Bartleby, The Scrivener explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Passive Resistance

  Bartleby's entire mode of opposition is established through his polite but absolute refusals, beginning with proofreading and escalating, which paralyzes his employer's authority.

• Capitalism and Dehumanization

  The office is a microcosm of Wall Street commerce; the workers are defined by their eccentricities and utility, and Bartleby's forlornness and eventual refusal to participate highlight the dehumanizing nature of the work.

Characters to notice

• The Lawyer

  Introduces himself as a safe, methodical man who works with rich men's bonds and mortgages. He is the narrator and employer, already showing a conflict between his desire for ease and his troubled conscience.

• Bartleby

  Hired as a scrivener. Described as pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, and incurably forlorn. He begins work efficiently but then initiates his passive resistance, refusing to proofread and eventually all work, while secretly living in the office.

• Turkey

  An elderly, erratic scrivener whose work is excellent in the morning but becomes blotted and rash in the afternoon.

• Nippers

  A young, ambitious scrivener plagued by indigestion and nervous irritability in the mornings, which smooths out by the afternoon.

• Ginger Nut

  A 12-year-old office boy who runs errands, primarily for cakes and apples, named for the ginger-nut cakes he fetches.

Key passages

• “I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:—I mean the law-copyists or scriveners.”

  The narrator introduces himself as an older lawyer whose long career has involved working closely with scriveners (copyists), a group he finds interesting and unique.

  Establishes the narrator's perspective and the story's focus on the often-overlooked class of office workers.

• “My chambers were up stairs at No. — Wall-street.”

  The lawyer's office was located upstairs at a specific address on Wall Street.

  Immediately grounds the story in the symbolic heart of American business and finance.

• “In answer to my advertisement, a motionless young man one morning stood upon my office threshold, the door being open, for it was summer. I can see that figure now—pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!”

  Bartleby arrives in response to a job ad. He stands perfectly still and is described as pale, neat, respectable, and profoundly sad.

  The first description of Bartleby establishes his key traits: immobility, orderliness, and deep melancholy.

• “'I would prefer not to,' he said, and gently disappeared behind his screen.”

  Bartleby refuses a request using his signature phrase and quietly retreats behind the folding screen that divides his workspace.

  The first instance of his passive resistance, which is polite, firm, and followed by a physical withdrawal.

• “For a few days I was staggered. Was there any other thing in which I could procure myself to be ignominiously repulsed by this lean, penniless wight?—my hired clerk? What added thing is there, perfectly reasonable, that he will be sure to refuse?”

  The lawyer is deeply confused and offended. He wonders what other reasonable tasks Bartleby, his mere employee, will refuse, feeling powerless against this passive opposition.

  Shows the lawyer's psychological turmoil and the effective, destabilizing power of Bartleby's simple refusal.