Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville's Term Paper

He later finds out that Bartleby has refused to leave the old office. Eventually, Bartleby is thrown into jail, where he perishes, after having refused to eat.

Towards the end of the story, the narrator reveals that he has heard a rumor that Bartleby used to work in a dead letter office - a job that naturally would have been crushing to someone of such a melancholic disposition as Bartleby. This perhaps explains his inability to cope with the external world.He becomes so closed in on himself that he eventually perishes.

Melville's story thus unveils in a perfectly orderly, chronological fashion in order to express two men who are at odds with each other. While the narrator is representative of the conventional world, Bartleby is emblematic of the dark forces that occasionally engulf humanity. Only through the narrator's empathy for Bartleby is he ultimately redeemed.

Bibliography

Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." Retrieved 23 January 2008 at http://www.bartleby.com/129/......