Bartleby: The Narrator's Unborn Child

A detailed Summary of Bartleby: The Narrator's Unborn Child

BARTLEBY: THE NARRATOR'S UNBORN CHILD

In Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street," a scrivener named Bartleby disrupts the narrator's tranquil lifestyle by means of mere passiveness. Bartleby leads a morbid existence and everything that he says or does is characteristically mild. Although Bartleby has the raw characteristics of a human being, his personality, actions and conversations suggest that he never truly lives. Examining Bartleby's unborn nature more closely, the reader can infer the narrator's feelings towards Bartleby and understand more cohesively the truth behind his existence.

Bartleby can barely be considered a living human being. Bartleby does indeed hold a job, wear clothes and have the other basic requirements to be considered an acceptable modern human being. Bartleby also has the basic items to live on stored under his desk, "I found a blanket; under the empty grate, a blacking box and brush; on a chair, a tin basin, with soap and a ragged towel; in a newspaper a few crumbs of ginger-nuts and a morsel of cheese" (12) . However, these raw characteristics do not mean that Bartleby lives in the true sense of the word. In fact, the story suggests that Bartleby does not truly live and

Examining the same symbolic relationship between the narrator and Bartleby, the reader can infer the nature of Bartleby's death at the end of the story. The prison where Bartleby dies is called the "Tombs" (26). This symbolizes that the narrator's abandonment of Bartleby is the direct cause of Bartleby's death. Additionally, Bartleby dies "huddled at the base of the wall - his knees drawn up, and lying on his side, his head touching the cold stones," (28). This description of the fetal position symbolizes that Bartleby was a stillborn, dead inside his mother's womb. Furthermore, since the narrator abandoned Bartleby, his death can be interpreted as an abortion.

Furthermore, throughout the story there is no representation of love, or any trace of women at all. This fact implies not only that Bartleby's life is devoid of love, but also that the narrator's life is devoid of female contact. Similarly, Bartleby shows neither melancholy nor joy throughout the story. Even after the narrator explodes in fury at him by saying, "What! suppose your eyes should get entirely well - better than ever before - would you not copy then?" (18) Bartleby merely says, "I have given up copying" (18), and slides his chair aside.

As Bartleby's symbolic mother, the narrator feels a special connection to him. This connection can be explained by a mother's feeling that her child is an extension of her, thus explaining to the reader that the status-driven narrator feels that he is very much like Bartleby. The degree of closeness the narrator experiences is evident when the narrator flew "into a passion" (25) when he was about to lose Bartleby for good.

In the end, the narrator tells the story as if Bartleby was merely an odd scrivener, "[he] was a scrivener the strangest I ever saw or heard of" (1). By describing Bartleby as odd, the narrator seeks to lessen the severity of his death and thus, of his guilt. Guilt explains why the narrator tells the reader the story. The narrator is telling the story so as to justify his actions to the reader, and therefore to himself.

In conclusion, Bartleby the scrivener, although externally a human being, never experiences life as living human beings do. Bartleby's deathlike lifestyle coupled with Melville's wall imagery implies to the reader that Bartleby is symboli

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Approximate Word count = 1551
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English