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Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
“Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” is a short story by Herman Melville, first serialized in two issues of Putnam’s Magazine in November and December 1853, and reprinted with minor textual revisions in the 1856 collection The Piazza Tales.
Plot Summary
The story is narrated by an unnamed lawyer who employs copyists, or “scriveners”, to copy legal documents in his Wall Street office. The lawyer already employs two scriveners, Nippers and Turkey, both of whom have their eccentricities and are prone to bouts of temper and inefficiency. When the volume of work increases, the lawyer decides to hire an additional scrivener. Bartleby, a quiet and unassuming man, responds to the lawyer’s advertisement.
At first, Bartleby proves to be an excellent worker, diligently copying documents day and night. However, when asked to help proofread a document, Bartleby responds with what soon becomes his stock phrase: “I would prefer not to.” This initially minor act of defiance puzzles the lawyer. As time passes, Bartleby’s refusals become more frequent and extend to other tasks. He eventually ceases working altogether and instead spends his days staring at the blank wall outside his window.
The lawyer, a compassionate man, is torn between his frustration with Bartleby’s behavior and a sense of responsibility for his employee. He tries various tactics, from reasoning to pleading, but nothing seems to affect Bartleby. He even offers to let Bartleby live in his home, but Bartleby refuses.
When the lawyer’s landlord demands that Bartleby be removed from the office, the lawyer moves his business rather than force Bartleby out. However, Bartleby refuses to leave the old office and continues to occupy it. The new tenants complain, and Bartleby is eventually arrested for vagrancy.
The lawyer visits Bartleby in prison, where he finds him even more withdrawn and detached. Bartleby refuses all offers of help and dies in the prison yard, having chosen to starve himself to death. The story concludes with the lawyer’s lament for Bartleby and a brief postscript suggesting that Bartleby had previously worked in the Dead Letter Office, a detail that hints at his isolation and despair.