Bartleby

Bartleby, The Scrivener: A story of Wall-street

by Herman Melville

Analysis by Elizabeth London

Author Unknown

"In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do -- namely, to examine a small paper with me. Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied "I would prefer not to."' (p.6 paragraph 20).

 

 

    I would prefer not to. This was such a profound thing in the text. The importance of this passage is that it is the first time that Bartleby had refused to do something that his boss asked him to do. For this post I am going to refer to him as Mr. Wall-street. This passage shows the true reality of Bartleby. He had worked so well up to this point and then all of a sudden he "preferred not to". This was something that Mr. Wall-street could not comprehend. He had no idea why his employee would prefer not to do something he was getting paid to do. This causes the question to rise: Why did Bartleby prefer not to? This question.. sadly, is not answered in the text but it is a question I thought of the entire time I read. 
   The importance this brings about is the importance of Bartleby's character development. If Bartleby had never said "I would prefer not to" well, there wouldn't really be a story. The fact that he says this, over and over again really, shows that Bartleby is not there to work, but rather to just stay. Bartleby had found where he was planning on staying for the rest of his life and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that, even that his boss wanted him to work. He just preferred not to and that was that. 
    Bartleby was a very odd character. He didn't do what he was told and his only response for a long time was "I would prefer not to". What does that say about Bartelby? I believe that says that the work was not of any importance to him. He worked just long enough to be wanted by his boss.. but then decided he didn't want to work after that. 
   I found myself during this story going back and forth between feeling sorry for Bartleby to feeling disgust at what he was doing. This has a lot to do with the fact that he was meandering around "preferring not" to do anything that he was asked to do. At the same time, however, he had no where else to be and he didn't want to go anywhere else anyway. 
  Bartleby was a very complex story and this little passage shows just a little bit of that complexity that Bartleby himself caused.



Here is a video for your enjoyment. I think it really depicts Bartleby well.