Narrator in Poe’s stories present themselves in a state of heightened sensibility

high strung drawn to take extreme measures

The narrator in Bartleby pronounces himself as safe, smug , he just wants to
make money without having to exert himself much

One of the main differences is that they belong to different genres:

Poe: gothic romanticism

Bartleby : realism ( dominant literary genre from mid to late 19th century .
Stories about ordinary ½ class people , plausible psychologies and motivations ,
contemporary settings, no ghosts, supernatural events , etc

Herman Melville : ( 1819 -1891 ) New York .

Born in New York City as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods, Melville's
formal education ended abruptly after his father died in 1832, leaving the family in
financial straits. Melville briefly became a schoolteacher before he took to sea in 1839 as
a common sailor on a merchant ship. In 1840 he signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for
his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. After further
adventures, he returned to Boston in 1844. His first book, Typee (1846), a highly
romanticized account of his life among Polynesians, became such a best-seller that he
worked up a sequel, Omoo (1847).

Weinstain ‘s lecture

Moby Dick one of the most if not the most important Am Novels ( Huck , Leaves
of Grass, … ) A book everybody knows about people genuflects before it but not
many people read it : very long, a little exotic , a book about whaling . a book
more praised than read.

Melville did not start with MD he started with Typee , a novel that made him
famous overnight .
There is a Melville curve. His career began with largely autobiographical, well-
received adventure stories about his experiences as a sailor in the South Seas,
but each successive narrative was more ambitious, more philosophical. Then
came the encounter with Hawthorne, both the man and the work, and a new
sense of spiritual quest and moral complexity came to Melville, leaving its impact
on the whaling book. Ishmael, Melville’s jaunty, spicy narrator, ushers us into the
strange world of a whaling boat,

Melville’s career begins with easy, early recognition and evolves into tragic
anonymity. Melville’s books of the 1840s were all based, in varying degrees, on
his extensive sailing experiences.
Typee was Melville’s first book, and it was a popular success, creating, for better
or for worse, an image of Melville in the mind of the public.
Melville’s account of life in the South Seas, among exotic natives, is a Rousseauist
tract about the virtues of nature versus the artifice of civilization.

1
From Typee, Melville was to become known, in his own words, as “the man who
lived among cannibals”; given the philosophical agendas of his later work, this
reputation pained Melville enormously.

After Typee, Melville published a series of increasingly ambitious sea stories,

from Mardi to White Jacket.
Moby-Dick, published in 1851, is recognizably in the same vein, and yet
prodigiously “other,” defying any comfortable label. In it we see an author step
right off the literary map and create something so new that it has no followers.
The original design of Moby-Dick made sense within the romantic tradition.
Melville wanted to write a romantic text on the whale fishery, giving much exotic
information, derived from encyclopedias and world literature.

B Melville’s encounter with Hawthorne, in print (1850) and in person (1851),

was a crucible experience, out of which a new writer and thinker emerged.
1. The power of blackness is the Hawthorne trait that Melville cites in his
article, “Hawthorne and His Mosses,” and it points to a darkening, more
speculative vision in Melville himself, as if he were discovering that fiction can be
layered and can point to the abyss beneath the picturesque surface.
2. The meeting with Hawthorne provokes in Melville a metaphysical plunge,
an unleashing of language and vision that helps him use the material world as a
springboard.
3. Melville’s passionate letters to the coolish Hawthorne imply a closeness
that is more than literary, as if Melville at last found a soul brother—someone
who could fully understand him. From all records, Hawthorne could not and did
not reciprocate this relationship entirely. Their association reflects the
homoerotic, fraternal themes that are common in Melville’s work.
C. The emergence of Ahab as titanic figure owes everything to the
Hawthorne encounter. Ahab, based on the arrogant biblical king, is the novel’s
philosophical adventurer, the man who turns a sea story into a spiritual epic.
D. The narrative dynamics of the novel obey classical rules as to how a great
central figure can be rendered through storytelling.
1. Ishmael’s job, therefore, is to render Ahab; given Ahab’s outsized
ambitions, this narrative task may not be possible, and much of the book’s
mystery stems from this incommensurateness.

E. For his landlocked readers, Melville presents details about a unique life
on a whaling ship, the Pequod. Melville emphasizes the democratic coloration of
the boat’s crew
F. The “encounter” of Queequeg and Ishmael typifies Melville’s democratic
idealism.

1. In the depiction of the exotic Queequeg sharing a life (and a bed) with
Ishmael, we see Melville’s mix of exoticism and fraternalism.

2
3. The bond between Ishmael and Queequeg is presented essentially as an
amorous brotherhood, and those critics on the lookout for homoeroticism in
Melville are drawn powerfully to this relationship.

Two of the most important events in his life were : a) going to sea when he was
20 and spending more than three years traveling around the world . In his first
books which were quite successful he mostly wrote about of the adventures he
experienced in those voyages . “whaling ship was Melville’s Yale and Harvard”
b) the second important event was both
meeting Hawthorne and re reading all of Shakespeare's works . This happened
just as he had started writing Moby Dick . Apparently Hawthorne's influence
upon him was such that he threw many chapters of his manuscript of Moby
Dick into the fire and started writing the novel all over again .

Moby-Dick :( 1851 ) "In Token of my admiration for his genius , This book is
inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne ". Initially Moby Dick was going to be another
travelogue , but after "Shakespeare and Hawthorne" , it became something very
different even though it does also read as a book of adventures and as the
greatest hunting story of all times . Moby Dick is the story of a sea captain , Ahab
( king of Israel husband of Jezebel ), whose monomania is to hunt the big white
whale , the mastodon , the leviathan / li`vaiathan / who some years before had
torn off his leg . Ahab's madness embarks all the crew of the Pequod upon a
suicidal mission and Ishmael , the narrator of the story is the sole survivor of
the inevitable final shipwreck .
Moby-Dick defies classifications , it is an epic novel an allegory , a tragedy , a
whaling story and much more . The whale is an equivocal symbol of nature that
is good or evil depending on the eye of the beholder .
Moby Dick was not much of a literary success it sold well at the beginning but
people did not understand it and Melville ended up by losing his reading public .
After the Confidence -man ( 1857 ) he seemed to follow the fate of his character
Bartleby and "prefer not to write"any longer and he spent the rest of his life as
an obscure customs inspector on a New York wharf . But more of this later .

Hemos optado por “llamame” y no llamenme” porque consideramos que Ismael ,

un hombre solitario e introspectivo , busca relacionarse o comunicarse con un
solo interlocutor por vez , para establecer asiun vincula intimo con el lector.

"Bartleby"
 The Piazza Tales ( 1856 ) which is a collection of Melville's short fiction .
( porch in a house or veranda )
Setting time : early to mid 19th century . Contemporary setting for the author .
Instead of a distant setting in a distant past.
This story's setting is central to our understanding of what's going on here – the
original subtitle, "A Story of Wall Street," makes it clear that we're supposed to
take its location into account from the very beginning. Melville first published
"Bartleby the Scrivener" in New York in 1853, when the young metropolis was
already a booming center of commerce. Yet the story does not seem to be so

3
much concerned with real wall street. The atmosphere is rather fantastic,
especially when it concerns Bartleby himself , and the tone is a quite grotesque

The story takes place in a law office populated by a set of odd men, whose
relationships with each other seem to be purely professional in nature. This
impersonality of the characters is hugely significant – the business-based world
in which they operate has no room for personal interaction, and, as a result,
neither does Melville's story. It's notable that we don't learn anything about any
of the characters beyond what they're like in the office, not even our narrator.

Surely the crisis of this story, the question of what constitutes basic humanity, is
highlighted and made all the more poignant by its urban setting – by using the
city, and in particular, the office, Melville shows us just how alone we can be,
even when we're surrounded by other people.

4 employees are walled-in by the circumstances of their employment

wall-off from any hope of mobility . Physical arrangement produces separation
and division .
Wall Street as a metaphor of confinement and barriers to understanding .
References to other walls: Hall of Justice : the Tombs and extension of the law
office described as Egyptian Pyramid

When the short story first appeared, the title read “Bartleby, the Scrivener. A
Story of Wall-Street.” the shorter form adopted later was the result of
typographical considerations in listing the contents of The Piazza Tales, where
all the titles are brief. The shorter title has become more familiar since The
Piazza Tales has been the source of most subsequent republications of the
story. , by choosing the shorter title, the social and economic connotations of
Wall-Street are played down and that the author’s intention was to emphasize
the role of Wall Street setting and its walls that lead to separation and division:
Melville’s intention, it seems likely, was to use the extended title to emphasize
the highly dramatic, actually expressionistic, Wall Street setting—a law office
where the four employees are literally and figuratively walled in by the
circumstances of their employment and by the social assumptions embodied in
their employer and walled off from any hope of mobility of self-fulfillment by the
same concept of class structure. These physical arrangements and social
assumptions create an atmosphere of separation and division.

Narrator

Bartleby

Turkey Nipper Ginger Nut

4
not only all the story comes from the narrator but the emphasis upon his
consciousness and self argument , means that he and not Bartleby provides the
problem of the story .THE MYSTERIOUS BARTLEBYAND THE OTHER
SCRIVINERS PROVIDE OCASSIONS FOR THE N’S RESPONSES. WE SEE WHAT HE
SEES BUT ALSO WHATHE FAILS TO SEE .
BARLEBY DOES THE NAY SAYING , THE REFUSING AND NOT MUCH MORE, THE
ATTORNEY DOES THE EXPLAINING FOR BOTH OF THEM
Attorney: practical optimist as representative liberal American . . Decent well
meaning, rationalizing enforcer of established values . such figures fail in a
deeper and darker awareness of humanity.

Wall street as a pun. Walls dead walls of restrictions and incomprehension ,

block everything . one side of the chambers faces a white wall , the other a black
wall .

Other walls : a) references to ruins , walls that failed to keep civilization alive
b) Tombs restriction and punishment. Old and modern . Ancient
sense of order as a burden rather than the jail itself

Language used to describe Bartleby

Pale, pallid noiseless, silent, calm ,forlorn

Disappears behind the screen lang associated with ghosts , spirits

Ghost 74 cadaverous 66-7 incubus

evil spirit supposed to descend upon sleeping persons, esp. one fabled to have sexual interco
urse with sleepingwomen.
2. nightmare.
3. something that oppresses one like a nightmare.

Apparition
Thus if the Narrator double is a ghost the N himself could be said to be dead in
life . physical arrangement in the office/ chamber

Bartleby ‘s refusal is always framed in the same way :

I would prefer not to

What does “prefer” entail ? choice , I can choose to do it or not but I choose not
to .
Politeness + defiance : passive resistance
the phrase “prefer not to”, recurs throughout the story and its repetition drives
Bartleby’s colleagues to combative fury. In their simplicity and politeness, these
five words -“I would prefer not to”- and the use of the verb “prefer” most notably
- achieve a paradoxical significance within the narrative. The statement
juxtaposes a conditional with a negative sense, and this lends the reply its force.
On the one hand, Bartleby refuses politely, using the conditional form “would”

5
suggesting that there might be a choice in the matter. On the other hand, this
choice and therefore expression of politeness is an illusion, for Bartleby blatantly
refuses to do anything asked of him. What we witness in the story is a form of
resistance based on the paradox of appearing to yield while yielding not at all. 3
Bartleby’s politeness powerful, disarming both the reader and the narrator.

Even when challenged “You will not?” Bartleby counters with a quiet “I prefer
not.” Like the semblance of choice in his response, “prefer” is both illusive and
allusive. Unspecific in what it refers to, the word alludes to a choice which it
denies. The implicit suggestion that there might be something Bartleby would
prefer to do is an illusion. The use of the word, “prefer”, then, appears
contradictory and strikes an ambiguous note in the story. A comparative verb is

The N finally leaves B when his presence begins to affect his reputation

Bartleby is creeping his colleagues out. Nippers reflects well upon the office. The
N (who does a bit of name dropping is very sensible to , other people’s opinion , J
Astor) he no longer can have this walking corpse in his office . In order to project
a good image of himself that part of himself has to be pushed away.

Dead letters: a) MELVILLE’S literary failure

b) more broadly speaking fundamental failure of human
communication

JOB 3:14 -- "With kings and Counsellors." Upon realizing that Bartelby is dead, he
makes references to Job and his response to one of God's many tests (boils, in this
verse): Job says that if he had died in infancy he would have been "at rest, With kings
and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves."

INTERPRETATIONS

critics have read “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in four different ways. Firstly, as a
tale of exorcism, in which Bartleby figures as a surrogate for the artist (Melville),
who protests against the harsh demands of work; From the artistic point of view,
Melville’s story is similar to Bartleby’s story, in the way that, underlines the
writer’s refusal to compromise and write on demand in a capitalist society:

secondly, as a tale of psychosis, a classic case of depression, with overtones of

homosexuality; thirdly, as a tale of the alter ego, Bartleby seen as a projection of
the death-urge in the lawyer; and last, as a tale of social criticism, in which the
critique hits industrial America symbolized by Wall Street. In the last reading of
the short story, the walls stand for “the deadening mechanism of finance and
industry, isolation, the sealed-in madness of urban life.”

6
Bartleby symbolizes the hard-working man in a capitalist society. perfect
example of the alienated worker in his tale, the alienated worker who realizes,
step by step that his work is meaningless . Karl Marx’s statement regarding the
worker’s alienation is determined by the following reasons:

...Finally, the alienated character of work for the worker appears in the fact that
it is not his work but work for someone else, that in work he does not belong to
himself but to another person.

In the lawyer’s attempt to deal with Bartleby, money and food play an important
part and all the characters in the story use money in order to buy food. The
lawyer tries to offer Bartleby money every time he wants to get rid of him, and it
can also show some compassion from the part of the lawyer, even though
Bartleby does not accept it. The lawyer even tries to offer money to the person in
charged with feeding people in the jail in order to be sure that Bartleby will not
starve. Money is not a good motivation for starting writing again, even though
Bartleby seemed in need for it. It can be seen as the writer’s refusal to produce
literature, and this refusal might stand for death.

One critical view looks at Bartleby as representative of all artists who are
ground down by a system that glorifies popularity (and conformity) rather than
imagination. As a copyist, Bartleby creates nothing of his own, nothing truly
innovative, and although he is very good at what he does, he absolutely
refuses to "check" himself against the original. Through his passivity, he
rebels against the system that refuses him creative freedom.

Another view sees Bartleby as the American worker whose productivity

determines his (or her) sole worth. On several occasions, the narrator
mentions that he would have said something or done something to discover
the root of Bartleby's behavior, but work distracts him from concern for his
fellow man.

Yet another approach considers the similarities between Bartleby and

Melville; two men whose creative urges were squashed by a capitalistic
society that values production in terms of quantity rather than quality.

Many critics see Bartleby as a Christ figure, degraded by a system that he is

unable to fight against. Unable to change the institution (as Christ was unable
to change the Roman system), Bartleby is sacrificed by the "Wall Street"
mentality.

7
Slate questions

But “Bartleby” is much more than a grave marker for Melville’s ambitions. It
is
a) a searing critique of American capitalism, a protest story,
b) an existentialist paean to the necessity of going on in an absurd world
c) it is also a homoerotic love story,
d) a commentary on the rambunctious labor politics of 1840s New York,
e) . One of this text’s many delights is the elusiveness of its meaning.

At one point, when the narrator asks Bartleby why he will not write, Bartleby
responds, "Do you not see the reason for yourself." What is it that the narrator
is supposed to see, and what does he fail to see? Why is Bartleby said to be
the one with weak eyesight? In what ways do the ideas of seeing, vision, and
understanding work in this story?

. In the last sections of the story, the "real law" enters the eccentric law office
of the narrator-lawyers unmoved by Bartleby's strangeness move in, the
police are summoned, and Bartleby is taken to the Tombs. Does the narrator
prove himself a true lawyer at the end?

Does the Dead Letter office really explain Bartleby's actions? Or is it simply a
device so that the narrator can close the incident in a sentimental, picturesque
manner?

Critical opinion is divided about the narrator: one side sees him as an
appealing eccentric who tries but fails to save a man who has doomed
himself; another sees him as a man who, despite his genial manner, is so
devoted to the values of Wall Street that he cannot rise to the injunction of
loving his neighbor as himself. What's your opinion?

. Eating and food imagery is prominent in this story; it might be more accurate
to say dysfunctional eating (Nippers's dyspepsia, for example) and the

8
absence of nourishment is prominent. In what ways does this set of images
symbolically reinforce the story's themes?

Do you sympathize more with Bartleby or the narrator? What would you have
done with Bartleby?

12 )Astor was a lightening rod in the bitter debates about wage labor and
land monopoly that dominated New York City politics in the late 1840’s , he
was the figure who symbolized the obscenity of great wealth , probably the
most heated man in NY when he died . By the time of the story is set ,Astor
had bought up most of lower and Midtown Manhattan . So he may very well
have owned the very office where B and the Narrator worked .

From Lit charts

Melville lets the reader know immediately that The Lawyer is an unreliable and
often unspecific narrator. For example, The Lawyer tells the reader know that
the story will focus on Bartleby, and then proceeds to not mention Bartleby until
seven pages later. The Lawyer’s storytelling is, in itself, an example of language
failing to properly communicate.

The Lawyer provides the name of John Jacob Astor, a man who is never
referenced again in the story, but fails to provide his own name, another example
of unreliable (and unhelpful) narration. Also, the description of the office having
a clear view of a brick wall feels like it should be a joke, but The Lawyer truly
seems proud of it. In reality, there is little difference between a window with no
view and a wall.

The concept of an employee only being productive for one half of the day, every
day, is a prime example of how disconnected The Lawyer’s office is—not only do
walls separate people, but so do temperaments. Also, The Lawyer doesn’t overtly
say it, but he implies that Turkey’s problems stem from his heavy drinking. The
Lawyer not being entirely upfront about Turkey’s issues is an example of
language failing to reveal the whole truth, as is the fact that The Lawyer doesn’t
call Turkey by his real name.

Alienation( paper)

9
6) When the short story first appeared, the title read “Bartleby, the Scrivener. A
Story of Wall-Street.” As Marvin Fisher states, the shorter form adopted later was
the result of typographical considerations in listing the contents of The Piazza
Tales, where all the titles are brief. The shorter title has become more familiar
since The Piazza Tales has been the source of most subsequent republications of
the story. Fisher argues that, by choosing the shorter title, the social and
economic connotations of Wall-Street are played down and that the author’s
intention was to emphasize the role of Wall Street setting and its walls that lead
to separation and division:
Melville’s intention, it seems likely, was to use the extended title to emphasize
the highly dramatic, actually expressionistic, Wall Street setting—a law office
where the four employees are literally and figuratively walled in by the
circumstances of their employment and by the social assumptions embodied in
their employer an walled off from any hope of mobility of self-fulfillment by the
same concept of class structure. These physical arrangements and social
assumptions create an atmosphere of separation and division.8

According to George Bluestone, critics have read “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in four
different ways. Firstly, it has been seen as a tale of exorcism, in which Bartleby
figures as a surrogate for the artist (Melville), who protests against the harsh
demands of work; secondly, as a tale of psychosis, a classic case of depression,
with overtones of homosexuality; thirdly, as a tale of the alter ego, Bartleby seen
as a projection of the death-urge in the lawyer; and last, as a tale of social
criticism, in which the critique hits industrial America symbolized by Wall Street.
In the last reading of the short story, the walls stand for “the deadening
mechanism of finance and industry, the same walls that Dickens knew, and
Dostoyevsky, who were likewise obsessed with the grubby isolation, the sealed-
in madness of urban life.”

In his essay, Richard Chase is arguing that Bartleby is Melville, the artist, in his
attempt to launch himself in the field of literature. As Melville was considering
himself an artist, he was trying to understand the way the society perceived the
artist. Having this in mind, he created a parable of the artist in “Bartleby, the
Scrivener,” where Bartleby is a scrivener, a writer after all. From the artistic
point of view, Melville’s story is similar to Bartleby’s story, in the way that, as
Chase points out, underlines the writer’s refusal to compromise and write on
demand in a capitalist society:

In his essay, Richard Chase is arguing that Bartleby is Melville, the artist, in his
attempt to launch himself in the field of literature. As Melville was considering
himself an artist, he was trying to understand the way the society perceived the
artist. Having this in mind, he created a parable of the artist in “Bartleby, the
Scrivener,” where Bartleby is a scrivener, a writer after all. From the artistic
point of view, Melville’s story is similar to Bartleby’s story, in the way that, as
Chase points out, underlines the writer’s refusal to compromise and write on
demand in a capitalist society:

10
Bartleby symbolizes the hard-working man in a capitalist society. Herman
Melville created the perfect example of the alienated worker in his tale, the
alienated worker who realizes, step by step that his work is meaningless and
without a future. “Bartleby as Alienated Worker”, Karl Marx’s statement
regarding the worker’s alienation is determined by the following reasons:

First that the worker is external to the worker, that it is not part of his nature,
that consequently he does not fulfil himself in his work but denies himself, has a
feeling of misery, not of well-being, does not develop freely a physical and
mental energy, but is physically exhausted and mentally debased. ...Finally, the
alienated character of work for the worker appears in the fact that it is not his
work but work for someone else, that in work he does not belong to himself but
to another person.20

In the lawyer’s attempt to deal with Bartleby, money and food play an important
part and all the characters in the story use money in order to buy food. The
lawyer tries to offer Bartleby money every time he wants to get rid of him, and it
can also show some compassion from the part of the lawyer, even though
Bartleby does not accept it. The lawyer even tries to offer money to the person in
charged with feeding people in the jail in order to be sure that Bartleby will not
starve. Money is not a good motivation for starting writing again, even though
Bartleby seemed in need for it. It can be seen as the writer’s refusal to produce
literature, and this refusal might stand for death.

the phrase “prefer not to”, recurs throughout the story and its repetition drives
Bartleby’s colleagues to combative fury. In their simplicity and politeness, these
five words -“I would prefer not to”- and the use of the verb “prefer” most notably
- achieve a paradoxical significance within the narrative. The statement
juxtaposes a conditional with a negative sense, and this lends the reply its force.
On the one hand, Bartleby refuses politely, using the conditional form “would”
suggesting that there might be a choice in the matter. On the other hand, this
choice and therefore expression of politeness is an illusion, for Bartleby blatantly
refuses to do anything asked of him. What we witness in the story is a form of
resistance based on the paradox of appearing to yield while yielding not at all. 3
Bartleby’s politeness powerful, disarming both the reader and the narrator.

Even when challenged “You will not?” Bartleby counters with a quiet “I prefer
not.” Like the semblance of choice in his response, “prefer” is both illusive and
allusive. Unspecific in what it refers to, the word alludes to a choice which it
denies. The implicit suggestion that there might be something Bartleby would
prefer to do is an illusion. The use of the word, “prefer”, then, appears
contradictory and strikes an ambiguous note in the story. A comparative verb is
articulated by Bartleby as an absolute. The narrator declares that he is “More a
man of preferences than assumptions”, but Bartleby effectively turns the
expression of preference into a statement which has the force of an assumption.
This small verbal paradox is just one of a whole set of tensions which shape the
narrative.4

11
B. In “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” and “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus
of Maids” human values are destroyed by the values of business. This is most
clearly seen in the effects upon the workers, Bartleby and the maids who work in
the paper mill.

Effects
1. On narrator
a. Narrator does not know how to treat Bartleby after he ceases to work,
and he wavers between human values (“sons of Adam”) and business values
(“scandalizing my professional reputation”)
b. Finally decides to be rid of Bartleby

2. O n Bartleby
a. Isolates—imagery of walls
b. Renders him invisible—screens and language of ghostliness
c. Dehumanizes—no history; no full name; no existence outside of office
d. sickens—imagery of pallor
e. kills—cadaverous; Bartleby as stillbirth

The tendency of the narrator to judge others by their utility to him seems to
make him more tolerant of human weakness or eccentricity , but in a very
damaging way it mocks the possibility of men joining in common enterprise
founded in self respect and sympathy

The most often insisted key to Bartleby has a reductive biographical base whose
logic goes like this : Melville was a forlorn writer , the forlorn Bartleby is a
scrivener , a writer . Bartleby =Melville and expresses the author sense of despair
in mid 19th America because it did not recognize a serious artist .
wall street serves as a metaphor of confinement and barriers to understanding .
the story can also be related to the spirit of capitalism , of the protestant ethic
and narrow pragmatism , rationality and a sensibility of prudent self interest

dead letters: a) MELVILLE’S literary failure

b) more broadly speaking fundamental failure of human
communication

not only all the story comes from the narrator but the emphasis upon his
consciousness and self argument , means that he and not Bartleby provides the
problem of the story .THE MYSTERIOUS BARTLEBYAND THE OTHER
SCRIVINERS PROVIDE OCASSIONS FOR THE N’S RESPONSES. WE SEE WHAT HE
SEES BUT ALSO WHATHE FAILS TO SEE .
BARLEBY DOES THE NAY SAYING , THE REFUSING AND NOT MUCH MORE, THE
ATTORNEY DOES THE EXPLAINING FOR BOTH OF THEM

12
Attorney: practical optimist as representative liberal American . . Decent well
meaning, rationalizing enforcer of established values . such figures fail in a
deeper and darker awareness of humanity.

Wall street as a pun. Walls dead walls of restrictions and incomprehension ,

block everything . one side of the chambers faces a white wall , the other a black
wall .

Other walls : a) references to ruins , walls that failed to keep civilization alive
b) Tombs restriction and punishment. Old and modern . Ancient
sense of order as a burden rather than the jail itself

JOB 3:14 -- "With kings and Counsellors." Upon realizing that Bartelby is dead, he
makes references to Job and his response to one of God's many tests (boils, in this
verse): Job says that if he had died in infancy he would have been "at rest, With kings
and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves."

One critical view looks at Bartleby as representative of all artists who are ground down
by a system that glorifies popularity (and conformity) rather than imagination. As a
copyist, Bartleby creates nothing of his own, nothing truly innovative, and although he
is very good at what he does, he absolutely refuses to "check" himself against the
original. Through his passivity, he rebels against the system that refuses him creative
freedom.

Another view sees Bartleby as the American worker whose productivity determines his
(or her) sole worth. On several occasions, the narrator mentions that he would have
said something or done something to discover the root of Bartleby's behavior, but
work distracts him from concern for his fellow man.

Yet another approach considers the similarities between Bartleby and Melville; two
men whose creative urges were squashed by a capitalistic society that values
production in terms of quantity rather than quality.

Many critics see Bartleby as a Christ figure, degraded by a system that he is unable to
fight against. Unable to change the institution (as Christ was unable to change the
Roman system), Bartleby is sacrificed by the "Wall Street" mentality.

The office of the Master in Chancery was a legal construct historically called into effect to
remedy what common law could not guarantee It fulfilled a paternalistic, protective, or
“balancing” function of the law, and as an instrument of equity, it strived to rectify the
injustices that were possible within the existing legal framework, for example unjust actions
committed against workers. In this way, equity became a supplement to common law by
trying to embody what was excluded from market regulations: “equity ‘mitigates the rigour of
the common law’ so that the letter of the law is not applied in such a strict way that it may
cause injustice.” This change was seen by many as “the growing power of capital and the
diminution of natural rights and moral argument” yet this change strikes the narrator mostly
as a loss of prestige and wealth, rather than as an allegorical loss of legal conscience that
could regulate the excesses of the law.

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