The Role of the Dead Letter Office in "Bartleby the Scrivener"

While Melville only mentions the "Dead Letter Office" in the last paragraph, he portrays its significance throughout the story. Melville reveals Bartleby previously worked in a Dead Letter Office, where he handled the monotonous task of burning undeliverable mail. Because the narrator views Bartleby as a mirthless man, he feels pity for Bartleby working at a place devoid of happiness. By employing a theme of lost hope, Melville describes the dead letters as mail, which …

…as he stays at the office even at night, when no one occupies the streets. When Melville states "On errands of life, these letters speed to death," he refers to the "Dead Letter Office" as a symbol of mortality (Melville 52). In describing Bartleby's former occupation, the narrator even acquaints the "dead letters" of the mail center with "dead men" (51). Melville portrays the final depressing image of death through Bartleby's former workplace, the Dead Letter Office.