Sunday, February 3, 2019

Bartleby the Scrivener: Lawyer Double Essay -- Literary Analysis, Bart

Bartleby the Scrivener, by Herman Melville is a novelette about a nameless attorney who has in his employ a scrivener named Bartleby. Bartleby, passim the novella, has different periods of work. In the opening, he does his scrivening without reprimand or without hesitation, but as the novella progresses his attitude toward work transmutes drastically. Mordecai Marcus critical essay on the novella makes some good points, such that Bartleby is a psychological double for the lawyer, he hold still fors a subliminal death drive within himself, and the conflict among absolutism and free will. All three of these points are attributed to Bartleby because he represents each respectively. In Mordecai Marcus critical essay on Bartleby the Scrivener, he takes the stand that Bartleby is a psychological double for the nameless lawyer. While progressing through the novella, Bartleby begins to slow atomic reactor and eventually stops working altogether. The Lawyer doesnt know what to do ma inly because, Bartlebys power over the lawyer quickly grows as the story progresses. (Marcus 1) When the lawyer first hired Bartleby, he was a haunting young worker, There was no pause for digestion. He ran a daytime and night line, copying by sunlight and by candlelight. (Melville 16) This is in the beginning of the novella right after the lawyer had hired him. Bartleby, to the lawyer, doesnt see to have any separate ambitions rather than scrivening for him. further all of that begins to change when Bartleby begins to not want to do some of the tasks the lawyer asks him to do. The first pillow slip of this is when he is asked to proofread one of the copies he just completed, rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do namely, to examine a small paper with meBartleb... ...ast. But again obeying that wondrous ascendancy which the inscrutable scrivener had over me (Melville 44) Again, the lawyer is amazed at the amount of power Bartleby has over him. Bartleby, without actua lly doing anything, has taken away most of the lawyers free will and in turn work his own absolutism.The novella is set in New York City in a Wall Street law office both Bartleby and the lawyer represent characters of New York. Bartleby represents a type of person who is excited to precipitate to a new city but then gets ground master into the daily routine of the city and begins to loose the will to work. The lawyer, on the other hand, represents the quintessential New Yorker, owning his own business and trying to succeed in a city that is famous for crushing spirits. Both Bartleby and the lawyer represent true characters within the fabric of the city of New York.

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