Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street

Bartleby the Scrivener, A Tale of Wall Street Summary | Detailed Summary

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is the short story of an odd character involved in the singularly dull occupation of copying legal documents in a Wall Street law office during the 1800s. The lawyer who hires Bartleby narrates the story. The story was originally published in Putnam's magazine in December 1953, two years after author Herman Melville wrote "Moby Dick." The magazine paid Melville $85 for the manuscript.

Most of the action takes place within the lawyer's office, or rooms, as Melville calls them. These rooms are located on the second floor of a building trapped between tall buildings on either side. Little if any light is able to reach the two small windows in the rooms. These windows look out at two walls—one black, one white. These dreary offices set the scene for an equally dreary tale about the condition of humanity.

The lawyer, who is never named, begins the story with an apparently honest self-description. He says he is an elderly man, close to 60 years old, who has practiced law for 30 years. He notes that he is unambitious and makes a very important self-disclosure when he says his profound conviction is that, "The easiest way of life is the best."

The lawyer/narrator's business consists mostly of handling titles, bonds and mortgages. He does a tidy business thanks to his appointment as a Master in Chancery. This office, bestowed upon him by the State of New York, made him clerk of the court of equity and meant that many clients of the court must bring their legal paperwork to him. When the state ended the practice of making such appointments, the narrator allows himself a rare moment of outrage at his loss of income.

The lawyer has three employees besides Bartleby. He refers to the three by the nicknames Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut. Turkey and Nippers, like Bartleby, are scriveners, or men who copy legal documents by hand. Ginger Nut is a 12-year-old office boy. Each employee has his own idiosyncrasies, or peculiar traits or habits.

Turkey is a short, round Englishman distinguished by his red face. The lawyer notes that Turkey's face goes through a predictable cycle of color each day. The redness grows throughout the morning and reaches its peak shortly after noon. The color then gradually fades through the afternoon. Turkey is not neat in his personal habits or in his work. Though his work in the morning hours is exemplary, from the moment his face reaches its peak color the quality of his work begins to decline. The narrator chooses mostly to overlook the noise and mess that characterizes Turkey's afternoon work. This passive attitude foreshadows the narrator's later dealings with Bartleby.

Nippers is the most ambitious character in the story. His employer describes his 25-year-old scrivener as looking somewhat like a pirate. Nippers holds a small political office and enjoys the perceived sense of importance that gives him. His work habits are on the opposite schedule of Turkey's. He is irritable and moody in the morning. The narrator attributes this to indigestion. In his moodiness, he grinds his teeth and fiddles incessantly with the height of his writing table. All in all, the lawyer finds Nippers' work to be useful and acceptable. Ginger Nut runs errands for the lawyer. He sweeps the offices, and buys Spitzenbergs (apples) and ginger cakes for the copyists. His salary is $1 per week.

Into this small cast of characters Melville introduces the story's antagonist, Bartleby. Bartleby answers the lawyer's advertisement for an additional scrivener. The lawyer's first impression is that Bartleby is neat, respectable, quiet and somewhat forlorn. He believes Bartleby will be a calming influence on the office and so places the new hire's writing table on the same side of the glass folding doors as his own desk. He puts a green folding screen around Bartleby's desk to offer some privacy, much like the office cubicle of today is used to define a semi-private space.

For the first two days Bartleby is everything the lawyer hoped for. He works diligently, almost mechanically, and copies a great number of pages. Bartleby earns four cents for each 100 words, a quantity referred to as a folio. On the third day of employment, the story's conflict is introduced.

The lawyer asks Bartleby to assist in proofreading a document. This was a common part of a law copyist's job. Bartleby's reply to the simple request is the defining line of the short story. He says simply, "I would prefer not to." These five words unsettle the lawyer/narrator's rather predictable, well-ordered world. Bartleby should be fired for his insubordination, or refusal to submit to authority. The lawyer, however, hesitates because of Bartleby's calm, distant, almost inhuman composure. The lawyer calls Nippers to proofread the document and goes on about business as usual.

A few days later, the lawyer calls on Bartleby to help in checking the accuracy of his own work. This task will require the entire office because four copies must be compared with the original. Again Bartleby politely states that he prefers not to help. The lawyer tries to reason with Bartleby who firmly refuses to change his position. This leads to a debate among all the employees about Bartleby. Ginger Nut declares him "a little luny." Nippers believes he should be fired. The lawyer takes no action.

After this incident, the lawyer begins to observe Bartleby more closely and notices that the scrivener never leaves the area behind his screen, does not drink either coffee or tea and apparently eats nothing other than the ginger nut cakes delivered by the office boy. He never speaks except to answer a question.

The days pass with Bartleby still preferring not to examine documents but working steadily at his copying. By now, Turkey has offered to give Bartleby a black eye for his refusals and Nippers has pointed out that Bartleby's behavior is unfair to the other copyists.

The lawyer's discomfort is growing. He spends hours in internal debate over what to do about Bartleby. He repeatedly chooses to extend charity to his employee. Bartleby apparently has no family or friends the lawyer can call on to take the problem off his hands. He feels a certain moral responsibility to care for this man he has hired.

One Sunday, the lawyer decides to stop by his offices on the way to church. He finds Bartleby locked inside and realizes that the scrivener has been living in the rooms. This fact adds to the mystery and the dilemma posed by Bartleby. The lawyer is being forced to action and decides he will question Bartleby on Monday morning. If Bartleby refuses to answer his questions, the lawyer determines to give him his wages plus $20 for expenses and fire him.

The reader should not be surprised that Bartleby prefers not to be reasonable and answer the lawyer's questions. This lawyer notices that Bartleby's presence is influencing even the way he and his other employee's speak. The word "prefer" has crept into their vocabulary. Still, the narrator delays following through on his intentions to dismiss Bartleby.

At this point, the conflict rises to a new level. The next day, Bartleby does nothing but stare out of his window at the blackened brick wall. He tells the lawyer he has decided to do no more copying. The lawyer attributes this refusal to eyestrain, a common occupational hazard of scriveners. He encourages Bartleby to rest his eyes for a few days and get outside for some exercise. Bartleby does nothing more than stare out the window and refuse requests to run errands.

Bartleby never returns to copying legal documents. After several days, the lawyer finally tells Bartleby he cannot remain in his office. The lawyer informs Bartleby he must leave within six days and offers to help him find new living quarters and even another job. Bartleby rejects all offers of assistance.

The conflict climaxes at the end of the six days. When the lawyer looks behind the screen and finds Bartleby still in his usual place, he offers him $32―$12 in wages and another $20 in compassion. Bartleby refuses the money and the lawyer leaves it on the desk and tells Bartleby he must be gone before morning.

Throughout the night the lawyer is consumed with thoughts of Bartleby. He anxiously approaches of his office the next morning and finds Bartleby still there. The lawyer once again chooses charity over action, believing that Bartleby will come to his end if he throws him out or calls the police.

So Bartleby remains, but self-interest eventually forces the lawyer into desperate action. When his legal peers begin to comment on the odd man who occupies a desk in his office but apparently does no work, the lawyer decides to escape from his problem. He moves out of his offices and leaves Bartleby behind.

But the conflict is not yet resolved. The tenants and landlord of his former building contact the lawyer and ask him to come back and deal with Bartleby who now roams the building and sleeps in doorways. The lawyer returns to his former office to talk to Bartleby. As a last attempt at charity he invites the scrivener to his own home. When Bartleby refuses this offer, the lawyer literally runs as far from the problem as he can. He gets on a bus and takes an unscheduled "vacation" to New York and New Jersey, trying to purge Bartleby from his mind.

When he returns, he learns that Bartleby has been arrested as a vagrant and sent to the Tombs, a common name for the city prison. The lawyer visits Bartleby, who is allowed to walk about the prison courtyard. Bartleby refuses to acknowledge the lawyer's presence and continues to stare at the prison walls. The lawyer offers the sentiment that at least Bartleby can enjoy the grass and the sky. Bartleby delivers his most expressive dialogue when he says, "I know where I am."

The lawyer still attempts to show charity by arranging for Bartleby to have extra food in prison. Bartleby rejects this offer. When the lawyer returns to the prison a few days later, he finds Bartleby lying dead, curled up on the grass, his eyes still open and staring at the wall.

The brief epilogue reveals the telling fact that Bartleby once worked in the dead letter office in Washington, D.C. until he was displaced during a political restructuring. The lawyer considers this bit of information about the complex creature who has caused him so much distress and sighs, "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!