Topic 2: Argue for or
against this statement: Bartleby’s behavior is a reasonable response to his
circumstances.
“Bartleby, the Scrivener. A story of Wall-Street” is a short story
written by Herman Melville in 1853. Bartleby’s actions could be justified considering
that he used to work at the “Dead Letter Office” according to the Boss. The
miserable job at the Dead Letter Office may have caused him to withdraw into
his miserable state, but I still believe that his behavior towards the
circumstances around him are still unacceptable.
The Boss, narrator, has offered Bartleby numerous opportunities for him
to bring his life back together. Bartleby is the main character that generates
problems in the story, but more importantly the conflict lies within Bartleby
himself. The fact that Bartleby often uses the word “prefer” which is
surrounded by ambiguity that could represent his own inability to make a
decision. When Bartleby is provided with an opportunity from the Boss, he
resides to a firm and cold response of “I prefer not to”. My interpretation of
this phrase seems as if Bartleby is a person who is on the verge of jumping off
a bridge in order to end his own misery, yet he hopes that someone would come
and stop him from doing so. This would better explain the ambiguity and the
vagueness in his responses. The self-torture that Bartleby imposes on himself
through starvation is also an interesting method of gaining attention, as if he
is seeking for glimpses of hope.
From my understanding, Bartleby is subjected to a repetitive labor that a
machine would do as a scrivener, and often Melville would describe Bartleby as
a character that lacks emotion and feelings displayed through his ‘gray eyes’.
However, the Boss does try his best to bring Bartleby back, he makes his effort
to work with Bartleby and tries to understand his motives. The Boss also
recognizes Bartleby as a hard worker and even protects him from hurtful
comments made by Nippers and Turkey. Furthermore, Bartleby is treated with
generosity and respect by the boss, “I owe you twelve dollars on account; here
are thirty-two; the odd twenty are yours. -Will you take it?, yet Bartleby
still refuses to accept the opportunity. The motives of the Boss to help
Bartleby are evident as the story is told through his perspective. Another example
of how the Boss is willing to help Bartleby is from his consideration of
relocating the office. Since Bartleby has been continuously taking shelter in
the office, leaving the office means that Bartleby will have no place to stay.
After establishing his office at another location, the Boss still constantly
thinks about Bartleby and somehow hoping that Bartleby might unexpectedly show
up in his new office. This was the Boss’ last resort of getting rid of Bartleby
after trying his best to understand Bartleby.
The examples mentioned above provides a few reasons of how I find
Bartleby’s behavior unreasonable response to his circumstances. Bartleby was
given chances to piece himself back together, but he still refuses to cooperate
due to his ignorance and still chooses to dwell in his own misery.
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ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up that Bartleby's suffering is mostly self imposed. This helps support your theory that he was depressed and just wanting someone to see his pain. I do think that your paragraphs could be organized a bit better so that your ideas flow better in to the next idea.
ReplyDeleteYou stated the Bartleby’s actions could be justifiable because he worked at the Dead Letter Office. Your post could be even better if you explained why his previous job should not affect his work, therefore deeming his actions unacceptable. The first paragraph has a very good analysis of his famous phrase; the idea of ambiguity and Bartleby not being able to make a decision is a good interpretation. Overall, this post is very well-written but could use some more analysis of the evidence with less summary.
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