Bartleby the Scrivener, let's talk about it

           Bartleby the Scrivener follows four scriveners that are employed by an elderly lawyer, who also acts as the narrator in this story. The narrator begins by telling the readers a little about his background. He then goes on to give the reader a description of his then, three employees. First up is Turkey. He “was a short, pursy Englishman of about my own age, that is, somewhere not far from sixty.” Next, “Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the whole, rather piratical-looking young man of about five and twenty.” “Ginger Nut, the third on my list, was a lad some twelve years old.”  

            The lawyer then proceeds to describe his premises. Ground glass folding doors divided his premises into two parts, one of which was occupied by his scriveners, the other by the lawyer. He decides to place Bartleby in a corner by the folding doors, but on his side of them. Bartleby’s desk was close up to a small window that had a view of nothing, “at the present”.

            The story goes on to account the daily activity of the scriveners and their duties. Bartleby at first, has done a good job but his work performance has started to dwindle away the farther into the story one gets. “I would prefer not to” has become his main phrase and eventually, is all he ever says. The lawyer and three other scriveners become maddened by Bartleby’s stubborn behavior. As the story comes to a close, Bartleby eventually refuses to leave the lawyers office and even after the lawyer is forced to move his office, Bartleby still remains there. Bartleby is then arrested and put into jail. After the lawyer goes to the jail to arrange to have Bartleby fed well he visits him a few days later. The lawyer learns that Bartleby has been refusing to eat anything and when he goes out into the jail’s courtyard to talk to Bartleby, who appears to be sleeping under a tree, he sees that Bartleby is, in fact, dead.

            The lawyer ends the story by giving us the only clue he has as to who Bartleby was. He mentions that he was a clerk in the Dead Letter Office in Washington where he would have to sort through all of the letters and/or other things the soldiers carried that were still on them after they died. He thinks, that this is why Bartleby ended up the way he was.

            Although it is a long story, I really enjoyed Bartleby the Scrivener. However, I can’t really fully explain why. Something about the story got to me and once I started reading it I couldn’t stop reading it. I felt like I could picture the story in my head while I was reading. I feel like this quality, is one of the important qualities that make a good story. Bartleby can speak to all generations in different ways and that is why, I highly recommend you read it.