Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street by Herman Melville is an intriguingly comic story that ridicules the nature of work and its function in assigning meaning to human lives. The humor in the story also brings about questions on the degree to which people have a moral obligation to undertake responsibility for and care for others.
This short story symbolizes the monotonous modern work life. Bartley is able to work meticulously at first but with time he becomes bored and refuses to work, he only answers that he prefers not to. The work that Bartleby does is quite monotonous and this in a way might reflect the monotony of modern life in a business-driven society where Bartleby and other people live in. With nothing exciting to look forward to on a daily basis, work becomes monotonous and uninteresting, and nobody looks forward to coming to work. It seems for Bartleby having worked in a dead letter office earlier depressed him. Perhaps he might have thought this would be a different kind of work, an exciting one since at first he is very hardworking but same monotony and alienation followed him, and he lost interest.
The office here more so the use of walls in the title is symbolic of lack of connection and communication between individuals caught up in a society committed to work. The narrator and his workers only share a working relationship; they have no personal connection. This is obvious from the way he refers to them by nicknames and seems not to know their real names. The narrator as well is only known by his profession “the lawyer” and not as an individual. Such absence of one-to-one connection is an office leads to loneliness and isolation and might result in depression and lack of interest.
In concluding, in any work environment, it is paramount that management put the employees’ needs first and not just perceive them as objects used to carry out tasks. Bartleby refusing to work implies that he is taking a stand against the society that has placed so much importance on work and materialism. Humanity, compassion, and empathy are long gone. Even though the lawyer lacked empathy and come out as an inconsiderate, uncaring boss, he ought to be applauded for trying to help Bartleby by moving things around and being accommodative. Nonetheless, he should have done more to care for the other employees as well, perhaps learn about their names, their families, their goals and aspirations.
Reference
Melville, H., & Kallemeyn, E. (1989). Bartleby, the scrivener: a story of Wall-street. Kallemeyn Press.
