Kaleb Skelly

Dr. Heitschmidt

AP American Lit. T/Th 4

10 November 2022

Melville

1. B. The narrator is a noble character because he never permits his temper to flare against

Bartleby. He provides Bartleby with the benefit of the doubt, assuming he really is in

need and allows him to take shelter in his office.

E. The narrator is never unreasonable in his demands on his employers.

F. The narrator desires a positive public opinion because he avoids exposure in the

newspapers by taking an interview with Bartleby. He aspires to please his colleagues and

clients by stepping out of his way to resolve the issue with Bartleby.

2. The narrator believes that he learned how to reason and argue patiently and without

violence.

3. The main theme of Bartleby the Scrivener is the corrupted nature of man; morality no

longer plays any role for mankind. Despite the narrator’s morality in his treatment of

Bartleby, Bartleby still faces imprisonment and death. This theme does not comply with

Biblical teaching; mankind is broken, but good deeds do impact others. Melville quotes

Scripture when the narrator discovers Bartleby’s death to emphasize that Bartleby is at

rest, freed from the cruelty and barbarism of the world.

4. These characters’ names are significant in that they describe a great deal about the

character. Turkey is a small, energetic man. Nippers is a sickly, piratical man, and
 Ginger Nut is a sort of errand boy who did Turkey’s and Nippers’ bidding. Turkey and

Nippers both have ‘fits’ at differing times of the day. These employees are useful to the

narrator, but possess critical flaws. Their function in terms of Melville’s theme is to

reiterate the broken and irreparable nature of the world and mankind. They are comic

figures in that they both have alternating ‘fits’, and yet both insist they must work

through these fits. They should be pitied in that they are contented with an average life;

they do not live for greatness, but for easy mediocrity. Together, they make one good

worker.

5. We know almost nothing of Bartleby’s past, except that he possibly worked at a Letter

Office in Washington, from which he was suddenly removed. Bartleby ‘prefers not’ to

aid examining his own copies, delivering messages, and other menial tasks. I consider

Bartleby’s refusals polite, but incessant and unreasonable.

6. Walls in this story are symbols of isolation and imprisonment. The wall next to Bartleby

in his death depicts Bartleby’s own cold isolation and rejection from society.