The Many Identities of Bartleby

Cindy Crain

ENG 102

Laura Cline

24 February 2012

The Many Identities of Bartleby

Bartleby is a double for the narrator in Melville’s story, showing the dark ineffectiveness of the lawyer’s sense of Christian charity, and the absurdity of his work. 

Bartleby represents the side of the narrator who wants to continue coasting through life and say that he prefers not to work so hard.  Bartleby arrived after the narrator was awarded the office of Master in Chancery and his work load suddenly increased; he is the shadow that dogs the narrator, the part of him that wants to reject this busier lifestyle.  The narrator’s ambitious side desires the perks that accompany the position and resents Bartleby, as his alter ego, forcing him to slow down.  In response he hides Bartleby away in a corner of his office, “I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not remove him from my voice.” (Melville, loc: 118).  In this manner he is hiding away the part of himself that he dislikes and creating a barrier to separate the two distinct parts of his personality.  Note that the narrator does not say that he can hear Bartleby, but that Bartleby can hear him.

At first Melville allows the narrator, as the dominant side, a measure of control over Bartleby, “He ran a day and night line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light.  I should have been quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully industrious.  But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically.” (Melville, loc: 120).  As time went on the power began to shift.  Often when an authoritarian presses his will on another, the more passive person acquiesces in some areas yet attempts to defy the will of their tormenter in other ways, and then may completely break down.  In this case Bartleby will copy as much work as the narrator will give him, yet refuse to do other work.  And while his actions are firm he is unable to completely verbalize a denial, instead repeating that he prefers not to undertake other tasks. 

Here Melville shifts the power to Bartleby, and when the narrator continues to press him, Bartleby implies that his eyes will not allow him to copy and completely quits doing any work.  At this point the transition is complete; Bartleby takes the reins in this protracted struggle and try as he might the narrator cannot eradicate him.  Because Bartleby has figuratively paralyzed the narrator, in order to preserve his view of how the world should operate the narrator must kill off this unproductive, inefficient part of himself.  He leaves Bartleby behind and alone, and then denies him, “I am very sorry, sir…but really, the man you allude to is nothing to me,” (Melville, loc: 454).

The text illustrates the ineffectiveness of Christian charity as well as the insincerity that often goes hand in hand with the false benevolence.  On multiple occasions the narrator attempts to give money to Bartleby instead of working on finding a solution, even after he finds Bartleby’s savings in his desk drawer and it is apparent that money is not the issue, he attempts five times in three separate instances to give him funds.  The narrator does the same thing with Turkey when giving him a coat instead of addressing his alcoholism.  Too many times throwing money at a problem appeases our consciences when all would be better served by spending time collectively creating real solutions; this is the main distinction between Christian charity and those who head into the trenches to produce positive change in the world.  The narrator spends time within his head trying to figure out what is wrong with Bartleby and comes up with several ideas but doesn’t appear to notice how supercilious this is.  Instead of taking time to sit with Bartleby within his comfort zone (which at that time was his office) and work through solutions, the narrator leaves daily and tries to figure them out by himself.  This is another example of the unproductiveness of Christian charity.

Melville sheds light on the hypocrisy and insincerity more clearly than ever when – because the narrator is unable to get Bartleby to leave – he decides it is divine providence, and then when his friends and colleagues begin to make snide comments he reverses this decision and moves his office, threatening Bartleby not to follow.  Finally he has tried every means known to him except for calling the police, which he tells himself he can’t dishonor himself by doing, so his decision to let Bartleby remain serves his interest at the time, “At last I see it, I feel it; I penetrate to the predestinated purpose of my life.  I am content.  Others may have loftier parts to enact; but my mission in this world, Bartleby, if to furnish you with office-room for such period as you may see fit to remain.”(Melville, loc: 407).  So due to the narrator’s inability to convince Bartleby to leave, and his unwillingness to tarnish his name by either physically forcing Bartleby to or having the police remove him, Melville has the narrator jump on this idea that God – though he doesn’t say God, he says Providence – has put him on the earth in order to give Bartleby an office to make his home. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus   

Then the whispers begin.  His colleagues quickly begin to comment on the strangeness of the situation, both in the narrator’s presence and behind his back.  Melville shows us that the facade of being a charitable Christian is more important to the narrator than actually being charitable, which reflects back to Bartleby being the shadow side as well, as many will not only deny others but also will deny their true character in order to keep up appearances.  In order to be able to retract the original statement that Providence led him to take care of Bartleby, the narrator must show that Providence is now leading him away from this divine duty in order to fit with his identity as a charitable Christian.  In order to achieve this, Melville chooses descriptions that are inflammatory or derogatory within the church, having the narrator refer to Bartleby as, “the apparition in my room,” (loc: 427) and further said, “I resolved to gather all my faculties together , and for ever rid me of this this intolerable incubus.” (loc: 428).  An apparition is a spirit or supernatural appearance, which can either be positive or negative, but the connotation in the story leads towards negative.  Incubus is most definitely a negative, inflammatory term, and is technically a male demon who sexually assaults women in their sleep.  Although the narrator is not using the term in that way, it’s specifically chosen by Melville to show how the narrator needs to use this to justify his retreat from his divine duty.  The narrator can then tell himself that Providence led him, but Bartleby is evil and has been deceiving both the narrator and God, so he has no choice but to remove Bartleby from his life.  In this part of the story Melville shines the harshest light on Christian charity.

A scrivener is the prelude to the copy machine in human form.  When law documents needed to be sent to more than one recipient the scrivener would copy the document by hand multiple times and then review the copies with another scrivener for correctness.  This is a job that even the narrator referred to as a “dry, husky sort of business,” (Melville, loc: 100) and the comparison between the work and Bartleby as a dry, boring personality type is obvious.  Melville creates the characters of Turkey and Nippers as obvious contrasts of both the job and Bartleby, and through this dissimilarity Turkey and Nippers are utilized as vivid illustrations of the absurdity of the job.

Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of Wall Street. Public Domain Books, 1853. Digital.