Bartleby, the Scrivener

In the short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” Herman Melville creates a rather perplexing character. Melville uses a narrator, a lawyer, to describe Bartleby as an odd character. The interactions between the narrator and Bartleby reveal bits of human nature. Despite the title, this story is not about Bartley so much as it is about the narrator and the way he interacts with others.

From the beginning of the story, Melville portrays the narrator as a passive aggressive character. The narrator’s passive aggressive nature is evident in his interactions with another scrivener, Turkey. Instead of being assertive and informing Turkey that his “morning services” (545) well all that the narrator required, the narrator “[hints] to him” that perhaps he should “not [return] to [the] chambers after twelve o’clock” (545). The narrator states later in the story that it is Bartleby’s abnormal behavior that causes his (the narrator’s) passive aggressive behavior. If this were so the narrator would not have interacted with Turkey in this manner.

Through the narrator’s passive aggressive behavior we are able to glimpse at human nature. The narrator is astonished with Bartleby’s refusal to do work.

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 889
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)