“Bartleby, the Scrivener” Herman Melville. Intro Scrivener = law copyist (before copy machines) Turkey and Nippers are the nicknames of other scriveners.

“Bartleby, the Scrivener”

Herman Melville

Intro

• Scrivener = law copyist (before copy machines)

• Turkey and Nippers are the nicknames of other scriveners

• Read the passage on the next page; ask questions if needed.

Shall I acknowledge it? The conclusion of this whole business was, that it soon became a fixed fact of my chambers, that a pale young scrivener, by the name of Bartleby, had a desk there; that he copied for me at the usual rate of four cents a folio

(one hundred words); but he was permanently exempt from examining the work done by him, that duty being transferred to Turkey and Nippers, one

of compliment doubtless to their superior acuteness; moreover, said Bartleby was never on any account to be dispatched on the most trivial errand of any sort; and that even if entreated to take upon him such a matter, it was generally

understood that he would prefer not to–in other words, that he would refuse point-blank.

When do you think this passage was written? What makes you think

so? • 1800s

• Old words like “chambers” and “folio”

• Old concepts like copying documents by hand

• Pay of four cents per page

Where do you think the passage takes place?

• Some sort of office– Copying pages– Running errands

How do you think this setting compares with office environments

today?

• Different – we have computers and copy machines

• Same – employees who are difficult, nicknames

How relevant do you think this is to modern-day society? Can you

imagine a similar situation existing today?”

• Similar relationships exist even if the work is different

• Yes – there’s always that one employee who is difficult, loses everything, or has some other quirk that is inexplicably tolerated

As you read the article “So You’re a Nowhere Man in a Nowhere

World, Now Get Back to Work,” answer these questions.

In what year did Herman Melville finish writing “Moby Dick”? About

how many years later did he die?

• 1841

• 50 years later

What are considered some of Melville’s greatest works?

• Billy Budd (novella)

• The Confidence Man (novel)

• The Piazza Tales (short story collection)

• Moby Dick (novel)

Why, according to the article’s author, was Melville’s work

largely forgotten during his own lifetime?

• He was so far ahead of his time

Why does the article’s author consider Melville “the forefather of Kafka, and also of ‘Dilbert’”?

• It is the first story about office workplaces and office culture.

What are some examples of film adaptations of Melville’s work that have been done in recent

years?

• Beau Travail (based on Billy Budd)

• Pola X (based on Pierre)

• Bartleby

Who wrote the most recent version of “Bartleby,” starring Crispin

Glover in the title role? • Jonathan Parker

• Catherine di Napoli

Where does this modernized version of “Bartleby” take place?

• A “surreal contemporary nowhere world”

Who plays the boss in this film version of the story?

• David Paymer

What is “farce,” and how, according to the article, does it help save

the story’s “literary gloom”?

• Farce: A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. (dictionary.com)

• The humor balances the depressing situation

How is the office setting of the modern version of “Bartleby”

described in the article? • “understated putrescence”

• Putrescence: becoming putrid: a state of foul decay or decomposition, as animal or vegetable matter; rotten. (dictionary.com)

Why is Bartleby’s “refusal…” considered “at once suicidal and

heroic”? • He’s totally irrational

• Yet totally understandable

• We all wish to behave like this

• But know we would lose our jobs

Why does the author consider the short film “Upheaval” to be a perfect compliment to the film based on Melville’s “Bartleby”?

• It’s also stingingly critical

• But of the upper class and of marriage relationships instead of the workplace

Bartleby Analysis Questions

Bartleby seems stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate, yet the boss and many readers sympathize with him. Explain what feeling or desire we

have in common with him that allows us to do so. Do we always

act on this feeling or desire? Why or why not?

• Answers will vary.

Why does Bartleby use the word “prefer” when refusing to work

rather than saying he “will not” do something?

• It is a passive resistance;

• its passivity is bewildering to those around him, preventing their own resistance;

• it subsequently wreaks havoc in the office and the narrator’s life.

Why does Bartleby stare at blank walls so much? Remember that Melville is a Romantic author, thus finds meaning in nature –

consider how this contrasts with the setting in which “Bartleby” takes place.

• Bartleby is walled in, cut off from nature, where he can find meaning.

• Note that at the end of the story he spends time on the small patch of grass in the prison.

• The industrial age and his mindless job have ruined him.

What does Bartleby’s previous job in the dead letters office suggest

about his character?• Just as the letters cannot get to their

intended recipients, Bartleby is blocked from achieving anything by being cut off from nature and being disallowed autonomy over his own life.

• Bartleby’s life is dead and meaningless like the lost letters.

What is Melville trying to communicate through Bartleby’s

death at the end of the story? Many people assume

that Bartleby is just too stubborn or lazy – is that what Melville is trying to say?

• It shows how the industrialization of America narrows the horizons of individuals, reduces them to machines, and kills their spirits.

What is the theme of this story? Support your answer with evidence

from the story.• People need purpose in their lives.

• People need contact with nature to be happy.

• Reducing someone to a machine is damaging to their spirit.

Romantic Story Analysis Chart

Interest in the common man & childhood

• characters are common workers

• Bartleby seems innocent like a child

Strong senses, emotions and feelings

• Narrator is confused & bewildered by Bartleby

• Bartleby seems very depressed

Love of Nature

• Absence of nature leads to Bartleby’s isolation, depression and death

Celebration of the Individual

• Bartleby is misunderstood by his society…

• but readers sympathize with him.

Importance of imagination

• Story is pretty realistic…

• …but lack of imagination kills Bartleby

Gothic elements

• N/A