In this novel, the character Bartleby is a mystery
The character Bartleby remains an unresolved enigma even at the conclusion of the novel, much to the chagrin of many of the story's readers. Readers are left questioning why this character is the way he is and why he is incapable of negotiating like other people, which will encourage him to get along with others. However, decoding this character is possible and all of the above questions have answers. The aim of this paper is to expose the true existence of Bartleby. This is in contrast to the author's often distorted image of the character. Due to the adjectives that the author uses to describe this character, most readers would gather that Bartleby is not of good mental health. Melville describes this character repeatedly as forlorn, pallid and sometimes as cadaverous. This paints a very unhealthy picture. Many readers take home the fact that Bartley is a disturbed individual with little or no social skills.
Bartleby's Mental Strength
By understanding this character better, one can gather that while he may lack physical strength, Bartleby possesses inconceivable mental strength. His ability to passively resist all that is suggested or even demanded of him cannot be broken. For this reason, rather than unsound and socially challenged, Bartleby could more accurately be described as an individual who reveals paradoxically not only the power of human will but also its dangerous side. Through Bartleby, a reader understands that people are capable of and just how dangerous they can sometimes be.
Bartleby's Quiet Resistance
Bartleby is set apart from other characters in the story by his quiet yet impermeable resistance. The author paints a sort of insolence onto this character and may readers carry this opinion of Bartleby. Perhaps it is his blatant responses of the nature of "I would prefer not to" (Melville 10) which take a maddeningly taunting tone especially the more he uses them. What makes Bartleby's behavior appear mocking is the inability of the reader as well as the narrator to understand it. However, upon a better understanding of the character, it is clear that his refusal to do things is not a function of insolence. Readers are riddled by how this character simply chooses not to survive. This is, however, the point of this character's stance. Bartleby chooses to do what he wants even if it, in the end, kills him.
Implications of Misunderstanding Bartleby
Having seen the different ways through which this character can be misunderstood, it is important to understand the implications of this "misunderstanding." As the story is hinged on the understanding of a narrator whose perception is all but limited, readers move fumblingly towards resolving the problem of an employee who does not work. He starts off as a fierce worker but becomes less efficient very quickly and finally becomes somewhat of a burden to those working in his office. While his refusal to work causes his colleagues to be concerned about him, he makes things worse by failing to recognize that his employer has authority over him. Bartleby is seen to be unmoved by all physical motivation such as money or food, and neither the reader nor the narrator can conceive what it is that Bartleby truly wants. In the end, the new tenants appear to be quite jubilant about sending him to jail, and some readers even share this emotion with them. This is, however, all a function of misunderstanding Bartleby's motivation and actions. By viewing Bartleby as the disturbed individual that the narrator makes him out to be, Melville's work becomes nothing more than a sob story with no message.
Alternative Interpretations
Having also shown how this character is supposed to be viewed, this response seeks to show what the new perception means for the story. Many critics believe that Bartleby represents Melville at some point in his life. At this point, his major works such as Moby Dick and White Jacket had proved to be failures despite the fact that they would later become popular. Back then, his readers only wanted to read about adventure such as that in his earlier works such as Typee. It is believed that the lawyer that Bartleby worked with is a representation of his readers. They always required him to write the fiction he had always been writing while he (Melville) continuously replied with Bartleby's famous "I prefer not to." He would eventually withdraw himself from society and retreat into misery.
A Universal Interpretation
This is one way to interpret this story with the aforementioned qualities of Bartleby, such as his strong will in mind. There is, however, a more universal way to decipher this story. The reader is given a single clue about this character's past. At the end of the story, the narrator states that Bartleby was said to have once worked at a Dead Letter Office after having lost his job in an administrative shake-up (30). He, therefore, wonders whether it is this miserable job that involves burning the letters of people who have vanished or died that caused the character to descend into what appears to be insanity.
Conclusion
Understanding the main character of a story is key to interpreting the whole story. There are few examples of this fact that are better than Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street." By following the narrator's misconception of Bartleby, readers would have a hard time seeing beyond this character and his persistent defiance. However, by viewing Bartleby as determined to what he wanted even if it meant his demise, the connection between him and Melville becomes more apparent. This response, therefore, concludes that the only riddle behind Bartleby is that he is, in fact, Melville at some point in his life. This is, however, one of many possible interpretations as this paper has shown.
Work Cited
Melville, Herman, and Herman Melville. Bartleby ; And, the Lightning-Rod Man. London: Penguin, 1995. Print.
