Bartleby The Scrivener: Replaced by Society tingling shiver ran up my arm and down my back to my feet" (1173). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBartelby the scribe died of sadness, feeling trapped and completely without a place in the mechanized society that had sprouted around him. He has fallen victim to his own desire to resist the senseless adaptation that characters like the narrator have so easily achieved. Bartleby's death clearly indicates Melville's discontented view of the modern world; a world where strength comes from weakness and flexibility, and where the weak by nature prevail over the strong. To define Bartleby the Scrivener in such simple terms, however, is to ignore some important and specific themes that Melville skillfully allegorizes with the characters in the story. For Melville, modern authoritarian society so minutely divides a person's responsibilities that it reduces the scope of his ability to interact with himself, nature, and his community. This belief closely follows that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who judged modern mechanized society to be the bane of humanity because it made individuals insensitive to the range of capabilities with which they are naturally endowed. Melville's characters in Bartleby, the Scrivener are described as "half-men" who are victims of a society that stifles their natural ability to feel and act on their romantic role as an individual in society. American romantics have a unique vision of the role of the individual in society. Understanding this role is crucial to understanding the reasons for the tragic failure of romantic values in Bartleby, the Scrivener. For a romantic, the well-being of the individual is fundamental to the quality of the society he builds. Emerson details the relationship between the individual and society in The American Scholar. He emphasizes that nature and simplicity are more authentic than the hierarchy and divisions of modern society. Divisions and subdivisions of society, caused in part by the mechanization of industry and commerce, distance people from the potential richness of the full range of emotions, experiences and senses of which everyone is capable. Every man is forced to reduce himself to a single function, dedicating all his energies to that single task. He relies on the rest of society to provide him with the rest of life's necessities and luxuries in exchange for his hard-earned money. As a result, people become absorbed in the drudgery of daily life, unable to see beyond their immediate time and place. The farmer “sees his bushel and his wagon, and nothing beyond” (842). The merchant "almost never gives an idea that his labor is worth, but is guided by the routine of his trade, and the soul is subject to dollars" (842). With these criticisms of modern society, Emerson implies that part of the return to simplicity, or at least the first step towards it, is the return to oneself. Only then can the spiritual dialogue between man and nature begin. And as a result of this closeness to nature, the “self” improves, thus improving society as a whole. Emerson describes society as "indefinable" because the souls of its individuals have been replaced by a single laborious purpose: "this original unity, this source of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, so minutely divided and passed off, as to be poured into drops and cannot be collected" (842). A society full of people living life to its fullest,dividing one's energies into a balanced mix of survival, reflection and contemplation, and practicing a trade or job, will form a community characteristic for oneself. The contentment and self-confidence of each of its individuals will enable them to pursue, among other things, community closeness to ensure security and growth. A society full of such individuals is naturally better than one whose members are consumed with themselves and their small daily tasks. Bartleby's narrator, the Scrivener, seems perfectly adapted to life in an authoritarian world. It is only committed to safety and security. He "has been imbued with the deep conviction that the simplest way of life is the best", and is therefore an "eminently secure man" (1149). His seemingly natural harmony with the world around him implies that he is not a romantic2E But the narrator possesses some romantic traits that cannot be ignored. He is sensitive, understanding and compassionate and decides to help Bartleby take decisive action in his life: "I could not reach his soul... but if I could help him in any other way, I would be happy to do so. Furthermore, if, returned at home, had he found himself at any time without help, a letter from him would surely have been answered" (1161). Considering the narrator's unadventurous and uncommitted lifestyle, this kind of compassion is even more surprising the peculiar bond that feels with the bizarre Bartleby After realizing that Bartleby had established himself in the office, “the bond of new common humanity drew me irresistibly towards the darkness. A brotherly melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam" (1160). The fact that the narrator feels that he and Bartleby are "sons of Adam" reveals not only that he has a deep well of compassion from which he draws for Bartleby, but also that the connection between these seemingly opposite people is deeper than both Bartleby and Bartleby the narrator would probably like to admit that Bartleby and the narrator are two "half men" who, together, should make a complete man. The narrator is flexible and adaptable, adapts well to his environment and is in touch with the complexities of his society and his duty. Although certainly not a dynamic person, he represents the lowest common denominator necessary to survive the modern society described by Melville 19th century Romantics probably did not praise men for their ability to adapt and find safety and security at all costs. But the ability to survive without imposing authoritarian values on other people is certainly a Romantic trait; what the narrator possesses. He is, of course, an authority figure, but one of his perceived "weaknesses". Bartleby's inability to resist passive resistance is actually a respectable trait that indicates a compassionate and romantic disposition. Bartleby lacks everything the narrator possesses and is therefore condemned to isolation. Unlike the narrator, however, Bartleby acts from the heart. Bartleby is completely isolated because he is driven by his own emotions, considering only himself in all matters. Even his famous line "I'd rather not" implies that Bartleby, rather than objecting out of logical or ethical disagreement, simply doesn't feel like it. This loyalty to one's heart is his defining romantic value, one that the narrator betrays by living to please others. Therefore, both the narrator and Bartleby possess the necessary Romantic traits that, if merged, could make a complete person who represents the kind of dynamic and capable person idealized by the Romantics. But in the process of dividing humanity into its constituent parts, authoritarian society has stripped each of thesemen of a vital part of their being that forces them into a state of unnatural humanity, which condemns them to failure even in the presence of their complementary half. Bartleby's determination to obey his feelings fails to bring him any satisfaction or happiness because nothing in life excites him; he is apparently incapable of experiencing pleasure. As a result, Bartleby wanders around the office lifeless. Bartleby is "palely clean, pitifully respectable, incurably desperate, vaguely calm, cadaverous" and "like a true ghost, in accordance with the laws of magical invocation, appears at the entrance of his hermitage" (1153, 1154, 1158, 1159). Bartleby, because he finds no connection to his environment, lives in a vividly unnatural near-death state. Likewise, the narrator fails to accomplish the only thing that has ever sparked passion in him: helping Bartleby. So accustomed to a life that avoids controversy for the sake of his own comfort, he finds himself unable to help even a single man. With the story's final quote "Ah, Bartleby. Ah, humanity!" The narrator realizes that he is neither capable of helping Bartleby nor equipped to alter the human condition. Although few expect a person to alter the human condition, Emerson's and presumably Melville's notion of the individual's role in society suggests that "complete" individuals existing in their natural state with a natural environment have a profound effect on the state of humanity. For a romantic, individuals should be compassionate, spiritual, and capable to a degree that they need to exist only to improve the surrounding society. them2E Being a man who possesses only the faculties necessary to survive an easy and safe life, the narrator fails to improve the life of another man because he too exists in an unnatural state of isolation although he survives in his world, he is a part insignificant than a vast machine for which he completes mundane tasks. In this sense he is isolated from himself, and therefore isolated from understanding his place in the world. More specifically, the narrator's strenuous and limited life made. he incapable of understanding anything irrational. Richard H. Fogle, author of a short analysis simply titled "Bartleby," points out that "Bartleby's irrationalism is inscrutable; it is the element of mystery in the world" that the narrator is unable to understand (24). This causes the narrator to have a "growing sense of fear and anxiety" (24), which indicates the narrator's inability to understand anything that strays from the linear, the orderly, and conformity. Melville's description of his surroundings also serves to illustrate the narrator's limited view of the world. He appears to be constantly blocked by walls in which he feels strangely comfortable, and in which he even finds "hidden beauty" (1149). These walls protect him from the vast truth waiting to be discovered. The squalid, cold, gray structures of Wall Street stand in for nature and provide the narrator with an environment that is sufficient only because he knows nothing of what lies beyond. While a certain degree of innocence is a respectable romantic trait, ignorance is not. The narrator's ignorance is the determining factor in his unnatural state of existence. Türkiye and Pince-Nez serve as the most obvious and comical representatives of divided humanity and unnatural existence. Like the narrator and Bartleby, their eccentricities complement each other. Turkey, who is old and losing his usefulness, works calmly and efficiently until noon, when he promptly gets drunk and storms out angrily in his space. Young Nippers is "the victim of two evil powers: ambition and indigestion" (1150). Throughout the morning his indigestion makes him irritable and unable to workefficiently, until midday, when he calms down and produces work on par with Türkiye when sober. Thus the two "relieved each other as guards, [which was] a good natural arrangement, under the circumstances" (1152). Together, the two form a "good natural accord", but alone they exist as half-men in a completely unnatural state. Turkey spends half his day, and therefore half his life, drunk and crazy. Nippers spend an equal amount of time grinding their teeth and tidying up their desk in frustration over indigestion. But unlike the relationship between Bartleby and the narrator, Turkey and Nippers actually function correctly once they are both seen as a single person. They complement each other because, as Charles G. Hoffman points out in a review of the story, they "do their duty" in the prescribed manner at all times, and their irrational behavior follows a pattern that becomes a part of the regularity and order rather than an external uncontrolled element" (24)2E In contrast to the relationship between Turkey and Nippers, and Bartleby and the narrator, an underlying theme The authoritarian world in which these characters live demands that individuals be useful to it. Although they represent a couple efficient, each taking over when the other goes mad, they are only useful to society because they have been reduced to miserable drones who live hardly represent the full range of humanity character is much deeper. Each possesses romantic characteristics that seem compatible with each other. In a world that supports romantic values, the narrator and Bartleby would naturally help solve each other's problems. Bartleby's inexplicable irrationality and self-motivated actions (or rather, inaction) would shed light on a new aspect of humanity that the narrator had previously avoided or sheltered from. The narrator's natural "attraction" to Bartleby's peculiarities would foster an incurable curiosity about a man who resisted every aspect of modern life. The narrator notices the attraction in himself and is attracted by her “pale haughtiness,” which “positively impressed me in my docile acquiescence to her eccentricities” (1161). Through understanding, the narrator would be more motivated to help Bartleby, and also better equipped to do so, giving the narrator, presumably for the first time, a sense of accomplishment. In turn, Bartleby would save himself from his own misery, having learned the importance of adapting to survive, perhaps even finding pleasure in some things. Melville, however, makes clear that such a scenario is impossible. Romantic values are doomed in a world where people are only worth what they produce for it. No matter how "compatible" the Narrator and Bartleby are, their romantic tendencies are not helpful to their society. Therefore combining the two to create a "whole" man is futile and doomed to failure, a fact that Melville highlights through the narrator's reaction to Bartleby being homeless. Even in his most compassionate moment, when he feels that bond of commonality, he is overcome by a feeling of disgust at Bartleby's way of life: "My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincere pity; but precisely in proportion to the Bartleby's abandonment grew and grew in my imagination, that same melancholy turned to fear, that pity to revulsion" (1161). The mechanization of society and the tendency towards authoritarianism are incompatible with romantic values because they divide the role of the individual in society in two: one to make decisions and one to follow them. Those who make decisions must take the profound into consideration., 2000.

Topic > Bartleby The Scrivener: Replaced by Society tingling shiver ran up my arm and down my back to my feet" (1173). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBartelby the scribe died of sadness, feeling trapped and completely without a place in the mechanized society that had sprouted around him. He has fallen victim to his own desire to resist the senseless adaptation that characters like the narrator have so easily achieved. Bartleby's death clearly indicates Melville's discontented view of the modern world; a world where strength comes from weakness and flexibility, and where the weak by nature prevail over the strong. To define Bartleby the Scrivener in such simple terms, however, is to ignore some important and specific themes that Melville skillfully allegorizes with the characters in the story. For Melville, modern authoritarian society so minutely divides a person's responsibilities that it reduces the scope of his ability to interact with himself, nature, and his community. This belief closely follows that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who judged modern mechanized society to be the bane of humanity because it made individuals insensitive to the range of capabilities with which they are naturally endowed. Melville's characters in Bartleby, the Scrivener are described as "half-men" who are victims of a society that stifles their natural ability to feel and act on their romantic role as an individual in society. American romantics have a unique vision of the role of the individual in society. Understanding this role is crucial to understanding the reasons for the tragic failure of romantic values in Bartleby, the Scrivener. For a romantic, the well-being of the individual is fundamental to the quality of the society he builds. Emerson details the relationship between the individual and society in The American Scholar. He emphasizes that nature and simplicity are more authentic than the hierarchy and divisions of modern society. Divisions and subdivisions of society, caused in part by the mechanization of industry and commerce, distance people from the potential richness of the full range of emotions, experiences and senses of which everyone is capable. Every man is forced to reduce himself to a single function, dedicating all his energies to that single task. He relies on the rest of society to provide him with the rest of life's necessities and luxuries in exchange for his hard-earned money. As a result, people become absorbed in the drudgery of daily life, unable to see beyond their immediate time and place. The farmer “sees his bushel and his wagon, and nothing beyond” (842). The merchant "almost never gives an idea that his labor is worth, but is guided by the routine of his trade, and the soul is subject to dollars" (842). With these criticisms of modern society, Emerson implies that part of the return to simplicity, or at least the first step towards it, is the return to oneself. Only then can the spiritual dialogue between man and nature begin. And as a result of this closeness to nature, the “self” improves, thus improving society as a whole. Emerson describes society as "indefinable" because the souls of its individuals have been replaced by a single laborious purpose: "this original unity, this source of power, has been so distributed to multitudes, so minutely divided and passed off, as to be poured into drops and cannot be collected" (842). A society full of people living life to its fullest,dividing one's energies into a balanced mix of survival, reflection and contemplation, and practicing a trade or job, will form a community characteristic for oneself. The contentment and self-confidence of each of its individuals will enable them to pursue, among other things, community closeness to ensure security and growth. A society full of such individuals is naturally better than one whose members are consumed with themselves and their small daily tasks. Bartleby's narrator, the Scrivener, seems perfectly adapted to life in an authoritarian world. It is only committed to safety and security. He "has been imbued with the deep conviction that the simplest way of life is the best", and is therefore an "eminently secure man" (1149). His seemingly natural harmony with the world around him implies that he is not a romantic2E But the narrator possesses some romantic traits that cannot be ignored. He is sensitive, understanding and compassionate and decides to help Bartleby take decisive action in his life: "I could not reach his soul... but if I could help him in any other way, I would be happy to do so. Furthermore, if, returned at home, had he found himself at any time without help, a letter from him would surely have been answered" (1161). Considering the narrator's unadventurous and uncommitted lifestyle, this kind of compassion is even more surprising the peculiar bond that feels with the bizarre Bartleby After realizing that Bartleby had established himself in the office, “the bond of new common humanity drew me irresistibly towards the darkness. A brotherly melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam" (1160). The fact that the narrator feels that he and Bartleby are "sons of Adam" reveals not only that he has a deep well of compassion from which he draws for Bartleby, but also that the connection between these seemingly opposite people is deeper than both Bartleby and Bartleby the narrator would probably like to admit that Bartleby and the narrator are two "half men" who, together, should make a complete man. The narrator is flexible and adaptable, adapts well to his environment and is in touch with the complexities of his society and his duty. Although certainly not a dynamic person, he represents the lowest common denominator necessary to survive the modern society described by Melville 19th century Romantics probably did not praise men for their ability to adapt and find safety and security at all costs. But the ability to survive without imposing authoritarian values on other people is certainly a Romantic trait; what the narrator possesses. He is, of course, an authority figure, but one of his perceived "weaknesses". Bartleby's inability to resist passive resistance is actually a respectable trait that indicates a compassionate and romantic disposition. Bartleby lacks everything the narrator possesses and is therefore condemned to isolation. Unlike the narrator, however, Bartleby acts from the heart. Bartleby is completely isolated because he is driven by his own emotions, considering only himself in all matters. Even his famous line "I'd rather not" implies that Bartleby, rather than objecting out of logical or ethical disagreement, simply doesn't feel like it. This loyalty to one's heart is his defining romantic value, one that the narrator betrays by living to please others. Therefore, both the narrator and Bartleby possess the necessary Romantic traits that, if merged, could make a complete person who represents the kind of dynamic and capable person idealized by the Romantics. But in the process of dividing humanity into its constituent parts, authoritarian society has stripped each of thesemen of a vital part of their being that forces them into a state of unnatural humanity, which condemns them to failure even in the presence of their complementary half. Bartleby's determination to obey his feelings fails to bring him any satisfaction or happiness because nothing in life excites him; he is apparently incapable of experiencing pleasure. As a result, Bartleby wanders around the office lifeless. Bartleby is "palely clean, pitifully respectable, incurably desperate, vaguely calm, cadaverous" and "like a true ghost, in accordance with the laws of magical invocation, appears at the entrance of his hermitage" (1153, 1154, 1158, 1159). Bartleby, because he finds no connection to his environment, lives in a vividly unnatural near-death state. Likewise, the narrator fails to accomplish the only thing that has ever sparked passion in him: helping Bartleby. So accustomed to a life that avoids controversy for the sake of his own comfort, he finds himself unable to help even a single man. With the story's final quote "Ah, Bartleby. Ah, humanity!" The narrator realizes that he is neither capable of helping Bartleby nor equipped to alter the human condition. Although few expect a person to alter the human condition, Emerson's and presumably Melville's notion of the individual's role in society suggests that "complete" individuals existing in their natural state with a natural environment have a profound effect on the state of humanity. For a romantic, individuals should be compassionate, spiritual, and capable to a degree that they need to exist only to improve the surrounding society. them2E Being a man who possesses only the faculties necessary to survive an easy and safe life, the narrator fails to improve the life of another man because he too exists in an unnatural state of isolation although he survives in his world, he is a part insignificant than a vast machine for which he completes mundane tasks. In this sense he is isolated from himself, and therefore isolated from understanding his place in the world. More specifically, the narrator's strenuous and limited life made. he incapable of understanding anything irrational. Richard H. Fogle, author of a short analysis simply titled "Bartleby," points out that "Bartleby's irrationalism is inscrutable; it is the element of mystery in the world" that the narrator is unable to understand (24). This causes the narrator to have a "growing sense of fear and anxiety" (24), which indicates the narrator's inability to understand anything that strays from the linear, the orderly, and conformity. Melville's description of his surroundings also serves to illustrate the narrator's limited view of the world. He appears to be constantly blocked by walls in which he feels strangely comfortable, and in which he even finds "hidden beauty" (1149). These walls protect him from the vast truth waiting to be discovered. The squalid, cold, gray structures of Wall Street stand in for nature and provide the narrator with an environment that is sufficient only because he knows nothing of what lies beyond. While a certain degree of innocence is a respectable romantic trait, ignorance is not. The narrator's ignorance is the determining factor in his unnatural state of existence. Türkiye and Pince-Nez serve as the most obvious and comical representatives of divided humanity and unnatural existence. Like the narrator and Bartleby, their eccentricities complement each other. Turkey, who is old and losing his usefulness, works calmly and efficiently until noon, when he promptly gets drunk and storms out angrily in his space. Young Nippers is "the victim of two evil powers: ambition and indigestion" (1150). Throughout the morning his indigestion makes him irritable and unable to workefficiently, until midday, when he calms down and produces work on par with Türkiye when sober. Thus the two "relieved each other as guards, [which was] a good natural arrangement, under the circumstances" (1152). Together, the two form a "good natural accord", but alone they exist as half-men in a completely unnatural state. Turkey spends half his day, and therefore half his life, drunk and crazy. Nippers spend an equal amount of time grinding their teeth and tidying up their desk in frustration over indigestion. But unlike the relationship between Bartleby and the narrator, Turkey and Nippers actually function correctly once they are both seen as a single person. They complement each other because, as Charles G. Hoffman points out in a review of the story, they "do their duty" in the prescribed manner at all times, and their irrational behavior follows a pattern that becomes a part of the regularity and order rather than an external uncontrolled element" (24)2E In contrast to the relationship between Turkey and Nippers, and Bartleby and the narrator, an underlying theme The authoritarian world in which these characters live demands that individuals be useful to it. Although they represent a couple efficient, each taking over when the other goes mad, they are only useful to society because they have been reduced to miserable drones who live hardly represent the full range of humanity character is much deeper. Each possesses romantic characteristics that seem compatible with each other. In a world that supports romantic values, the narrator and Bartleby would naturally help solve each other's problems. Bartleby's inexplicable irrationality and self-motivated actions (or rather, inaction) would shed light on a new aspect of humanity that the narrator had previously avoided or sheltered from. The narrator's natural "attraction" to Bartleby's peculiarities would foster an incurable curiosity about a man who resisted every aspect of modern life. The narrator notices the attraction in himself and is attracted by her “pale haughtiness,” which “positively impressed me in my docile acquiescence to her eccentricities” (1161). Through understanding, the narrator would be more motivated to help Bartleby, and also better equipped to do so, giving the narrator, presumably for the first time, a sense of accomplishment. In turn, Bartleby would save himself from his own misery, having learned the importance of adapting to survive, perhaps even finding pleasure in some things. Melville, however, makes clear that such a scenario is impossible. Romantic values are doomed in a world where people are only worth what they produce for it. No matter how "compatible" the Narrator and Bartleby are, their romantic tendencies are not helpful to their society. Therefore combining the two to create a "whole" man is futile and doomed to failure, a fact that Melville highlights through the narrator's reaction to Bartleby being homeless. Even in his most compassionate moment, when he feels that bond of commonality, he is overcome by a feeling of disgust at Bartleby's way of life: "My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincere pity; but precisely in proportion to the Bartleby's abandonment grew and grew in my imagination, that same melancholy turned to fear, that pity to revulsion" (1161). The mechanization of society and the tendency towards authoritarianism are incompatible with romantic values because they divide the role of the individual in society in two: one to make decisions and one to follow them. Those who make decisions must take the profound into consideration., 2000.