Bartleby The Scrivener Essay

“Bartleby, the Scrivener (A Story of Wall Street)” by Herman Melville. The story includes the perspective of the narrator and what he feels about Bartleby ignoring his environment based on his actions towards the narrator and his co-workers. The narrator ponders why Bartleby seems to be gloomy and despondent about life. As a reader, I believe the setting and atmosphere of Bartleby’s working environment is why Bartleby mentally deteriorates. Bartleby at first was really dedicated upon his job in the office. According to the narrator, he states “[Bartleby] did an extraordinary quantity of writing [,] [a]s if long famish[ed] for something to copy” (11). This quote shows how the narrator was really impressed about his work in the office. However, things to a turn for the worst quickly when the narrator asks …show more content…
First of all, when a person gets depressed, sometimes but not for all people, it is because of the social status of the person, tragedies witnessed by the person, and the person's environment. According to the narrator, he “assign[ed] Bartleby[‘s office] a[t] corner by the folding-doors,[...] placed his close up to a small side-window in that part of the room, a window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy back-yards and bricks, but which, owing to subsequent erections, commanded at present no view at all, though and gave some light” (10). Bartleby's office is lifeless, the windows emit a miniscule light since there is a brick wall which adds on to the fact why Bartleby would have a miserable mood working in his office. To make matters even worse for Bartleby, the narrator placed “a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from [the narrators] sight, though not remove him from [the narrator's] voice” (10) which could give Bartleby a tense feeling which could affect his mood since he has to deal with a feeling of eavesdropped all the

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Essay on Bartleby The Scrivener