Bartleby, the Scrivener By Herman Melville

Power Point by Wilmer Arellano

Important characters

• • • • The Narrator Turkey Nippers Bartleby

The Narrator

• The narrator in this story is an elderly man who’s occupation for the last 30 years or so has been a lawyer. He owns an office on wall street, New York, and has worked with many scriveners in the past.

Turkey and Nippers

• Turkey and Nippers were the two scriveners that worked for the Narrator at the time. Turkey was a drunk so he only worked well in the morning because he was sober, and Nippers suffered from chronic indigestion so he couldn’t work well in the morning, but his stomach settled in the afternoon, so he could work well then. The only reason the office survived is because each of these men were working their best at opposite times.

Bartleby

• Bartleby was said to be the most interesting scrivener the narrator has ever met. Bartleby worked in a dead letter office before he began to work for the narrator. The narrator thought Bartleby was a terrific employee because unlike Turkey or Nippers he could work well in both the morning and the afternoon.

Plot

• The story begins with the Narrator telling the reader about his life and his career, and then he goes on to tell about some of the scriveners he has met which is when he talks about Turkey and Nippers. The narrator then tells the story of the most interesting scrivener of all. Bartleby was the most interesting by far, the narrator said. When Bartleby first started working in the office he was an excellent worker because he worked well all day. A few days into Bartleby’s new career the narrator asks him if he could proofread some documents for him, and Bartleby replied “I would prefer not to”.

• The narrator was confused by Bartleby’s response, but he chose to ignore it. As time went on Bartleby refused to do more and more work, always saying “I would prefer not to”. Soon enough Bartleby was not doing any work at all, and he began to live in the office. The narrator attempted many times to reason with Bartleby to get him to leave, but his response was “I would prefer not to”. The narrator even tried to fool Bartleby by moving to a new office, but Bartleby would not leave.

• After countless times to try to get Bartleby to leave the narrator decided to take a few days off from work. When he returned to work he found out that Bartleby had been arrested because he refused to leave the premises. The Narrator went to the prison where Bartleby was being kept to check up on him. He also bribed the guard to make sure Bartleby was well fed. A few days later he returned to check on Bartleby once more, but he found out he had died. The prison guard told him that Bartleby died because he “preferred not to” eat.

• After his death the narrator decided to investigate Bartleby’s history and he found out that he used to work in a dead letter office. A dead letter office is a place where letters are kept that have no where to go. Perhaps Bartleby felt he had no where to go. The narrator ends the story with the words “Ah, Bartleby!, ah humanity!”