Essay about Why Bartleby Cannot Be Reached - 1786 Words

Why Bartleby Cannot Be Reached While Herman Melville’s lawyer in Bartleby, the Scrivener appears to have undergone a significant change in character by the story’s completion, the fact remains that the story is told through (the lawyer’s) first-person point-of-view. This choice of narration allows the lawyer not only to mislead the reader, but also to color himself as lawful and just. In the lawyer’s estimate, the reader is to view him as having not only made an effort to save Bartleby, but as a man who has himself changed for the good, ethically speaking. What the lawyer fails to acknowledge in his retelling of events is his inability to communicate with Bartleby not because of Bartleby’s shortcomings, but because of his own. The†¦show more content†¦While he claims to so respect Turkey’s abilities, he is embarrassed by his appearance, and provides him with a coat to better the image of the firm. The lawyer describes Nippers in a similar fashion, calling him a us eful man who wrote a neat, swift hand; and, when he chose, was not deficient in a gentlemanly sort of deportment, though he also accuses Nippers of not knowing what he wanted (2405-6). He is displeased with Nippers because he sometimes illustrates free will in his outbursts and constant attempts to alter his drafting table. While the lawyer makes a point of noting his employees’ attributes, he is certain to note their character flaws, as well. For if men like Turkey and Nippers were of no use to him as employees, they would be of no use at all. The lawyer does not have time to waste on mere people -- possessors of choice and will -- whose worth is next to nothing. Bartleby, then, provides an interesting dilemma, for while he appears less than attractive to the typical reader, he is an ideal employee in the eyes of the lawyer. Upon first meeting Bartleby, the lawyer describes him as pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn (2407). Clearly, these are less than flattering descriptions of the man, for in each case, the lawyer is unable to pay a compliment without distorting the image. On their own, personality traits such as neat, respectable, and forlorn would be regarded as kind and, to some degree, compassionate.Show MoreRelatedThe Most Fatal Illusion Is The Settled Point Of View896 Words   |  4 PagesMelville’s Bartleby the Scrivener is written in the first person. Readers thusly experience the oddity that is Bartleby through the eyes of the nameless narrator. â€Å"Bartleby was one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except†¦what my own astonished eyes saw of Bartleby, that is all I know of him,â₠¬  all we as readers can ascertain about Bartleby stems from what little the narrator knows of him and all he tells us about him (Melville 546). So what is really known of Bartleby? 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With Lewis Mumford’s seminal study Herman Melville: A Critical Biography (1929) marking the advent of the â€Å"Melville industry,† attentive readers—amateur and professional alike—have reached consensus respecting the text’s massive and heterogeneous structure. Moby Dick, for all its undeniable heuristic treasures, remains a taxonomist’s nightmare. For Melville’s complex narrative is an embarrassment of riches variously described as a