40 pages • 1 hour read
Herman MelvilleBartleby, the Scrivener
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1853A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
The Narrator
The narrator is Bartleby’s employer, an elderly lawyer who describes himself as “unambitious” and “an eminently safe man” (3). We know nothing about his physical appearance aside from his age. At the beginning of his tale, the narrator has been bestowed the office of Master of Chancery and finds himself in need of another scrivener. He quickly hires Bartleby, seeing something of his own sedate nature in him compared to his other two scriveners, Turkey and Nippers.
The narrator is the only round and complex character in “Bartleby,” at times feeling compelled to protect Bartleby but at other times repulsed by Bartleby’s behavior. As the lawyer narrates the story of his bizarre scrivener Bartleby, readers are invited to compare the two men. Bartleby becomes a foil to the narrator’s personality and socioeconomic situation: Bartleby is poor while the narrator is rich, and Bartleby is unyielding while the narrator succumbs to social pressure and his wavering conscience. Bartleby becomes a fixture of the narrator’s life, helping him feel at ease in his office through his friendly presence.
The narrator is, at first, an active character. He hires Bartleby, commands Bartleby and the other scriveners, and investigates Bartleby. As the narrative progresses, however, he becomes more passive until he eventually moves to a new office to avoid Bartley altogether. In his last conversation with Bartleby, the narrator also attempts to convince him his fate of imprisonment is not the narrator’s fault, suggesting an awareness of his increasingly passive role.
Bartleby
Bartleby is a flat character who is often described by the narrator in dehumanizing imagery and language. Bartleby, who is destitute and “forlorn,” answers the narrator’s advertisement for a scrivener and is quickly employed. The narrator soon discovers that Bartleby will do no work except copy legal documents. Bartleby turns down all requests to perform other tasks in the office by replying that he would “prefer not to.”
As Bartleby “prefers” not to do this or that, the narrator begins describing him in increasingly dehumanizing ways. Bartleby becomes “cadaverous,” a “ghost,” and even a “fixture,” and a “millstone.” The narrator spends a great deal of time conveying an unsettling image of Bartleby, saying that he is “forlorn” and “pallid” and that he engages in “dead-wall reveries” as he stares at the bricks outside his window. This image is different from what the narrator presents of himself, a respectable and “safe” lawyer. These descriptions of Bartleby parallel those of the law office, both of which are likened to dead and haunted things.
Turkey
Turkey is one of the two scriveners who work for the narrator before Bartleby’s arrival. An elderly man like the lawyer, Turkey is loyal to his employer. He works well in the mornings, but after lunch he becomes agitated and violent, frequently making inking blots and mistakes in his work.
Turkey appears to be poor like Bartleby. His clothing is dirty and in a state of disarray, and his hat is so appalling it is “not to be handled” (7). Nippers and the narrator believe he spends most of his money on “red ink,” slang for cheap red wine. The narrator attempts to be charitable toward Turkey by giving him an expensive and presentable coat, but then becomes Turkey insolent and rash in the narrator’s opinion. The narrator believes Turkey to be a man “whom prosperity harms” (7), making his poverty a static and unchangeable part of his character. Like Bartleby, he is a flat character who does not change throughout the story.
Nippers
Nippers is the second of the two scriveners who work for the narrator before Bartleby’s arrival. Unlike Turkey, Nippers is young and a victim of two “evil powers”: “ambition and indigestion” (5). Nippers is impatient with being a “mere copyist” and goes out of his way to take on the work of the lawyer by writing up original documents. Where Turkey is aggressive in the afternoon, Nippers suffers from “testiness and irritability” in the morning, which the narrator believes is due to indigestion (5). Owing to his ambition above his station and pay, Nippers invites “ambiguous-look fellows in seedy coats” to the offices as his clients (6). He does not tell the narrator the nature of his dealings with these guests. While Nippers disdains being a scrivener, he is good at the work and valuable to the lawyer. Nippers, like the others in the office, finds himself at odds with Bartleby and angry with his behavior.
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