Barleby the Scrivener

A detailed Summary of Barleby the Scrivener

In his work Bartleby, the Scrivener, Herman Melville employs several themes. The most apparent are the themes of alienation, man's desire to avoid conflict, man's desire to resist change, and of the narrator's response to Bartleby's actions and reactions.

The theme of alienation begins to show itself when the narrator describes the office arrangement that he made for Bartleby. Bartleby is placed in the corner of the office, his only view is of a wall outside of the window. "Still further to a satisfactory arrangement, I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Barleby from my sight, though not remove him from my voice." Not only is the narrator separating Bartleby from his own sight, he is also removing him from the other office workers, and from the other office workers. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This is proven when Turkey exclaims, " I think I'll just step behind his screen and black his eyes for him." The other scriveners also felt alienated by the actions of the narrator. His lack of resolve when dealing with Bartleby anger

In the end, the reader is left with the impression that all people, including lawyers, have compassion for other humans, and at some point, that compassion will show through.

ed them because they knew that if they would have taken the same actions, they would have been dismissed much more rapidly. The narrator admits to this when he said, " With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence."

Bartleby's actions and reactions affect the narrator, so much so that he appears to become a more caring, more sympathetic person than he was at the beginning of the story. "To befriend Bartleby, to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience." The narrator would not normally befriend Bartleby or anyone else of his type, but Bartleby has given him a conscience. In the beginning of the story, the narrator cared only for his work, but now he realizes that people have a life outside of work, exc

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Approximate Word count = 741
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Religion

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