Diante Hardy Hardy 1 Essays (455 words) - Bartleby, The Scrivener

Diante Hardy Hardy 1 Essays (455 words) - Bartleby, The Scrivener Diante Hardy Hardy 1 Mr.Nerney AP English 9 November 2016 Bartleby is a strange guy. The narrator refers to Bartleby as a "pale" man in Bartleby the Scrivener . Bartleby is a scrivener; he does his job well, hardly ever stops working and he gets things done quickly and efficiently. However, he is a man of few words. In fact he is a man of one phrase: "I would prefer not to." He says this to anything that is requested of him other than to copy documents. He actually outright refuses to do anything else that his boss asks him to do. What is to be said or done about the many "Bartleby's" of the world? They come in many shapes and sizes and are misunderstood and boggled about for different reasons. They all trigger a sense of softhearted humanity in all they touch. The narrator of the story is the boss of Bartleby and yet his employer just cannot seem to get angry. Bartleby simply states that he would rather not perform his instructed duties. He does not say in vain but in a sadness of some sort. There is something about Bartleby that calms the reader yet makes them slightly angry over Bartleby's stubbornness. The narrator felt calm but also confused by Bartleby's way of going about things. Although the narrator, an attorney, employed quite a strange few of scriveners to work underneath him, Bartleby was by far the most different out of the whole group. For each time an employer requested for him to examine a copied paper, Bartleby would reply, "I would prefer not to" and proceed with what he was doing at the moment. "I looked at him steadfastly. His face was leanly composed; his gray eyes dimly calm. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him. Had there been at least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his mannerhad there been anything ordinarily human about him, doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises." This shows the significance that Bartleby holds, in the way of him making another human think and act. "I would prefer not to" is always Bartleby's reply. The narrator did beyond what most good-hearted people would have done for Bartleb y and finally, he said, "I think he is a little deranged." Humanity affected Bartleby and the narrator. Bartleby handled dead letters and he must have seen humanity and inhumanity with those letters. Those letters left Bartleby dead inside and let nothing after matter to him anymore. He may as well preferred not to live, and the attorney who tried to make Ba rtleby human again was too late. Something so simple and innocent turned out so sad and unclear.