Blog Post #1 - Was Bartleby’s behavior is a reasonable response to his circumstances or not ?

Bartleby the Scrivener is a short story written by Herman Melville, published in the year 1853. An elder man, who is a lawyer and the boss, narrates the story, it revolves around Bartleby and his other colleagues named Turkey, Nipper and Ginger Nut. They were all employed to work as scriveners - scribes copying legal documents the way modern day scanning machines do. Newly employed Bartleby started off by impressing his boss by the amount of effort he put in his work. Though now after a few days his boss started to get agitated by a response Bartleby often gave “I’d prefer not to”. Even though Bartleby’s response is considered as infuriating, maddening and very candid, which not only left the boss displeased but this same emotion could be seen among the readers.

Bartleby passive aggressive response which denies any work given to him by his boss, is very appealing as anyone else in his place would have quietly accepted the work given to him by his superior instead of saying “I’d prefer not to”. This agitated not only the author but also the narrators, as they never thought this resistance to work is actually backed up with a rational explanation. Even though his behavior is completely valid and justifiable. It is the environment he works in that motivates him in being the way his is.

His job as a scrivener is not remotely close to creativity and freedom, and the shady brick walls surrounded in his office is a reminder of that. In the story the narrator talks about Turkey, Nipper and Ginger Nut who each have a unique personality that never fails to bore them. The author every morning knows exactly how these three are going to behave and what could be expected from them. They are like machines, which do the same thing everyday without fail. This is where Bartleby refuses to do his job, as he wants to be more than that machine. In Bartleby’s point of view, he had to wake up early everyday to duplicate documents, which in itself is very demotivating and demeaning.

            Once again he disappoints his boss and readers, though we all notice the authors frustration and our frustration everyone fails to notice his frustration. The author says, “I remembered that he never spoke but to answer; that though at intervals he had considerable time to himself, yet I had never seen him reading—no, not even a newspaper; that for long periods he would stand looking out, at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall”. For the author and readers it is a brick wall but for him it was a dead end, nowhere to go, and nothing to do. That wall fascinated him because that wall defined his life dull and pointless. We all have choices in life, and Bartleby choose this one. He happily left his job at the Dead Letter Office, only to work at a dead end job on Wall Street. This killed him inside, as that wall was not just brick wall to him but instead it was reminder of how his life had turned out to be for him. In the end, we all have an invisible wall but it is up to us to choose to go around it or call it a dead end.