Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853)

Discussion Questions:

1.) What elements in the setting(s) of the story are particularly important? (What about various "walls"?)

2.) Analyze the narrator. How and why does Melville present him the way he does? What do you think of him? Is he static or dynamic? Is he round or flat? Is he reliable?

3.) Analyze the other characters in the narrator's employ. How and why does Melville present them the way he does? What do you think of them? Are any of them "dynamic"? Are any of them "round"?

4.) Analyze the character of Bartleby. How and why does Melville present him the way he does? Is he static or dynamic? Is he round or flat?

5.) Why does Bartleby "prefer not to"? What is behind this "passive resistance"? How can his behavior(s) be explained?

6.) How do you interpret the ending(s) of this story -- Bartleby's death? the "post-script"? the last lines?

7.) The story's title is "Bartleby, the Scrivener," but some critics maintain that the story is actually really about the narrator. What do you think of this theory?

8.) Could this story be read as a gothic "spooky ghost story"? If so, how? If not, why not?

Some Specific Theories about the Story:

1.) Some critics suggest that this story is “Melville’s attempt to dramatize the complex question of an individual’s obligation to society -- Bartleby’s life ends when he is no longer useful.”

• Bartleby’s death -- page _____

2.) By reverse, we could say that this story is about society’s obligation or duty to the individual -- the narrator’s responsibility for someone in his employ -- the responsibility of persons in authority for those below them -- the responsibility for someone who is less fortunate or for someone who is obviously lost.

• The last line -- “Ah Bartleby!  Ah Humanity!” -- page _____

3.) Related to these ideas, some critics suggest that this story is about “walls.”

• A story of “Wall Street” -- pages _____
• The white walls of the light shaft -- pages _____
• The lofty black brick wall outside -- pages _____
• The ground-glass folding doors -- pages _____
• The window/wall by Bartleby’s desk -- pages _____
• A high green folding screen -- pages _____
• Bartleby’s dead-wall reveries -- pages _____
• The prison walls of the Tomb -- pages _____
• Friendlessness and loneliness -- pages _____
• "Psychological walls" of misunderstanding

4.) Some critics suggest that Bartleby is Melville’s representation of the artist in society. Further, that this story reflects Melville’s own futility at the neglect of his novels -- "dead letters" (Mardi, Pierre) -- and his uncertainty about how to relate to society -- or how society relates to him. A scrivener is a writer. The letters are dead. This negates life. The futility of work.

• See Melville's biographical information
• Compare to Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” as an artist -- see Melville's quote about Rip -- "he saw Rip as an archetypal artist figure"
• Compare to Sedgwick's "Cacoethes Scribendi" with Mrs. Courland and her sisters as artists/writers
• Compare to Davis’s “Life in the Iron Mills” with Hugh as an artist

5.) Some critics suggest that this story is just another Melville sea tale, only this time set on dry land. (Compare to Moby Dick and Billy Budd.)

• The narrator is the captain of a crew.
• The captain is decent and reasonable/rational.
• The captain confronts rebellion.
• The captain is an authority figure representing tradition, law, society, etc.
• The captain is unable to fully understand the one who rebels.
• In an effort to do right, in some degree the captain is responsible for the death of the one who rebels.

6.) This story does have likenesses to Poe.

• A narrator puzzled by the actions of another major character
• Troubling "eyes"
• "Demented men"
• Enclosing walls or tombs
• Narrator comments
• Mason up remains in the wall
• An enigmatic death -- puzzling
• "Pallid" and "pale" forms (ghosts?)
• The repetition of “I prefer not to” is similar to the Raven’s repetition of “nevermore"

7.) Could this story also be a connection or a response to Henry David Thoreau’s essay, “Resistance to Civil Government”? (Thoreau's essay is also titled “Civil Disobedience.”) Thoreau is arguing for passive or non-violent resistance to government -- and Thoreau's essay inspired both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Could Bartleby be representing passive resistance? If so, resistance to what?

• See these passages on pages ___________________________
• Also, for a connection to Walden, see a passage on page _____

8.) Some critics suggest that this story is Melville’s conscious decision to contribute to the development of the American short story -- to add to what Irving, Sedgwick, Hawthorne, and Poe have already started.

• The eccentric characters of Bartleby, Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut.
• Melville is poking fun at universal characters by creating very unusual or absurd ones.
• Melville gives us characters we can’t relate to or understand.
• Melville’s "tips-of-the-hat" to Poe

9.) Like Rebecca Harding Davis’ story, in addition to the idea of society’s obligation to the individual, Melville’s story could also be about the beginning of literary realism in America -- and possibly realism and social criticism.

• See Rebecca Harding Davis' biographical information
• See course handout on the transition from Romanticism to Realism