The narrator was compassionate enough not to have him forcibly removed from the premises. Neither money nor the prospect of working someplace new appeals to Bartleby and he continues to live in the office. In order to devise a plan to mitigate this risk, he makes several futile attempts at trying to know more about him or reason with him to leave the premises. The mystery surrounding his constant presence in the office premises and his continual staring at the brick wall deepens and the narrator, thinking that if word spread it could bring bad reputation for his business. Having had to come to work one Sunday, the narrator notices that Bartleby had started living in the office premises. The volume of his work declines at a steady pace until one point where he does absolutely nothing but stares at a brick wall out of his office window all day long. This irks the narrator as well as the other employees, but Bartleby’s stance remains steadfast in that matter. One fine day, upon being asked by the narrator to proofread, Bartleby responds with ‘I would prefer not to’, and after that, it becomes his response to pretty much everything that is asked of him. The cover of Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street In the initial period of his employment, Bartleby seems very meticulous producing high-quality work in high volumes, never taking lunch breaks and continues to remain reticent and oblivious to the banter or the tantrums of his other colleagues. Another employee, Ginger Nut, who is a young office boy completes the staff.Īs the business grows, the narrator advertises for the position of another scrivener- Bartleby: more forlorn and calmer than his other staff. The narrator of the story is an unnamed, unambitious elderly man that has a snug law-copying business He has two scriveners in his employ already: Turkey and Nippers, both of whom are eccentric – while the former is more civil in the first half of the day, while the latter in second. As their relationship revolves, the personality of Bartleby still remains an enigma to the narrator and the readers alike.

The story revolves around an unnamed Manhattan lawyer and his mysterious new hire, Bartleby. Bartleby the Scrivener: Summary and Plot Analysis This is an excerpt from ‘Bartleby the scrivener’ the first short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first published in Putnam magazine, way back in 1853.

Seeing what we want to see and feel commands so much power on us humans that we are even more blinded to what we don’t want to see or feel widening the gap between happiness and misery disproportionately. “Happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay, but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.”

It tells the story of Bartleby – a scrivener (a clerk or scribe) who works for a Manhattan lawyer and grows increasingly enigmatic as the story progresses. It was first published in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of a magazine. Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is a short story or novella written by American author Herman Melville.

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