is about an ordinary lawyer who employs two secretaries, or scriveners, both eccentric, but nothing compared to the newest scrivener, Bartleby. His oddities first manifest themselves by his unexplained refusal to perform certain tasks. He merely says that he “would prefer not to.” It is further discovered that Bartleby lives in the office—and refuses to leave it. After a time Bartleby quits work altogether and will only stand and stare at the window. All efforts at dismissing him are ineffectual. Finally his employer in desperation removes his firm to another office, leaving Bartleby behind. Bartleby continues to haunt the premises until forcibly removed and sent to prison. There he dies in a short time.
Melville’s portrayal of every character is believable: everyone acts in a natural way. Even their eccentricities seem natural—all except Bartleby’s. The reader can sympathise with the lawyer from whose point of view the story is told. We can feel frustration with Bartleby one minute and pity him the next. He is so stubborn and at the same time so melancholy. He acts as though his actions were perfectly normal and logical although we cannot understand them and he exerts a mental influence over everyone in the office. Melville also employs a light, comical tone although the story ends so tragically.
Bartleby’s behaviour seems unexplainable, until we learn that he was formerly a clerk in the dead letter office in Washington. To understand Bartleby’s problem then, we must put ourselves in his position. We can begin to understand Bartleby’s melancholy and see that we might act in the same way were we exposed to the same circumstances.
The story continually describes Bartleby as “cadaverous,” foretelling that by the end he would literally be a corpse. It also refers to blank walls and empty spaces, showing how empty life is for Bartleby. Bartleby seems to be almost a madman, until the end of the story where he shows that he is, indeed, human. The main problem of the story starts out “will the world cope with Bartleby?” but changes to “will Bartleby cope with the world?” The end of the story resolves this problem but not in a way that satisfies the reader. Bartleby’s real problem is that he has grown weary of an empty world and a hopeless existence. He is sent to jail too, not for doing something, but for not doing something, and as Bartleby does not see the fairness of this he blames the world at large.
The story closes, “Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!” revealing Melville’s purpose in writing the story. Melville sees the same emptiness that Bartleby does and bemoans mankind on its dismal fate. He fails to see that life is not just a passage to the grave; he is blind to the fact that "God governs the affairs of men" and that He has a purpose for each individual. Unfortunately, many people believe the same way as Bartleby.