Melville exposes how people in modern society tend to only care about themselves, especially in the capitalist world of Wall Street. The lawyer uses Bartleby to feel good about his own morality, seeing his “tolerance” of Bartleby’s eccentricities as a sign of his own charitable nature. Isolation and Imprisonment: Bartleby’s tale presents issues with social isolation and imprisonment that are brought on by breakdowns in communication, which result in a lack of understanding on the part of the lawyer and a lack of escape for the trapped Bartleby.Ĭompassion: Melville’s narrative is largely an attack on commonplace conceptions of morality. He has gained no insight into himself or into his society, and he has gained no understanding of Bartleby’s rebellion. Unlike Bartleby, he does not know where he is. Readers also learn that Bartleby worked in a dead letter office, a place where undeliverable mail is destroyed, which likely contributed to Bartleby’s depression. Bartleby Quotes Bartleby is blind but he sees. The walls and communication breakdown between employer and employee contribute to this.
His isolation at work compounds into increasingly anti-social behavior, which the lawyer fails to notice. While he initially works hard, Bartleby falls into more depressive states over time. Mental Health: Alternatively, some critics have read Bartleby’s character as an early literary recognition of depression. His lack of desire for food may be the most pertinent example of this rebellion-Bartleby completely rejects his role as consumer, even when this consuming is necessary for his own life. I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. In this reading, Bartleby’s resistance to his “superiors” is a heroic rebellion against society’s current structure. In this way, Bartleby comes to represent the power of passive resistance against capitalism. However, his choice not to comply with the rules of the workplace could be viewed as a rebellion against Wall Street materialism. Passive Resistance: Bartleby is not a conventionally heroic character.
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