Bartleby, The Scrivener short summary & analysis

Ratings


7.4
Very Good

Bartleby, The Scrivener - Herman Melville

Categories:Action & Adventure

Bartleby, The Scrivener Analysis

Bartleby, the Scrivener is the novel of Herman Melville, published in 1853. This short seventy-five-page novel is the kind that absorbs the reader.

Bartleby, The Scrivener Short Summary

The short summary of the book is as follows:

The gentleman who owns the sealing office, the narrator of the book, starts to look for a clerk who will work with him when the work gets more and more and three clerks working with him are not enough. The next morning, someone appears like a ghost at the door. He says he came for the clerk job. And he is immediately accepted due to his calm appearance. They learn that his name is Bartleby. Bartleby begins to work non-stop. He copies the longest texts one after another. He comes to the office at the earliest, and he leaves at the latest.

One day, our office owner, and also narrator, calls Bartleby, who works in the chamber separated from his room with a folding screen, to dictate the four long texts he wrote that morning. The answer he received was calmly said, "I prefer not to." Our terrified narrator gets the answer "I prefer not to do it" when he asks why. Other clerks get upset at this. After all, they will control Bartleby's papers. But his bosses do not want to get upset about this. The polite voice and unchanging facial expression Bartleby uses while challenging the given task prevents him from getting angry.

In the following days, Bartleby starts to answer "I prefer not to do" not only to dictate the texts he wrote but also to go to the post office or to bring a desired item. Although his boss is angry at this, he tolerates Bartleby's work because he works day and night.

On a Sunday, our narrator decides to stop by the office when he comes to town for a job. When he inserts the key in the lock, he realizes that something is obstructing. Bartleby is not available; he says stop by later. Confused, the sealer still goes back and returns soon. Bartleby is gone, but he left his things behind. The sealer is angry with this, he should not use the office like a house without paying rent. When he comes to work the next day, he finds Bartleby in place. He tells him to find another place to stay, but his response is "I prefer to stay". After a while, Bartleby starts doing nothing, and after all of sealer’s effort he does not leave, so sealer decides to move his office. Since they have few items, they move the office to another place the next day. Although he has not heard from Bartleby for a while, one day the owner of his old office comes up. Bartleby remained at the office, and when he forced him out of there, he did not leave the building. He says that Bartleby had been working in his office for a while, but then he was fired. The owner goes away and returns a few days later. They will complain Bartleby to the police. He says that it will be appropriate to speak for the last time since he knows him best. The sealer speaks to him for the last time but still cannot convince. Then they send Bartleby to prison.

The sealer visits Bartleby in prison, but Bartleby makes a few accusations against him, and then prefers not to talk to him. According to the guard, he doesn't eat any food. During his next visit, our narrator finds Bartleby dead with his knees on his stomach and lying on the ground in the courtyard of the prison.
Oh Bartleby! Oh humanity!

Comments

Bartleby, The Scrivener Moby Dick Snuff Mathilda The Importance of Being Ernest To Have and Have Not In Dubious Battle The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) The House of Paper The Snows of Kilimanjaro Choke The Education of Little Tree The New Atlantis Me Before You Everything, Everything Out of My Mind The Boy in the Striped Pajamas A Midsummer Night's Dream Bartleby, The Scrivener The Glass Castle Beloved Gulliver's Travels The Old Curiosity Shop Heart of Darkness Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Martin Eden Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Life on the Mississippi A Farewell to Arms The Sound and the Fury Annabel Lee The Diaries of Adam and Eve The Prince and the Pauper Othello Brave New World Breakfast at Tiffany's Lord of the Flies The Green Mile Man in the Iron Mask The Fault in Our Stars Frankenstein Silas Marner Man's Search for Meaning Why Nations Fail Planet of the Apes Romeo and Juliet Hard Times The Secret of Letting Go Tuck Everlasting A House at the Bottom of a Lake The Call of the Wild A Christmas Carol Dead Poets Society Macbeth Utopia Hamlet Emma The Idiot Anna Karenina Moby Dick Don Quixote To Kill a Mockingbird The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Dracula Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Crime and Punishment War and Peace The Little Prince My Left Foot Fahrenheit 451 The Old Man and the Sea Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Jonathan Livingston Seagull White Fang The Kite Runner The Count of Monte Cristo Journey to the Centre of the Earth The Three Musketeers Treasure Island David Copperfield The Picture of Dorian Gray The Happy Prince Pride and Prejudice The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Wuthering Heights Oliver Twist The Art of War Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Tale of Two Cities Animal Farm The Pearl The Grapes of Wrath Bird Box Little Women Robinson Crusoe The Girl on the Train Jane Eyre The Great Gatsby Fear (Angst) Of Mice and Men