Bartleby Essay Example For Students

Bartleby Essay By MelvilleIn Herman Melvilles Bartleby the Scrivener, the author uses severalthemes to convey his ideas. The three most important themes are alienation,mans desire to have a free conscience, and mans desire to avoid conflict. Melville uses the actions of an eccentric scrivener named Bartleby, and theresponses of his cohorts, to show these underlying themes to the reader. Thefirst theme, alienation, is displayed best by Bartlebys actions. He has adivider put up so that the other scriveners cannot see him, while all of themhave desks out in the open so they are full view of each other, as well as thenarrator. This caused discourse with all of the others in the office. This isproven when Turkey exclaims, I think Ill just step behind his screen andblack his eyes for him.(p.2411) The other scriveners also felt alienated bythe actions of the narrator. His lack of resolve when dealing with Bartlebyangered them because they knew that if they would have taken the same actions,they would have been dismissed much more rapidly. The narrator admits to thiswhen he said, With any other man I should have flown outright into adreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously frommy presence. (240 9) The next theme is mans desire to avoid conflict. Thenarrator avoids conflict on several occasions. The first time Bartleby refusedto proofread a paper, the narrator simply had someone else do it instead ofconfronting him and resolving the issue right then. By ignoring the problem, heleft the door open for more disobedience. As expected, Bartleby continued torefuse to proofread and the narrator eventually gave up on asking him to do it. The narrator went to great lengths to avoid a confrontation. When Bartlebyrefused to leave the office after being fired, the narrator chose to move hisoffice to a different location instead of removing the eccentric man by force. The narrator informs the reader of this idea when he says, No more then. Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. I will change my offices. (2422)By doing so, the narrator displays just how far man is sometimes willing to goto avoid conflict. The final theme is mans desire to have a free conscience. Melville reveals this theme through the actions of the narrator as well as thenew tenants of the office. The narrator attempts to appease his conscience bygiving Bartleby money above his wages when he fired him. The new tenants of theoffice try to put the responsibility of dealing with Bartleby back on thenarrator, but they are denied and eventually have the man removed from thepremises by law officers. Herman Melville uses the actions and reactions of thecharacters in Bartleby the Scrivener to disclose three important themes,alienation, mans desire to avoid conflict, and mans desire to keep a freeconscience. In doing so, he gives us an inside look into the workings of thehuman mind. The reader is left with the impression that all people, includinglawyers, have compassion for other humans, and at some point, that compassionwill show through Biblio- Heath Anthology of American Lit., Third Edition, Vol I, Paul Lauter Ed.