Herman Melville

Bartleby, the Scrivener Herman Melville

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street by Herman Melville

A successful Wall Street attorney hires Bartleby, a scribe, to lighten his law firm's workload. For two days, Bartleby performs his work with skill and earns the owner's trust for his diligence. Then the copyist begins to show signs of mental imbalance by refusing to proofread his work, eventually refusing to copy at all. Instead, look out the window at a white wall. The lawyer, who discovers that Bartleby lives in the law firm, gives him time to recover from eyestrain, then tries to fire the recalcitrant employee. Bartleby refuses to leave. A second ploy, moving to another office and leaving Bartleby behind, causes outrage from the new tenants, who accuse the lawyer of responsibility for Bartleby's eccentricities.

After fleeing the scene for several days, the lawyer returns and learns that Bartleby has been arrested for wandering and taken to the Tombs. Still driven by a compassionate impulse, the lawyer visits Bartleby and finds him free to roam the grassy courtyard, but confining himself to studying a wall. On a subsequent visit, the lawyer observes Bartleby's crouched form lying dead at the base of a wall. Still haunted by the singular peculiarities of his deceased employee, the lawyer ponders rumors that the man was forced to quit a job at the Dead Letter Office. In retrospect, the lawyer feels pity for Bartleby and for all humanity.