Herman Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener

Herman Melville: “Bartleby the Scrivener” The narrator’s life in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby The Scrivener” was dramatically changed by his encounter with Bartleby. The narrator thought he was hiring a harmless scrivener but later learns that he has gotten much more than he bargained for. Bartleby had come to the narrator by answering a classified advertisement. The narrator’s initial opinion of Bartleby was that he was “’pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, and incurably forlorn.’” (238) …

…entire story “Bartleby The Scrivener”, the narrator goes through one metamorphosis after another in his views and feelings of Bartleby and his entire situation. In the beginning it was relief at the increased help in his office to distress and finally anxiety of the growing problem with Bartleby. Overall, it was an emotional ride for the narrator that ends in either a good or bad note, depending on how one might interpret the entire piece.