C.Liao
466-65-0469
7.17.1996

	Bartleby the Scrivener is a story that takes place on Wall 
Street, peopled by workers of a common mold.  Being a non-conformatist of 
the most extreme type,  Bartleby is eventually suffers a death of 
attrition.  The message that Melville intends for the reader is how 
society has little tolerance for social deviance. 
	I mentioned a common mold, the engine which impelled the 
"society" of Wall Street to keep on existing.  This common mold consists 
of working a full day, going home and relax, possibly drinking some beer 
or whatnot.  
	This is where the theme of ostracization of social deviance comes 
into play, expressed in the metaphor of individual versus society. Those 
who do not fit into the common mold are pressured to change or are 
removed forcibly.  Bartleby is an example of a character that doesnÍt fit 
anywhere even near the mold and is "removed."
	 Within this society that upholds the common mold there is a 
hierarchy of obsessive qualities, some of which are admired and others 
which are scorned and deemed to be in the realm of dysfunctionalism.  
Bartleby is character that holds an aesthetic of performing only a single 
action to the exclusion to everything else, this is his obsession.
	BartlebyÍs obsession proceeds throught three stages before his 
demise.  Initially BartlebyÍs obsession is with his employ as a scrivener 
by the narrator, and works day and night "as if famished for something to 
copy."   His obsession is single-mindedly with accomplishing as much 
copying as humanly possible to the exclusion of everything else.  The 
first few attempts of the narrator to tell Bartleby to do something else, 
no matter how slight the task, are abortive.  The narrator chooses to 
overlook this shortcoming due to the meritorious nature of BartlebyÍs 
obsession for his work.  After a series of requests from the narrator 
that all end in failure, Bartleby makes the decision to shift his 
decision to something else, doing nothing whatsoever.  This of course, is 
a kind of obsession that is not acceptable and will come to be crushed by 
society with the narrator as the agent of punishment.  The narrator is at 
this point stuck in the quandary of extending sympathy to Bartleby or 
sustaining injury to his professional name.  Once again, all entreaties 
of the narrator are met with naught and the narrator finally decides to 
move his place of business as a means to rid himself of Bartleby.  
Finally, when Bartleby is shipped off to prison, he truly does nothing, 
not even taking partaking of the basic functions required to sustain 
life. The narrator finds Bartleby at the culmination of his final 
obsession, huddled up against the base of the prison wall starved to 
death.   
	Bartleby is an extreme example of a character trying achieve his 
individualism in society and failing, with the price of death. The 
narrator is another  example of a character in the individual versus 
society theme who loses out by bartering what he considers morally right, 
extending Bartleby charity and allowing him to continue his way of life; 
in exchange for what society considers right: the perpetuation and profit 
of his business, his professional standing.  In the end they are both the 
losers.  In a broader sense Melville is making the point that 
industrialization is stripping away our morals, breeding a society based 
on the self-centered individual.

All material ©1996 Chris Liao.
Questions, comments, inquiries: C.liao@mail.utexas.edu
Bartleby the Scrivener page constructed by Chris Liao.

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9/3/96