Bartleby,
an Innovator
In the story “Bartleby,
the Scrivener,” by Herman Melville, Bartleby is the hero of Melville’s story in
his refusal to participate in a workplace that represents the sad, dreary
atmosphere of a bureaucratic, industrialized society. He is the only one
standing up to a society that is increasingly oppressive to workers.
The other “scriveners”
had their own peculiarities. “Turkey” was an older man of short stature and was
very productive of a morning, but once he had dined at noon he became insolent
and quick to speak out of turn. “Nippers” was a young man around twenty-five
years of age and was quite the opposite of “Turkey” in that he was more
productive and less challenging after his noon dining. The last was not a
scrivener, but an assistant, running errands, assisting and cleaning, this was
“Ginger Nut” who had a habit of collecting the shells of various different
nuts. As such the narrator was well adept at dealing with the peculiarities of
his employees, but Bartleby was a man of confusion to the narrator, as he was
even more unusual and different than those already working for the narrator.
When Bartleby first
started working as a scrivener for the narrator he was productive and good at
his work, but he refused to examine the copies that he had done stating that “I
would prefer not to.” (Melville)
This shows a certain amount of rebellion in the character. The examining of the
copies was standard procedure for a scrivener as to make sure that the copies
were exact to the original, but Bartleby refused without giving an explanation
as to why. The narrator confers the other scriveners and the assistant that are
there also to assist in the examining of the copies, each has their own opinion
on Bartleby’s stand, but all believe this to be very unusual. Instead of
continuing the confrontation, the narrator chooses to examine the documents
without Bartleby and think later on how to handle this unusual turn of events.
As an employer, the narrator has every right to dismiss Bartleby immediately
for his refusal to do part of his job, but instead he waits for the next time
he needs to examine papers and ask Bartleby again to assist. Once again
Bartleby refuses, to the narrator’s consternation.
At this point one must
analyze what is happening. Why is Bartleby refusing to do part of his job? The
view could be held that Bartleby is refusing to verify his copies as he knows
them to be exact, or that his refusal is based on the character not wanting to
work with others, or that he is refusing based on his opinion that this is not
part of his employment. What strikes me is the refusal is based in the fact
that Bartleby does not hold the opinion that examining the copies is part of
his employment, that he was hired to copy and only copy. So why does he not say
as much? This could be Bartleby’s way of
fighting against the expectations on workers in a society that takes the
workers for granted.
Eventually Bartleby
refused to even do his copying but also refused to leave the premises. The
narrator later thought that the reason for Bartleby’s refusal was due to his
eyes being tired and needing to “recover.” After trying to get Bartleby to
copy, examine the papers or to run an errand with his continued refusal, the
narrator paid Bartleby what he was owed and giving him an extra twenty dollars
and saying good-bye. The narrator returned to his office the next day and found
Bartleby to still be there. Bartleby would not “quit” him, the narrator, but would
not copy or anything else; he just stood there staring out the window. With
these new refusals of Bartleby’s we must again examine why. What was Bartleby’s
purpose of staying but not doing any work? These actions could be viewed as
continued fight against the expectations of workers in the society in which he
lived.
Eventually the narrator
decided that since Bartleby would not “quit” him, he would “quit” Bartleby and
move his office, but Bartleby still did not leave the premises and the next
tenant of the office eventually did end up having Bartleby removed as a vagrant
and he was placed in the prison. Here the narrator visited Bartleby and tried
to look after him by making sure he was well fed, but Bartleby did not eat and
ended up dying in prison.
Looking at this story
and the steps and stages of Bartleby the scrivener we can draw many
conclusions. The view expressed throughout the breakdown of the story is that
Bartleby fought against society’s expectations of workers in the only way he
had control of. He refused to do certain parts of his job and eventually
refused all parts, but still remained on the premises. Bartleby was a character
that went against the standards set for low level employees in his time. His
actions show a certain disregard for the rules he was expected to live and work
by. In his refusal to do part of or his entire job he was standing for his
rights as a person and we can assume that his actions could encourage others to
go against the general expectations that are put on them as well.
Bartleby could be
viewed as an example for the future workers to fight the society’s expectations
of workers and demand rights for themselves. With this view in mind, Bartleby
is an innovator in his time. He refused to do anything but what he was hired
for and in turn caused his employers expectations of him to lower to a level
that only entailed that of his title, “scrivener.” When these expectations by
the narrator lowered, Bartleby took things a step further by refusing to do
what he was hired for, but also refusing to leave. By doing this the narrator
eventually accepted that he was “meant” to allow Bartleby to remain without
working, until after time, other people caused the narrator pause and to view
him in a different light. Though the narrator moved office, he still felt a
certain responsibility toward Bartleby and tried to help him, showing that
Bartleby made an impression on the narrator in his refusals.
Bartleby’s actions show
that he is the only one standing up to a society that is increasingly
oppressive to workers and that thought his actions may have been a little
unorthodox, he did, in fact, achieve what he wanted to. He made his employer
feel that his expectation of the workers was too much and that he should care
about his employees and not just the work they did.
