- Is Bartleby merely a lazy person who decides he no longer wants to work? And in this way does the story show what happens to people who isolate themselves from the world? (a variation on the theme present in "The Fall of the House of Usher").
- Is Bartleby a kind of victim? Is he someone who, through years of dehumanizing and monotonous work, has been turned into a human machine, and the story shows what happens when such a machine malfunctions?
- Is Bartleby a kind of failed industrial, modernized romantic hero? In this sense, his romantic self has been so battered and oppressed by years and years of dehumanizing labor that the only thing left is a tiny, mouse-like "I'd prefer not to." At some point he is described as being "like the last column of some ruined temple." Maybe Bartleby's "I'd prefer not to" functions as the last death rattle of romantic expression, Whitman's "Yawp" reduced to a faint cry of self-assertion just before the grave. Yeah? Maybe???
All food for thought. You might have an entirely different idea. The main question I want you to get at is... What's wrong with Bartleby?
In my mind Bartleby is not a lazy or rude person. He has most likely been mistreated in his previous positions or been treated as a lowly unwanted worker. His refusal to work may not have been so much that he didnt want to work, but more that he was protesting the way he and his fellows were working. It is not unheard of that many people are taken advantage of in their workplace, especially on wallstreet. People are used to do grunt work and are underpaid and disrespected. Bartleby represents the millions of overworked and underpaid people that don't get a voice. He displays a kind of passive resistance in his work place. I would agree with the above statement that Bartleby is a well oiled machine who suddenly malfunctioned. It's extremely possible that he simply could not take it anymore, the way he was treated, the being ordered around constantly. Possibly it just suddenly all came over him too fast to figure out and he snapped. Being the polite man he is though, his response was quiet and well-mannered. He did not break a lamp and scream mutiny, he simply said he would prefer not to. Bartleby is a good man, he is a victim and not a lazy or rude person. Just a man who would like some respect.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rachel that Bartleby was not rude or lazy. I think he probably had some really bad experiences in his life and the experiences caused him to be a very lonely and quiet guy. I felt like Bartleby wasn't all there. The years of monotonous work and probably some bad experiences had left him in this state. I don't think that Bartleby suddenly snapped; I think he had slowly lost his mind from a lifetime of being overworked. He just wouldn't listen to orders at all and normal humans don't completely ignore orders. Sometimes people will ignore orders, but not to the degree that Bartleby did. He acted almost as if he did not hear what anyone said to him. He just ignored everyone, which someone in his right mind would not do.
ReplyDeleteEven after the narrator moved out of the building, Bartleby wouldn't leave the office. And once he got kicked out of the office, he still remained in and around the building until someone called the cops on him. If he was just protesting he would have left after the narrator moved offices or at least after he was thrown out of the office.
Nobody in their right mind would have just continued to live in the building. He could have gotten another job. I can understand that he wouldn't want to work as a scrivener anymore, but he turned down all the other options that the narrator gave him as far as getting another job. He didn't want to leave the building/his home. Something had happened to him that made him afraid to leave his home. He wouldn't run errands, or really even leave his cubicle, and once he was kicked out he wouldn't leave the building. Bartleby was driven crazy by many years of being overworked and underpaid.
Bartleby is portrayed as a very mysterious man in the short story. It is hard to say exactly why Bartleby suddenly became so resistant. Bartleby may have been angered by society so much that he suddenly overcame his natural instinct to do what he was told and instead resisted to all commands. Bartleby is brave but perhaps too resistant for his own good. Bartleby is not a victim at all because so many other people experience monotonous work jobs their entire lives, but manage to get through them. Barleby’s sudden resistance in the story is appealing to the normal American because many American’s dream of standing up to their boss or superior. His actions of resistance can be blatantly seen in modern movies like Office Space and Fight Club, where the main character is dragged down by the monotony of his work, but eventually breaks out of his rut in an extreme fashion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone has said so far but hopefully I can add a couple things that I observed. In my opinion, Bartleby is a mixture of an overworked, lonely, depressed hero who by the end of the story seems like nothing more than a loner who “prefers” not to do anything productive. When Bartleby was first hired, he seemed to be an exceptionally able copier who never complained and always did what was asked of him. Then suddenly one day, he turned into a weirdo when his boss demandingly and bitterly called on him to quickly review a case. For some reason, I think that his boss’s commands offended Bartleby which caused him to disobey his requests by claiming that he’d “prefer not to” do whatever was demanded of him. So in my opinion, had the boss let Bartleby go on with his copying considering that he seemed “famished of something to copy,” instead of treating him like the other nameless copiers in the office, maybe something would not have snapped shut inside of Bartleby’s mind. Bartleby had the opportunity to become a very successful scrivener (?) but I think that he chose to shut himself off from the demands that his boss put on him because he did not want to lose his personal identity like the other copiers in the office (Turkey and Nippers). So I don’t necessarily think that whatever changed in his mind was a result of being overworked.
ReplyDeleteSince we are on the topic of realism, I think Melville created the short story to portray some degrading quality of American life. Maybe the short story is based on early American Industrialism. Maybe Bartleby is prey to the monotonous work that he faces day in and day out. Maybe the boring work is killing his will to live. Maybe Bartleby is losing track of society and his place in the world. Maybe he is combining work life and personal life into one and creating a hermit lifestyle where he never exposes himself to the outside. Maybe early American industrialism is barring Bartleby from the outside world, enclosing him inside the four walls of his work space. Maybe Bartleby is just tired of his boring work and finally enters a state of pure detachment from society where he wishes to do nothing. I don't know this is just a guess.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is for sure; Bartleby is a victim of industrialism. Once Bartleby loses his will to live, he brings others down with him. I guess Melville is trying to point out how industrialism is killing society.
YES! I FINALLY GOT IT UP! woop woop
ReplyDeleteor not..where'd it go?? AH!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what many have said in the previous comments. I believe nothing is wrong with Bartleby and that he was not lazy or rude, and did not intend to come off as such. I think that somewhere, if not with the lawyer, Bartleby was perhaps overworked and therefore unwilling to continue working. Or perhaps, he was tired of doing each an every little thing his boss wanted of him (like what Jen said). I think that it is strange that Melville depicts and describes the other office workers in more than enough detail, but not nearly as much when Bartleby comes along. This makes me think that his role is more of a representation of the American people at the time, and not necessarily a single character. I think this shows that the people of America have been overworked and were losing themselves as individual people. If everyone does what they're told, then there would be hardly any individuality and life could be perceived as boring.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Rachel said. I do not think that Bartleby is a lazy or rude person as well. I agree with Mr. Harrington's final idea that he is a "ruined temple." I have this idea that he used to be an amazing worker that always got the job done and was on top of everything but he was never appreciated or was mistreated. Because of this, he does not see the point in doing his work or giving a full effort in anything anymore and there for he is the way he is. I do not believe that Bartleby is a victim exactly, because whoever, or whatever made him the way he is, most likely did not intend to, and it was merely his reaction to the work he was given. However, I also agree with Rachel that Bartleby is a representation of millions of over worked industrial workers who have no voice, or have a voice that no one really cares about.
ReplyDeleteSo I didn’t write this last night because 1. I left my backpack at school and 2. The power at my house went out and by the time it came back on I was asleep and 3. My internet was not working this morning. Here it is now though
ReplyDeleteIt’s clear that we all agree Bartleby is not lazy. He must have been treated poorly previously causing his unwillingness to work. He is not rude in refusing to work and I feel like he isn’t trying to make a “point” but is simply implying that he does not want to do any work or obey his boss. Bartleby is more of a representation of the American workers at the time than a character. With industrialism taking place workers were treated poorly and were not given the respect or rewards (paycheck) they deserved. The walls surrounding Bartleby may represent his isolation from society and the descriptive passages show his loneliness in the world and in his work or in himself. The narrator may have found the past history of Bartleby that makes him so lonely and isolated and unwilling to work. It is said that Bartleby used to work in the “dead letter office” and reading all those letters for people dead or gone must have caused his emotional detachment and cause working to be such a hard task to do.
We talked quite a bit on Tuesday about how the narrator doesn't fire Turkey and Nippers even though they only add up to the productivity of a single worker. The two other workers are not necessarily lazy but they don't work too hard. Yes I know this question is about Batleby.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I bring up Turkey and Nippers is that they provide an alternative to the present socioeconomic system. Nippers simply doesn't work well in the mornings and the boss is resigned to the fact that Nippers isn't perfect. Turkey drinks away the monotony of his work and fails in the afternoons. Bartleby snaps because he works too hard. There is no major psychological issue that makes him act differently. He snaps because he is unable to give in to laziness (to save himself from his work) and is unaware of the consequences of his incessant work. What makes Bartleby go off is that he holds himself to a standard of efficiency, and when inefficiency is the only thing that can save him from the drone of dehumanized work, he cannot resign himself to diminishing the quality of his work.
So in a sense he is a hero, albeit a misguided one. He loses his mind because he won't give up his work ethic and submit to being another lazy worker like his coworkers. By committing himself to such work the system dehumanizes him into a machine. When he realizes this he cannot cope with what he has become, and struggles to his death trying to redefine himself in a world where he is constantly walled in.
this is a test to see if the it all works.
ReplyDeletetell me if you read this ever... anyone