ENL 10B: "A Close Reading of "Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville"

Jolene Patricia Brown

Dr. T. Morton

ENL 10B

15 March 2010

A Close Reading of “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville

            In reading “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, the first thing one notices is the repetition of certain words and themes that permeates the work throughout.  This repetition occurs right at the beginning of the story with the narrator:

I do not speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact that I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor, a name which, I admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion. (4)

It is the sound f the word that the narrator enjoys, but one must remember that the opening of the story takes place after the other events in the story.  The narrator is looking back and writing from the memory the events of Bartleby as he remembers it and by the end of the story it is suspicious that the narrator has this fondness for word or name repetition.

            The most obvious example of this is Bartleby himself who has little more to say than “I would prefer not to.”  Bartleby’s insistence upon only using these words to turn down his boss’ requests becomes almost a mechanical response, devoid of emotion or any humanistic quality.  Indeed, everything that Bartleby does lacks human qualities as the narrator does not see him eat, has no idea what he does with his free time, and his work style is unquestionably different from that of other scrivener:

At first, Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing.  AS if long famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my documents.  There was no pause for digestion.  He ran a day and night line, copying by sunlight and by candlelight.  I should have been quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious.  But he wrote on silently, paley, mechanically. (11)

The narrator is not bothered by the amount of work that Bartleby is performing, he is bothered by the way in which he does it.  “Silently, paley, mechanically” are not words used to describe a living being: they imply a robot, an automaton without any human characteristics, who works on without regard for his surroundings and regardless of who witnesses.  Bartleby, unlike Turkey or Nippers, is not putting on a show for anyone else; he only continues his work for his own purpose which seems to be no purpose at all.

            Turkey and Nippers both adhere to cycles that are predictable but emphasize their faults as people.  These cycles are outlined early on in the story by the narrator, who describes in detail the cycle between the two scriveners in great detail, even going so far as to describe them and their habits over the course of 5 pages (page 5 to halfway through page 10) .  This duration and attention to detail on the part of the author signals the reader that the predictable natures of Turkey and Nippers cycles are integral to understanding how Bartleby does not fit into this predictability.  This creates a sense of irony: Bartleby is predictable, but not in the way that Turkey and Nippers are predictable.  Turkey and Nippers are predictable in humanistic ways because they allow their imperfections to control their cycles by alternating when each one does his best work, even though they do not necessarily consciously control their cycles.  Bartleby, however, has no humanistic cycles of imperfections.  Instead, he is predictable in his unwillingness to do those things that are requested of him.  The only predictable thing about him is his use of the word “prefer” which becomes so predictable that it becomes inhuman: he becomes a machine that continually repeats “I would prefer not to” with such reliable predictability that it becomes mechanistic.  It is unpredictable precisely because it is so predictable, losing all familiarity to the more imperfect beings around him.

            Repetition is an important part of this whole story from beginning to end.  The author uses repetition to make a point about Bartleby himself, and how Bartleby affects his surroundings.  Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer,” for instance, begins to affect those in the office, including the narrator and the other two scriveners.

“That’s the word, Turkey,” said I--”that’s it.”

“Oh, prefer? oh yes--queer word.  I never use it myself.  But, sir, as I was saying, if he would but prefer--”

“Turkey,” interrupted I, “you will please withdraw.”

“Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should.” (26)

In this passage Turkey calls the word prefer “queer,” and claims he never uses it, but he then, immediately uses it not once but twice: the second time in such a way to be exactly contrasted to the sense in which Bartleby uses it.  This opposition between Turkey and Bartleby is important, as even the narrator himself realizes the affect on his office: “I must get rid of a demented man, who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads, of myself and clerks” (26)  The repetition of Bartleby is more than just a significance of preference and it quickly becomes contagious in nature.  Bartleby himself embodies repetition, not just in his words, but in his life as well, as he goes from working in the dead letter office to become himself a “dead letter”: his dying at the end of the story is also repetition.

            The speech in the story is mostly tagged direct speech, with the exception of Bartleby, who has untagged direct speech for most of his responses.  The differentiation between tagged being the more human characters in contrast to Bartleby’s untagged speech is significant for the subject position: by not supplying tags for Bartleby’s speech the reader is isolated from Bartleby, and Bartleby becomes an outsider, much like his relationship to those in the law office.  When the speech is tagged, the effect is unnerving, and usually emphasizes some of emotion that is not normally attributed to Bartleby, since his character is such that he rarely exhibits “emotion” in a way that is familiar to the reader.  His emotions, furthermore, are usually those of indifference, such as on page 26:

The next day I noticed that Bartleby did nothing but stand at his window in his dead-wall reverie.  Upon asking him why he did not write, he said that he had decided upon doing no more writing.  “Why, how now? what next? exclaimed I, “do no more writing?”

“No more.”

“And what is the reason?”

“Do you not see the reason for yourself?” he indifferently replied.

The emotions expressed by Bartleby and by the narrator are not evenly matched, as the narrator describes his reaction as an exclamation--usually showing a shock or dismay--whereas Bartleby does no more than to show indifference to his statement.  This tagged and untagged distinction only helps to emphasize the disconnect that Bartleby has with his humanity, and gives the reader that much more reason to be disturbed by the narrator’s portrayal of Bartleby, even though the narrator goes out of his way to familiarize the reader with the good qualities that Bartleby may have.