Bartleby The Scrivener: Displaced by Society , when a tingling shiver ran down my arm and spine to my feet” (1173). Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Bartelby the Scrivener died of sadness, feeling trapped and completely without a place in the mechanized society that had sprouted up around him. He was a victim of his own desire to resist the reckless adaptation that characters like the narrator achieved so fluidly. Bartleby's death clearly testifies to Melville's discontented view of the modern world; a world where strength comes from weakness and flexibility, and where the weak naturally dominate the strong. However, to define Bartleby the Scrivener in such simple terms is to ignore some important and specific themes that Melville cleverly allegorizes with the story's characters. For Melville, modern authoritarian society divides a person's responsibilities so minutely that it reduces the scope of their ability to interact with themselves, with nature, and with their community. This belief closely follows that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who viewed modern mechanized society as the downfall of humanity because it rendered individuals insensitive to the range of abilities with which they are naturally endowed. Melville's characters in Bartleby, the Scrivener are depicted as "half-men" who are victims of a society that stifles their natural ability to feel and act in accordance with their romantic role as an individual in society. The American Romantics have a unique view of this role. of the individual in society. Understanding this role is crucial to understanding the reasons for the tragic failure of romantic values in Bartleby, the Scrivener. For a romantic, the well-being of the individual is paramount in relation to the quality of the society he builds. Emerson best details the relationship between the individual and society in The American Scholar. He emphasizes that nature and simplicity are more authentic than the hierarchy and divisions of modern society. The divisions and subdivisions of society, caused in part by the mechanization of industry and commerce, distance people from the potential wealth of the full range of emotions, experiences, and senses of which each person is capable. Each man is forced to reduce himself to a single function, devoting all his energy to this single task. He relies on the rest of society to provide for his needs and the luxuries of life in exchange for his hard-earned money. As a result, people become absorbed in the hard work of daily life, unable to see beyond their immediate time and place. The farmer “sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond” (842). The merchant “almost never gives a worthwhile idea to his work, but he is dominated by the routine of his trade, and his soul is subject to dollars” (842). With these critiques of modern society, Emerson suggests that part of the return to simplicity, or at least the first step toward it, is the return to self. Only then can the spiritual dialogue between man and nature begin. And through this proximity to nature, the “self” improves, thereby improving society as a whole. Emerson describes society as "indefinable" because the souls of its individuals have been replaced by a single laborious goal: "this original unity, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, so minutely subdivided and peddled, that it spread in drops andcannot be collected” (842). A society populated by people who live life to the fullest, dividing their own energies between a balanced mix of survival, reflection and contemplation, and pursuing a trade or job, will form for itself a community characteristic. The contentment and autonomy of each of its individuals will allow them to pursue, among other things, community proximity to ensure security and growth. A society full of such individuals is naturally better than a society whose members are absorbed in themselves and their small daily tasks. Bartleby's narrator, the Scrivener, seems perfectly adapted to life in an authoritarian world. It is only committed to ensuring safety and security. He “is driven by the profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” and is therefore an “eminently secure man” (1149). His seemingly natural harmony with the world around him implies that he is not a romantic2E. But the narrator has certain romantic traits that cannot be ignored. He is sensible, sympathetic and compassionate, and decides to help Bartleby take decisive action in his life: "his soul I could not reach... but if I could help him in any other way, I would be happy to do so. Moreover, if, after returning home, he found himself at any time in need of assistance, a letter from him would be sure of an answer” (1161). Given the narrator's unadventurous, noncommittal lifestyle, this kind of compassion is surprising. More surprising, however, is the special bond he feels with Bartleby, disconcertingly odd. After realizing that Bartleby had taken up residence in the office, “the new bond of common humanity plunged me irresistibly into sadness. A fraternal melancholy! For Bartleby and I were both sons of Adam” (1160). The fact that the narrator believes that he and Bartleby are "sons of Adam" reveals not only that he has a deep well of compassion from which he draws for Bartleby, but also that the bond between these seemingly poles apart people is more deep as Bartleby and Bartleby. » the narrator would probably like to admit. Bartleby and the narrator are two "half-men" who together should form a complete man. The narrator is flexible and adaptable, well adapted to his environment and in touch with the intricacies of his society and his duty. Although he is not a dynamic person, he represents the lowest common denominator necessary to survive the modern society described by Melville. The 19th century Romantics probably did not praise men for their ability to adapt and find safety and security at all costs. But the ability to survive without imposing authoritarian values on others is certainly a romantic trait; that which the narrator possesses. He is, of course, an authority figure, but that is one of his "weaknesses". Bartleby's inability to resist passive resistance is actually a respectable trait that indicates a compassionate and romantic disposition. Bartleby does not have everything the narrator has and is therefore doomed to isolation. However, unlike the narrator, Bartleby acts from his heart. Bartleby is completely isolated because he is guided by his own emotions and only considers himself in all matters. Even his famous line "I'd rather not do it" implies that Bartleby, rather than objecting because of logical or ethical disagreement, simply doesn't want to. This loyalty to his own heart is his defining romantic value, one that the narrator betrays by living to please others. Thus, both the narrator and Bartleby possess the necessary romantic traits which, if fused together,could form a complete person who represents the kind of dynamic and capable person that romantics idealize. But in the process of dividing humanity into its constituent parts, authoritarian society has stripped from each of these men a vital part of their being which forces them into an unnatural state of humanity, which dooms them to failure. even in the presence of their complementary half. Bartleby's determination to obey his feelings brings no satisfaction or happiness because nothing in life excites him; he is apparently incapable of pleasure. As a result, Bartleby speaks of the office devoid of life. Bartleby is "palely well-groomed, pitifully respectable, incurably desperate, vaguely calm, cadaverous" and "like a very ghost, conforming to the laws of magical invocation, appears outside his hermitage" (1153, 1154, 1158, 1159). Bartleby, because he finds no connection with his surroundings, lives in a state of near death, completely unnatural. Likewise, the narrator fails to accomplish the only thing that ever aroused passion in him: helping Bartleby. So accustomed to a life avoiding controversy for the sake of his own comfort, he finds himself unable to help even one man With the story's final quote "Ah, humanity." !”, the narrator realizes that he is neither capable of helping Bartleby, nor equipped to change the human condition. Although few people expect a single person to change the human condition, Emerson's and probably Melville's notion of the role of the individual in society suggests that "complete" individuals who exist in their state natural with a natural environment have a profound effect on the state of humanity. To a romantic, individuals must be compassionate, spiritual, and capable to such a degree that they only need to exist to improve the society around them. them2E As a man who possesses only the faculties necessary to survive in a safe and easy life, the narrator fails to improve the life of a single other man because he, too, exists in a state of unnatural isolation , although he survives in his world. , he is an insignificant part of a vast machine for which he performs mundane tasks. In this sense, he is isolated from himself, and therefore isolated from understanding his place in the world. More precisely, the narrator's laborious and limited life made him. him incapable of understanding anything irrational. Richard H. Fogle, author of a brief analysis titled simply “Bartleby,” points out that “Bartleby's irrationalism is inscrutable; it is the element of mystery in the world” that the narrator is unable to understand (24). This causes the narrator a “growing sense of fear and anxiety” (24), which indicates his inability to understand anything that deviates from the linear, orderly, and conformist. Even Melville's description of the environment around him serves to illustrate the narrator's limited view of the world. It appears to him to be constantly blocked by walls with which he feels strangely at ease, and in which he even finds a “hidden beauty” (1149). These walls protect him from the vast truth that waits to be discovered. The dark, cold, gray structures of Wall Street displace nature and provide the narrator with sufficient surroundings only because he knows nothing of what lies beyond. Although a certain degree of innocence is a respectable romantic trait, ignorance is not. The narrator's ignorance is the determining factor in his unnatural state of existence. Turkey and Nippers are more obvious and comical representatives of a divided humanity and an unnatural existence. Like the narrator and Bartleby, their eccentricities complement each other. Turkey, who is old and indecline, works calmly and efficiently until noon, when he quickly becomes drunk and rushes into his space in rage. Young Nippers is “the victim of two evil powers: ambition and indigestion” (1150). Throughout the morning, his indigestion leaves him irritable and unable to work effectively, until midday, when he settles down and produces work comparable to that of Turkey when sober. Thus, the two “stood up like guards, [which was] a good natural arrangement, considering the circumstances” (1152). Together the two form a "good natural arrangement", but alone they exist as half-men in a completely unnatural state. Turkey spends half his day, and therefore half his life, drunk and crazy. Nippers spend so much time grinding their teeth and rearranging their desks out of frustration with indigestion. But unlike the relationship between Bartleby and the narrator, Turkey and Nippers function properly once they are both seen as one person. They complement each other because, as Charles G. Hoffman points out in a review of the story, "they do their duty" in the prescribed manner at all times, and their irrational behavior follows a pattern that becomes part of the regularity and of order rather than an uncontrolled element outside. The authoritarian world these characters live in requires individuals to be useful to it. Although they make an effective duo, each taking over when the other goes crazy, they are only useful to society because they have been reduced to miserable drones. The narrator and Bartleby hardly represent all of humanity. However, the narrator and Bartleby are more dynamic individuals each of whom possesses romantic characteristics that seem compatible with one another. help solve everyone's problems. Bartleby's inexplicable irrationality and motivated actions (or rather inaction) would highlight a new aspect of humanity that the narrator had previously avoided or been sheltered from. The narrator's natural "attraction" to Bartleby's idiosyncrasies would arouse an incurable curiosity about a man who resisted all aspects of modern life. The narrator notices the attraction in himself and is drawn to his "pale and haughty height", which "positively impressed me with my docile submission to his eccentricities" (1161). Through understanding, the narrator would be more motivated to help Bartleby, and more equipped to do so as well, giving the narrator, presumably for the first time, a sense of accomplishment. In turn, Bartleby would be saved from his own misery, having learned the importance of adapting to survive, perhaps even finding pleasure in certain things. Melville makes it clear, however, that such a scenario is impossible. Romantic values are doomed in a world where people are only worth what they produce. No matter how “compatible” the Narrator and Bartleby are, their romantic tendencies are of no use to their society. Thus, combining the two to create a "whole" man is futile and doomed to failure, a fact that Melville emphasizes through the narrator's reaction to Bartleby's homelessness. Even in his most compassionate moments, when he feels this bond of community, he is overcome by a feeling of disgust at Bartleby's lifestyle: "My first emotions were those of pure melancholy and pity the most sincere; but just as Bartleby's sense of abandonment grew and grew in my imagination, did that same melancholy turn into fear, that pity into repulsion” (1161). The mechanization of society and the tendency towards authoritarianism are incompatible., 2000.

Essay / Bartleby The Scrivener: Displaced by Society , when a tingling shiver ran down my arm and spine to my feet” (1173). Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Bartelby the Scrivener died of sadness, feeling trapped and completely without a place in the mechanized society that had sprouted up around him. He was a victim of his own desire to resist the reckless adaptation that characters like the narrator achieved so fluidly. Bartleby's death clearly testifies to Melville's discontented view of the modern world; a world where strength comes from weakness and flexibility, and where the weak naturally dominate the strong. However, to define Bartleby the Scrivener in such simple terms is to ignore some important and specific themes that Melville cleverly allegorizes with the story's characters. For Melville, modern authoritarian society divides a person's responsibilities so minutely that it reduces the scope of their ability to interact with themselves, with nature, and with their community. This belief closely follows that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who viewed modern mechanized society as the downfall of humanity because it rendered individuals insensitive to the range of abilities with which they are naturally endowed. Melville's characters in Bartleby, the Scrivener are depicted as "half-men" who are victims of a society that stifles their natural ability to feel and act in accordance with their romantic role as an individual in society. The American Romantics have a unique view of this role. of the individual in society. Understanding this role is crucial to understanding the reasons for the tragic failure of romantic values in Bartleby, the Scrivener. For a romantic, the well-being of the individual is paramount in relation to the quality of the society he builds. Emerson best details the relationship between the individual and society in The American Scholar. He emphasizes that nature and simplicity are more authentic than the hierarchy and divisions of modern society. The divisions and subdivisions of society, caused in part by the mechanization of industry and commerce, distance people from the potential wealth of the full range of emotions, experiences, and senses of which each person is capable. Each man is forced to reduce himself to a single function, devoting all his energy to this single task. He relies on the rest of society to provide for his needs and the luxuries of life in exchange for his hard-earned money. As a result, people become absorbed in the hard work of daily life, unable to see beyond their immediate time and place. The farmer “sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond” (842). The merchant “almost never gives a worthwhile idea to his work, but he is dominated by the routine of his trade, and his soul is subject to dollars” (842). With these critiques of modern society, Emerson suggests that part of the return to simplicity, or at least the first step toward it, is the return to self. Only then can the spiritual dialogue between man and nature begin. And through this proximity to nature, the “self” improves, thereby improving society as a whole. Emerson describes society as "indefinable" because the souls of its individuals have been replaced by a single laborious goal: "this original unity, this fountain of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, so minutely subdivided and peddled, that it spread in drops andcannot be collected” (842). A society populated by people who live life to the fullest, dividing their own energies between a balanced mix of survival, reflection and contemplation, and pursuing a trade or job, will form for itself a community characteristic. The contentment and autonomy of each of its individuals will allow them to pursue, among other things, community proximity to ensure security and growth. A society full of such individuals is naturally better than a society whose members are absorbed in themselves and their small daily tasks. Bartleby's narrator, the Scrivener, seems perfectly adapted to life in an authoritarian world. It is only committed to ensuring safety and security. He “is driven by the profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best” and is therefore an “eminently secure man” (1149). His seemingly natural harmony with the world around him implies that he is not a romantic2E. But the narrator has certain romantic traits that cannot be ignored. He is sensible, sympathetic and compassionate, and decides to help Bartleby take decisive action in his life: "his soul I could not reach... but if I could help him in any other way, I would be happy to do so. Moreover, if, after returning home, he found himself at any time in need of assistance, a letter from him would be sure of an answer” (1161). Given the narrator's unadventurous, noncommittal lifestyle, this kind of compassion is surprising. More surprising, however, is the special bond he feels with Bartleby, disconcertingly odd. After realizing that Bartleby had taken up residence in the office, “the new bond of common humanity plunged me irresistibly into sadness. A fraternal melancholy! For Bartleby and I were both sons of Adam” (1160). The fact that the narrator believes that he and Bartleby are "sons of Adam" reveals not only that he has a deep well of compassion from which he draws for Bartleby, but also that the bond between these seemingly poles apart people is more deep as Bartleby and Bartleby. » the narrator would probably like to admit. Bartleby and the narrator are two "half-men" who together should form a complete man. The narrator is flexible and adaptable, well adapted to his environment and in touch with the intricacies of his society and his duty. Although he is not a dynamic person, he represents the lowest common denominator necessary to survive the modern society described by Melville. The 19th century Romantics probably did not praise men for their ability to adapt and find safety and security at all costs. But the ability to survive without imposing authoritarian values on others is certainly a romantic trait; that which the narrator possesses. He is, of course, an authority figure, but that is one of his "weaknesses". Bartleby's inability to resist passive resistance is actually a respectable trait that indicates a compassionate and romantic disposition. Bartleby does not have everything the narrator has and is therefore doomed to isolation. However, unlike the narrator, Bartleby acts from his heart. Bartleby is completely isolated because he is guided by his own emotions and only considers himself in all matters. Even his famous line "I'd rather not do it" implies that Bartleby, rather than objecting because of logical or ethical disagreement, simply doesn't want to. This loyalty to his own heart is his defining romantic value, one that the narrator betrays by living to please others. Thus, both the narrator and Bartleby possess the necessary romantic traits which, if fused together,could form a complete person who represents the kind of dynamic and capable person that romantics idealize. But in the process of dividing humanity into its constituent parts, authoritarian society has stripped from each of these men a vital part of their being which forces them into an unnatural state of humanity, which dooms them to failure. even in the presence of their complementary half. Bartleby's determination to obey his feelings brings no satisfaction or happiness because nothing in life excites him; he is apparently incapable of pleasure. As a result, Bartleby speaks of the office devoid of life. Bartleby is "palely well-groomed, pitifully respectable, incurably desperate, vaguely calm, cadaverous" and "like a very ghost, conforming to the laws of magical invocation, appears outside his hermitage" (1153, 1154, 1158, 1159). Bartleby, because he finds no connection with his surroundings, lives in a state of near death, completely unnatural. Likewise, the narrator fails to accomplish the only thing that ever aroused passion in him: helping Bartleby. So accustomed to a life avoiding controversy for the sake of his own comfort, he finds himself unable to help even one man With the story's final quote "Ah, humanity." !”, the narrator realizes that he is neither capable of helping Bartleby, nor equipped to change the human condition. Although few people expect a single person to change the human condition, Emerson's and probably Melville's notion of the role of the individual in society suggests that "complete" individuals who exist in their state natural with a natural environment have a profound effect on the state of humanity. To a romantic, individuals must be compassionate, spiritual, and capable to such a degree that they only need to exist to improve the society around them. them2E As a man who possesses only the faculties necessary to survive in a safe and easy life, the narrator fails to improve the life of a single other man because he, too, exists in a state of unnatural isolation , although he survives in his world. , he is an insignificant part of a vast machine for which he performs mundane tasks. In this sense, he is isolated from himself, and therefore isolated from understanding his place in the world. More precisely, the narrator's laborious and limited life made him. him incapable of understanding anything irrational. Richard H. Fogle, author of a brief analysis titled simply “Bartleby,” points out that “Bartleby's irrationalism is inscrutable; it is the element of mystery in the world” that the narrator is unable to understand (24). This causes the narrator a “growing sense of fear and anxiety” (24), which indicates his inability to understand anything that deviates from the linear, orderly, and conformist. Even Melville's description of the environment around him serves to illustrate the narrator's limited view of the world. It appears to him to be constantly blocked by walls with which he feels strangely at ease, and in which he even finds a “hidden beauty” (1149). These walls protect him from the vast truth that waits to be discovered. The dark, cold, gray structures of Wall Street displace nature and provide the narrator with sufficient surroundings only because he knows nothing of what lies beyond. Although a certain degree of innocence is a respectable romantic trait, ignorance is not. The narrator's ignorance is the determining factor in his unnatural state of existence. Turkey and Nippers are more obvious and comical representatives of a divided humanity and an unnatural existence. Like the narrator and Bartleby, their eccentricities complement each other. Turkey, who is old and indecline, works calmly and efficiently until noon, when he quickly becomes drunk and rushes into his space in rage. Young Nippers is “the victim of two evil powers: ambition and indigestion” (1150). Throughout the morning, his indigestion leaves him irritable and unable to work effectively, until midday, when he settles down and produces work comparable to that of Turkey when sober. Thus, the two “stood up like guards, [which was] a good natural arrangement, considering the circumstances” (1152). Together the two form a "good natural arrangement", but alone they exist as half-men in a completely unnatural state. Turkey spends half his day, and therefore half his life, drunk and crazy. Nippers spend so much time grinding their teeth and rearranging their desks out of frustration with indigestion. But unlike the relationship between Bartleby and the narrator, Turkey and Nippers function properly once they are both seen as one person. They complement each other because, as Charles G. Hoffman points out in a review of the story, "they do their duty" in the prescribed manner at all times, and their irrational behavior follows a pattern that becomes part of the regularity and of order rather than an uncontrolled element outside. The authoritarian world these characters live in requires individuals to be useful to it. Although they make an effective duo, each taking over when the other goes crazy, they are only useful to society because they have been reduced to miserable drones. The narrator and Bartleby hardly represent all of humanity. However, the narrator and Bartleby are more dynamic individuals each of whom possesses romantic characteristics that seem compatible with one another. help solve everyone's problems. Bartleby's inexplicable irrationality and motivated actions (or rather inaction) would highlight a new aspect of humanity that the narrator had previously avoided or been sheltered from. The narrator's natural "attraction" to Bartleby's idiosyncrasies would arouse an incurable curiosity about a man who resisted all aspects of modern life. The narrator notices the attraction in himself and is drawn to his "pale and haughty height", which "positively impressed me with my docile submission to his eccentricities" (1161). Through understanding, the narrator would be more motivated to help Bartleby, and more equipped to do so as well, giving the narrator, presumably for the first time, a sense of accomplishment. In turn, Bartleby would be saved from his own misery, having learned the importance of adapting to survive, perhaps even finding pleasure in certain things. Melville makes it clear, however, that such a scenario is impossible. Romantic values are doomed in a world where people are only worth what they produce. No matter how “compatible” the Narrator and Bartleby are, their romantic tendencies are of no use to their society. Thus, combining the two to create a "whole" man is futile and doomed to failure, a fact that Melville emphasizes through the narrator's reaction to Bartleby's homelessness. Even in his most compassionate moments, when he feels this bond of community, he is overcome by a feeling of disgust at Bartleby's lifestyle: "My first emotions were those of pure melancholy and pity the most sincere; but just as Bartleby's sense of abandonment grew and grew in my imagination, did that same melancholy turn into fear, that pity into repulsion” (1161). The mechanization of society and the tendency towards authoritarianism are incompatible., 2000.

Navigation

« Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Get In Touch