Upload
priscila-trejo
View
240
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
1/16
Bartleby the Scrivener: A Parable of PessimismAuthor(s): Daniel Stempel and Bruce M. StilliansSource: Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Dec., 1972), pp. 268-282Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2932890.
Accessed: 07/01/2015 14:55
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
University of California Pressis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Nineteenth-Century Fiction.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2932890?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2932890?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
2/16
Bartleby he
Scrivener:
A
Parable
of
Pessimism
DANIEL
STEMPEL
AND
BRUCE M. STILLIANS
IN
CTOBER 1853
a troubled Matthew
Arnold
explained whyhe
had
chosen to drop Empedocles
on Etna fromhis new
collection
of
poems. Certain
situations,
Arnold
suggested, are intrinsically
de-
void of the power to provide "poetical enjoyment": "those in
which
the suffering
indsno vent in
action;
in
which a
continuous
state of
mental
distress s
prolonged,unrelieved by
incident,hope,
or
resistance;
in
which
there
is
everything o
be endured,
nothing
to be
done.
In
such
situationsthere s
inevitably
somethingmorbid,
in
the
description of
themsomething
monotonous."
1
And
so,
Em-
pedocles, having
chosen to
leap
into
the
crater
of
Etna in a fit
of
weltschmerz,was banished
by
the stern Victorian
conscience
of his
creator. But the
romantic
pessimism
which is as
much a
part
of
nineteenth-centuryiterature s the optimisticfaith n progresswas
not to be
exorcised so easily, either from
Arnold's poetry
or from
the
work of
his
contemporaries.
Shortly
after
Arnold
wrote this condemnation of
the
literature
of
futility,Bartleby
the
Scrivener
appeared
in
two
installments
in
Putnam's
Monthly
Magazine
(November-December, 1853).
Through
one of the ironic
coincidences
of
literaryhistory,
Mel-
ville's
storyexemplifies
every
one of the
gloomy
traits
which
Ar-
1
Poetical Works, d. C. B. Tinker and H. F. Lowry (New York/London: Oxford
Univ. Press, 1950), p. xviii.
[2681
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
3/16
Bartleby the
Scrivener
269
nold had listed
as fatal to "poetic enjoyment,"
ut nevertheless
survives s
a
masterpiece f what
Unamuno has called "the tragic
sense of life." t remains n enigmatic
able, n allegorywith
n-
finite everberations,
ike one of Kafka's disturbingly
matter-of-
factnightmares. nd, ike a
Kafka narrative,
t seemsto elude all
effortso isolate
the hidden frames f reference
o whichthe play
of symbolss
linkedby fragmentaryllusions.
But the task, f diffi-
cult, s nothopeless;one can
at least begin withthe mostrelevant
data of sources,milieu,and biography,nd chart he structuref
theallegory y
working rom heknown o the
unknown. he his-
torical pproachcannotprovide
n "explanation"but it can give
us
a point f
departure or meaningful nd focused
iscussion.
n
this nstance,
hefact hat omemonths efore he
writing fBartle-
by the firstummaryf Schopenhauer's
hilosophyn English
was
published
n
a
periodicalwhich
was readily
vailable to Melville
forcesus to considerthe possibility
hat
his
acquaintance
with
Schopenhauer's
essimism egan long before
he boughtSchopen-
hauer'sworksn the astyears f his ife.2
On 1
April
1853,
the
Westminster eview
and Foreign Quar-
terly
Review
published
a
survey
f
Schopenhauer's
worksunder
thetitle f"Iconoclasm
n
GermanPhilosophy."
his article,
writ-
ten by John
Oxenford,was
destined
o become one
of
the
land-
marks
f
nineteenth-century
ntellectual
history.3
ot
only
did it
introduce chopenhauer
o theEnglish-speaking
orld,
t also cata-
pulted
the hitherto bscurephilosopher
nto
fame
in
his own
country.
Within
a month
he article
was
translated
nto German
and published n the Vossische eitung Berlin). Schopenhauer,
whose ommand
f
English
was
excellent, raised
Oxenford or he
2
See MertonM.
Sealts,
Jr.,Melville's
Reading:
A
Check-list
f Books
Owned
and
Borrowed
(Madison: Univ.
of Wisconsin
Press,
1966),p. 26.
Referencesto Schopen-
hauer and
his philosophy
have been frequent
n Melville criticism ince the
pub-
lication
of
Raymond M.
Weaver's biography,
particularly
n
studies of Billy Budd,
where evidence
of
his reading can
be demonstrated.
To
our knowledge,
this article
presents he
only evidence
that a summary
f
Schopenhauer's
thoughtwas available
to Melvilleshortly
eforehe wrote
Bartleby
nd that the
story s shaped
by
his reading
of that summary.
There have been
perceptive
critics
who have noted the
parallel
with Schopenhauer'sdenial of the will, but only in passing (Walter Sutton,"Mel-
ville and the Great
God Budd,"
Prairie Schooner,
34 [1960], 129).
3
John Oxenford,
"Iconoclasm
in German
Philosophy,"
Westminster
Review and
Foreign Quarterly
Review,
60 (1853), 388407.
The
New York
Society
Library,
which
Melville
frequently
sed, lists the
magazine
in its
1850
catalogue.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
4/16
270
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
fidelityfhis translationsf excerpts rom is works nd ingeneral
was delighted y the article,which ttacked heGerman
cademi-
cians
forfailing o recognize he geniusof a philosopherwho
was
not a professor.4
The Westminster eview, as Hugh W.
Hetheringtonhas
pointed ut,was one of a number f British
magazineswhichwere
widely circulated n the United States, often
arrivingby fast
steamer fter two-week rossing.5 elville was an
avid readerof
the periodicalpress, nd it is likely hathe read the Westminster
Review,
f
onlyto see whether is books had been included n the
regular urvey f Americanwriting.The Review
had printed
briefbut favorable eference o Melville'swork n 1852.6 t is not
possible o determine xactlywhere nd when Melville
pickedup
the April issue because the opportunitieswere
omnipresent.
n
May he was n New York to see his father-in-lawff
o Europe and
it
was hiscustom o go to thereading oomof the
New YorkSociety
Library nd scanthe atest eriodicals.7 urther, e
could haveread
theApril ssue nBoston t theAthenaeum r even n Pittsfield.
Granted heopportunity, hat bout the nterest? ere the evi-
dence s so strong s to rule out the possibility hat
he
mighthave
simply gnored
he
article.On histriptoEurope
in
1849 Melville
traveled
with
George J. Adler,professor f German
t New
York
University. dler,
whomMelville described
s
"Coleridgean,"
was
an
enthusiastictudent f Germanphilosophy
nd
lost
no
time
n
initiating
is
traveling ompanion nto themysteries
f
transcen-
dental
metaphysics,Hegel, Schlegel,Kant,
8C
c."
8
And
Melville
wasa farfrom nwilling istener s they trolled he decktalking
of
his favorite opics,
Fixed
Fate,
Free
will,
foreknowledge
bso-
lute."
9
Nor
did
this
nterest ane when
he returned
nd settled
t
Arrowhead. .
E. A.
Smithof
Pittsfield oted
thatafterhis
day's
4
"Vorwort,"Jahrbuch
der Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft,
2 (1923-25),
v.
5
Melville's Reviewers
Chapel Hill: Univ.
of North Carolina Press,
1961), pp.
5-6.
There
was
an American
edition
of
Westminster
eview,
published in New
York at
this time.
See F. L.
Mott,A History of American Magazines (Cambridge,
Mass.: Har-
vard Univ.
Press, 1938),2:129-30.
6
See Jay Leyda, The Melville Log (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1951), 1:442.
7
Sealts,
p. 15.
8
Herman Melville,
Journal of
a
Visit
to
London
and
the
Continent,
d.
E. M.
Met-
calf
Cambridge,
Mass.:
Harvard
Univ.
Press, 1948), p. 12.
9
Ibid.,
p.
5.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
5/16
Bartleby the Scrivener
271
work
was
finishedMelvillewould oin his family or light eading
-which was not so very ight; s it includedmuch ess of whatwe
commonly all 'light iterature' han it did of profound eviews,
abstruse hilosophy
n
prose r verse, nd the
ike."
10
In
the spring nd summer f 1853
Melville's personal
ircurn-
stances erhapsmade himmore hanusually eceptive o any pessi-
mistic valuation f ife. He was seeking
esperately
or
n
escape
from he pressures f a career s a professional riter nd finding
it almost mpossible o continue ecauseoffailing ight nd mental
strain.We
can
imagine, hen, he strong mpression
which
Oxen-
ford's
rticlemust have
made
as Melville found his own
intima-
tions f a malignitynherent
n
the fabric f
creation upported y
Schopenhauer'smetaphysicsf
an
evil will as Kant's thing-in-itself.
Even more important, chopenhauer eft
one gate open
in
the
gloomy rison f his system-hetaught
n ethic
of totaldisengage-
ment
from ife and its obligations,
imilar
o
that which
shmael
had sought t sea, but
in
Schopenhauer's
hilosophy
arried
o its
ultimate nd logicalextreme.
Every eaderof Bartleby he Scrivener s immediatelytruck y
theobvious factthat Bartleby onsistently
voids the use of the
verb
"to
will"
and
substitutesprefer." his eccentricityf speech
first
xcites he curiosity f his employer nd his fellow criveners,
then theirwrath, nd, finally,ike an insidious ontagion, nfects
their peech s well. t is theverbal ymbol f that
alm negation f
whichhis employer agely emarks, nothing o aggravates n ear-
nest person s a passiveresistance."
1
When the narrator, esting
this trange henomenon fdenial,which s
totally t odds
withhis
own
experience f the relationship etweenmaster
nd
man,
asks
him
to go to the postoffice, artleby eplies,
I
would prefer ot
to." His employerprobes for the exactmeaning of this baffling
statement: You will not?"
nd
receives
he
quallyemphatic eply,
"I
prefer ot" (29-30). Bartlebywills
nothing-he merely refers
andthis s thekey ohisenigmaticharacter.
10
Quoted by
Sealts,
p. 20.
11
The
Piazza Tales,
ed. Egbert S.
Oliver
(New York: Hendricks House, 1948),
p.
28.
Citations
n
my
text to
Bartleby
are to thisedition.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
6/16
272
Nineteenth-Century
iction
In his discussionof Schopenhauer's thical systemOxenford
points
ut that
his
scaleof
values
culminatesn an
ideal
individual,
higher
hanthe
ust
or
good
man:
Just
s
ignorant
ersons,
hohave
smattering
nowledgef
Berke-
ley,
hink
hat
he
good
bishop
egarded
he
whole
world s a
creation
of
the
fancy,
nd that
hey an
refute
is
disciples y
giving hem n
actual
not
metaphorical)
apon
the
knuckles,o
doubtlesshere
may
be
wiseacres,
ho
will
fancy
hat s
Schopenhaueras
declared
he
will
to
bethe
eal
ssence f
theworld,ndevery uman eing manifesta-tionofthatwill, very umanbeing s in a state fthemost erfect
freedom.
uite
the
reverse
With
respecto
the
ndividual
will, cho-
penhauer
s
an
absolute
ecessitarian,
olding hat
he ction
f
a
cer-
tain
motive n a
certain
haracters
as sure
of
producing certain
result,s
an
operation f
gent
pon
patient
n
the
phere
fmechanics.
What
maybe
a
motiveo
one
person
maynotbe a
motive o
another,
for
he
characters
ay
be
different;
ut given
the characternd
the
motive,
he
esults
infallible.
he
absolute
will,
which
aybeyond
he
jurisdictionf
causality,
as
forced
tself
ntotheworld
fphenomena
in
an
individual
hape,
nd
it
must
akethe
consequences,
hat s to
say, subjugation othat awofcauseandeffectywhich hewhole
world f
phenomena
s
governed,
ndwhich
s
equallypotent
n
the
discharge
f a
pistol
nd
the
performancef
a
virtuous
ction.The
"character,"
hichsthe
dea
of
thehuman
ndividual,
ust
as
gravita-
tion
s
one of
the
deas of
matter,
s born
with
him, nd
cannot
be
altered.
he
knowledge f
the
ndividualmay
be
enlarged,
nd con-
sequentlye
may eput
n
a
better
rack,y
earning
hat
his
natural
desires
illbe
more
ratified
f
heobeys
he
aws
of
society,
han f he
rises
gainst
hem;
ut the
character
emainshe
same,
lthough
he
cupidity hich
would
havemade
a
gamesterr
a
highwayman,
ay
become constituentlementnanhonestradesman.huseveryman
brings is
own
depravity
nto he
world
withhim,
nd
this s
the
great
doctrine
f
originalin,
s
set
orth y
Augustine,
xpoundedy
Luther
and
Calvin,
and
applauded
by
Schopenhauer,ho,
though
free-
thinkern
the
most
omplete
ense f
the
word,s
absolutely
elighted
with
he
fathersnd
the
reformers,
hen hey
ear
witnesso
human
degradation.
he
world f
phenomenas a
delusion-a
mockery;
nd
the
fact
f
being
orn
nto
uch
world
s n
itself
n evil.
And
nowwe
may
ntroduce
chopenhauer's
deal.
The
artist omes
in
for
large hare
ofhis
respect,
orhe,
without
egard
o
selfish
motives,ontemplateshe deaswhich ormhe ubstrataftheworld
of
phenomena,
nd
reproduces
hem
s the
beautiful
nd the
ublime.
The
good
man,with
is
huge
ympathy,
s
another
stimable
eing; ut
higher till
s
he,
who,
onvinced
f
the
llusion f
the
world,
s
resolved
to
destroy
t,
s
far s
he
s
concerned,y
xtinguishing
he
will
to ive.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
7/16
Bartleby the Scrivener 273
Suicide will not answer hispurpose.Suicide is a dislikeof a particular
chain of circumstances, hich t endeavours o break through, ut it is
no alienation of the ndividual desiresfrom ife n general.Asceticism,
thatgradual extinction f all feelings hat connectus with the visible
world-the life of the anchorite n the Egyptiandesert-of the Quietist
of the time of Louis XIV,-of the Indian Fakeer, who goes through
yearsof self-torture,-thiss the perfection f Schopenhauer.The par-
ticular theological creed under which these saints performed heir
austerities s a matter f trivial mportance,-they re all alike in the
one grandqualification f holiness;they eceded from he visibleworld
and gradually xtinguished he "will to live," till death, commonly o
called,cameas the completion f theirwishes.
In this sceticism onsists heonlypossiblefreedom f thewill. While
acting n theworldof phenomenathewill becomes ntangled n the
au
of causality,but now it recedes back to a region where that law can
operateno more, nd where t is consequently ree.The freedom f the
will is, n a word, nnihilation, nd this s thegreatest oon thatcan be
desired.12
When
Bartleby first ppears,
he
already exhibits
the
stigmata
of
one of Schopenhauer's ascetic saints: "I can see that figurenow-
pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn t was
Bartle-
by" (23). There is an aura of holiness about
him
which impresses
his employer, f not his fellow clerks. And it is precisely because
there
is
no
"particular theological creed"
to
provide
an
external
frameofvalues thatthe storybecomes an absurd parable.
The
pas-
sion of
Bartleby is played out against a background
of
comic
Dick-
ensian
clerks,pompous lawyers, nd all
the
money changers
of
Wall
Street. His passing affects o one except himself and the
narrator.
The world goes on, pursuing its llusions,but Bartleby s no longer
part
of
it,
and
his employer,
haken
by
his brief
glimpse
of the real
nature of things, s left a much sadder and a somewhat wiser
man.
Thus, the structure
f
the tale is developed
from
the
interaction
of
the
narrator,
he
smug
and
comfortable
ttorney,
nd the
"forlorn"
Bartleby.
In
theopening paragraphthe narratormakes
it
clear
that all
that
we can know of
Bartleby
is
what he
knows:
"What
my
own
aston-
ished eyes saw
of
Bartleby,that s
all
I
know of
him, except, indeed,
one vague report,which will appear in the sequel" (16). As a result
of
this'deliberate
restriction
f
viewpoint,
if
Bartleby
s
a
Schopen-
12
Oxenford,
PP.
405-7.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
8/16
274
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
haueriansaint, we must remember hat we are lookingat him
through hewrong nd of the telescope, hrough heeyes f
a man
to whomhe is a strangely agnetic iddleofobscure
motivations-
at
best, ccentric; t worst,mad; in any event, ncomprehensible.
The complacent torytellereginsbycongratulatingimself
n his
estimablecharacter nd circumstancesnd unknowingly eveals
thathe is certainly he oppositeof an ascetic.He has always cted
on thebelief hat the easiestwayof ife s the best."Without oo
much ffort,e has managed o do a "snugbusiness" nd is
known
as a "safe"man, prudent nd methodical.He is interested nly n
questions f egality, ot morality,s he revealswhen he bemoans
the
bolition f
the
officef Master n Chancery, hichhe has
held:
"It wasnota very rduousoffice,ut very leasantly emunerative"
(17). He makes no mention of the fact that the remuneration
usuallycomes from he propertyeftto widowsand orphans.
n
short, t the beginning f his story, he lawyer s what Oxenford
describes s Schopenhauer'sust man: "The just man,who is
just,
and nothingmore, tandshigher n the moral scale than thebad
man,but he has not reachedSchopenhauer'sdea of virtue.
He
so
far
hows sympathy ithhis fellow-creatureshathe does
noten-
croach
upon
their
rights, ut
he
is
equally unwilling
o
go
out
of
his way to do them ny substantial ood. He is a sort f manwho
pays
his
taxes nd his church-rates,eepsclear
of
the Court
of
Re-
quests and is only charitable
when
he has an equivalent
n
the
shape of an honourable place in a subscription ist."
13
When
Bartleby
nters
he
office,
e is
assigned place
in
his
em-
ployer's oom behinda folding creen.His desk s closeto a small
window
whichopens
on a brick
wall threefeet
way.
n
this
con-
fined pace,Bartleby oes "an extraordinaryuantity
f
writing,"
day
and
night,
ut he does
t
"silently, alely,mechanically,"
ith
no evidence f cheerfulness
r
vitality.
n
contrast,
he
copyists
n
theouter fficere both oenergetic
n
their
wn
eccentric
ay
hat
they
eem
to be
driven
by
some
demonic nner force-as
indeed
they re,
from
chopenhauer's tandpoint.
Afterhis
noon
meal,
Turkey
the
Englishman
becomes
"altogether
oo
energetic,"
s
noisy,blotshis pages, nd exhibits a strange, nflamed, lurried,
flighty ecklessness
f
activity" 18). Nippers,
his
American
col-
13
Ibid.,
P.
405.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
9/16
Bartleby the Scrivener
275
league, s the "victim ftwo evil powers-ambition and indiges-
tion"
20).
He
is
possessed y
another orm
f
generalized iolence
grinds is teeth,onstantlydjustshis desk, nd mutters
maledic-
tionsunderhis breath.
But
Bartleby opiesdocuments-and that s all he will do.
When
he
is askedto verify iscopies,he refusesn "a singularly
mild,firm
voice":
"I
would prefer
not to." He repeats this formula
hree
times,without ffering
nyreasons, etmaintaining is
composure.
His employer s at a loss:
"Had therebeen the least
uneasiness,
anger, mpatience r impertinencen his manner; n otherwords,
had there een anythingrdinarily umanabout him,
doubtless
should
have dismissed
him from he premises.But as
it
was,
I
should have as soon thought f turningmy pale
plaster-of-paris
bust
of
Ciceroout ofdoors" 25). He senses hatBartlebys not ike
other
men, that there s something nmoved and
unmoving
n
Bartleby,ike the pallid
bust of the old Roman.
In
a second
en-
counter ereceives he
ame nswer, nd again the trange harisma
of
Bartleby estrains isemployer: With any otherman
I
should
have flown utright nto a dreadfulpassion, corned ll
further
words, nd thrust im
gnominiously rommypresence. ut
there
was
somethingbout Bartleby hatnot only trangelyisarmed
me,
but,
n
a
wonderful
manner, ouched nd disconcerted
me"
(26).
The lawyer rasps he fact hat
this s not some arbitraryaprice,
that whileBartleby eels
the request s quite reasonable,he
has
some
"paramount onsideration" hat
takes
precedence.Although
he appealsto common ensebyenlisting he upport fother
lerks,
thishas no moreeffect hanhis appeal to reason.Bartleby eturns
to his little
niche,
his
"hermitage,"
s
his
employer
ow
has un-
consciously
allen nto
the
habit
of
referring
o it. He
is,
to
use
Oxenford's
escriptive
hrase,
ike
"the anchorite
n
the
Egyptian
desert,"
n
asceticwho
is
gradually ontracting
he
span
of his ac-
tivity, ithdrawingrom
hevisible
world.
Unable to
cope
with
the
remarkable ehavior
of
Bartleby,
he
narrator s forced
o
rationalizehis own inexplicablereaction
n
terms f
hisquid pro quo
philosophy,
heethic f
the
ust
man. He
pities Bartleby s an involuntaryccentric nd consoles himself
with he
hought
hat
his
generosity
ill
be
rewarded
y
"laying p
in
my oul whatwill
eventually rove
to
be
a
sweet
morsel
or
my
conscience"
28).
The
conditions
aid
down
by Bartleby
re
tacitly
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
10/16
276
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
accepted: he copies documents, ut he prefers ot to do anything
else,even the mallestrrand.And so, for he moment, e
remains
secure
n
his hermitage.
The
next
crucial
incident
n
the relationship etweenmaster
and
clerk comes on a Sunday morning,when the lawyer,
n his
way to TrinityChurch,
tops t his officend finds imself ocked
out by Bartleby. he
lockingout is symbolic s well as
literal-
what the awyer
iscovers n his office ill markhispassagefrom
self-satisfactionnd
unconcern o a new compassion. n his
usual
mild-mannered ayBartleby sks his master o return fterwalk-
ingaround heblocktwo
or three imes, incehe is busy nd prefers
not to admithim.When
he returns, e discovers hatBartleby as
gone, nd, investigating
is hermitage, e concludes hat
Bartleby
has been living n his
little corner. t is not Bartleby's pparent
poverty hat trikes im
with sudden horror, t is the
thought f
the dreadful olitude ofWall Street n a Sunday
morning r at
night-"an emptiness."
At thispoint, he ust
man beginsto experience heunfamiliar
pangs
hat
mark hebirth f a new consciousnessf
suffering:For
the
first ime
n
my
ifea
feeling
f
overpoweringtingingmelan-
choly
eized
me." The
sourceof thisnew awareness ssimply om-
passion: "The bonds of
a commonhumanity rewme irresistibly
to
gloom. A fraternalmelancholy or both
I
and
Bartlebywere
sons
of Adam"
(33).
The
just
man has now reached that
stage
of
enlightenment here
he can broaden
his
sensibility
o includeall
mankind-he has become good man,
n
thesense
n
whichOxen-
ford escribes im:"The goodman .. ishe whoseheart eatswith
sympathy
or
ll creatures round
him, practically
f
not theoret-
ically cknowledging
hem
s
manifestations
f the ame
great
Will
as
himself.He
lovesevery ivingbeing,
fromhis
neighbour
own
to
a
turtle-dove....14 The lawyer
ow
sees
that
here
s
as much
misery
s
happiness
n
theworld
nd
has
"presentiments
f
strange
discoveries." e seemsto
see Bartleby ead,
"laid
out,among
un-
caring trangers." uch as
he
may
wish
to
pass
off
his
new
mood
as "sad
fancyings"
f
a "sickand
sillybrain,"
the
fact
emains hat
he, at least, anno longerplaythe roleof an "uncaring tranger."
Opening Bartleby's esk,
he
finds
savings ank,
knotted
p
in
14
Oxenford,
.
405.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
11/16
Bartleby
the
Scrivener
277
a handkerchief.his removes heonemotive hat, ohismethodi-
cal
mind,
might
have ustified
artleby's
ehavior-poverty.And
the awyer
eviews
hat
behavior':
Bartleby's
ilence,
nevervolun-
tarily roken;
hislong
reveries
efore
he blank
wall
oppositehis
window;his
self-imprisonmentn his
hermitage;
nd his
"pallid
haughtiness,"
hat
totally
elf-possessed
nd
deliberate
withdrawal
from
ife
whichnot
merely
isarms ut
"awes" his
employernto
"a tame
compliancewith
his
eccentricities"
34).
The result f
this
meditations
whatthe
narrator
alls "a
prudential
feeling"
we
rememberhathe has boastedthathis firstgrandpoint" is pru-
dence.
Melville's awyer
nstinctively
eacts s
Arnold eacted n
his
preface to the
contemplationof a
situation
"in
which a
continuous
state of
mental
distress s
prolonged,
unrelieved
by
incident,
hope,
or
resistance."
Like
Arnold, he feels
that
the
absolute "forlornness"
of
Bartleby s
simply
painful,
not tragic:
So
true t is, and
so terrible,
oo,that
up to
a certain
pointthe
thought
or
sight f
misery
nlists ur best
affections;ut, n
certain
pecialcases,
beyondthatpoint it does not.They err who would assert hatthis s
owing to the
nherent
elfishnessf the
human
heart. t rather
roceeds
from
certain
hopelessness
f
remedying
xcessive nd
organic
ll. To
a
sensitive
eing, pity
s not
seldompain. And
when at
last
it
is
per-
ceived
that uch
pity annot ead
to effectual
uccor, ommon
ensebids
thesoul be rid
of it.
What I saw
that
morning
onvinced
me that
the
scrivener
was the
victim
f
innate and
incurabledisorder.
might ive
alms to
his
body; but
his
bodydid
not pain
him; it
was his
soul
that
suffered,
nd
his
soul
I
could not reach.
(35)
While this passage is an acute and perceptive intuition of the
nature
of
Bartleby's
malady,
which is
metaphysical, not
physical,
we must
keep
in
mind the
fact that
it is
Bartleby
who is
enlight-
ened,
not
his master.
He has had
a brief
glimpse
of
the
unbearable
truth
which,
for
the
protection
of
ordinary men like
himself,
s
veiled
by
the
illusions
that are
necessary
for
the conduct of
daily
living.
As John Oxenford
remarks,
All
that
the
iberal mind
looks
forward
o
with
hope,
if
not with con-
fidence-the xtensionof politicalrights, he spreadof education,the
brotherhood f
nations, he
discovery f new
meansof
stubduingtub-
born
nature-mustbe
given
up
as a vain
dream,
f ever
Schopenhauler's
doctrine
be
accepted.
n a
word,
he
is a
professed
Pessimist";
t is
his
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
12/16
278
Nineteenth-Century
iction
grandresult, hat this s the worst f all possibleworlds;nay, o utterly
unsusceptible f improvement, hat the best thingwe
can do
is to
get
ridof it altogether, y a processwhich he very learly
ets
forth.'5
Bartleby has already made the choice which initiates this
pro-
cess, the single free act of which man is capable, and then only
through the refining process of great suffering: he denial of the
will
to live. This is the incurable and innate
"disorder" which
re-
flects
he unspoken "paramount consideration" that
nspires
Bartle-
by's negative preferences. t opposes and negates everyvalue which
the Master in Chancery, that cheerful over of life,
cherishes.Thus,
even the mere contemplation of Bartleby's passive
but unfaltering
withdrawal from he world stuns and repels him; itpoints toward a
conclusion which, for him, is literally
unthinkable, like the "hor-
ror" of Conrad's dying Kurtz. That morning the
lawyer does not go
to church:
"Somehow the things had seen disqualified me for the
time forchurch-going."
Bartleby remains
in
the office, referring o do nothing but his
copying,and his employer continues to seek fornew methods of
drawing him back into the stream of life. But it
is Bartleby who
dominates the office, ot his employer,who, to hisdismay,finds hat
he
and his staff re falling nto the habit of using "prefer."
The
lawyer resolves once more to dismiss Bartleby, but
a new
development offers him an opportunity to diagnose Bartleby's
malady as
a
physical disorder, causally explicable, and therefore
quite forgivable. Bartleby announces that he has
"given up copy-
ing" and the lawyer, eeing that his eyes appear
"dull
and
glazed,"
jumps to theconclusion that he has impaired his vision by working
in
poor light.
Now
Bartleby does nothing at all,
and
his presence
becomes
even
more
irritating, specially
since it
soon becomes
ob-
vious
that his reason
for
giving up copying
has
nothing
to do with
his health. He is given six days notice,
but
mutely
rejects
all
pro-
posals, threats,
r
bribes,
and remains
"like the last
column
of
some
ruined temple ... standing mute and solitary n
the middle of the
otherwise deserted
room"
(40).
The
narrator,becoming
more
and
more
disturbed,
s
at
the same
time
experiencing
an
expansion
of
knowledge
which
opens up
new
15
Ibid.,
p.
394.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
13/16
Bartleby the
Scrivener
279
vistas fhis owncharacter s wellas Bartleby's. e has lived in a
world f
reassuringlyredictableause and effect.
is clerks hange
theirmoods
regularly ccording o the clock
whichmeasures heir
working ay.He seeks for
explanations hatwill fit his familiar
pattern fcausality nd is driven
o metaphysical
usings n pre-
destination nd
freewill,pondering he
relationship etween uilt
and responsibility.
e feels hat
1ke
he "haplessColt," he is cap-
able of murdering is tormentor."6
But," he goes
on, "when this
old
Adam of
resentment ose
in
me and tempted
me concerning
Bartleby, grappled nd threw im. How? Why,by simply ecall-
ing the divine njunction: A new
commandment
ive unto you,
that
ye ove one another.'Yes, it
was this hat aved me" (43). His
motive
maybe the
same
as
Colt's buthis character
s
different.
l-
though
he
still
comforts imselfwith
he ustman'smaxims f en-
lightened
elf-interest,t is clear thathe is, at
heart, good man,
and
that
Bartleby'sholiness"has
touchedhimdeeply, ringing o
the
surface
hat
deep love for therswhich s
characteristicf this
ethical
genotype.
Nevertheless,s an
"eminentlyafeman,"thenarrator
inds
om-
fort
n
readingexplanations hat
stress
trict
ausality
nd
deny
human freedom,Edwardson the
Will" and "Priestley n Neces-
sity,"
nd
comes o
the
conclusion
hat
ll
of
this
has
been
fated
by
an
"all-wise
Providence" nd that to shelter
Bartleby
s
"the
pre-
destinedpurposeofmy ife." Betweenthe narrator
nd
Bartleby
lies the insurmountable arrier
hat divides
necessity
romfree-
dom, llusionfrom
eality.
dwards
pecificallyefutes
ocke's dis-
tinctionbetween"prefer" nd "will"; JosephPriestley ses the
two
wordswithout
noting ny
difference. oth
insist
n
absolute
determinism;hey
deny
that the
chain of
cause
and effect an
be
broken
by any
act
of the
will.17
Schopenhauer, however,
as
Oxen-
ford
pointsout,
teaches
hatthere s
one
free
decision,
imited
o
16
The issues of freedom
nd fatality n the Colt
murder case had been noted
by
an anonymous
editorial
contributorto Harper's
New Monthly
Magazine, 6 (1852-
53), 127.
Perhaps Oxenford's
commentthat the will
is
suibjtugated
o "that
law of
cause
and
effect y
which
the
whole
world
of
phenomena
is governed,
nd which is
equally potent n the discharge
of a
pistol
and the
performance
f a virttuouis
ction"
(p. 406) broughtthis
case to
mind as Melville worked
on Bartleby.
17
See Jonathan Edwards,
Freedom of
the
Will,
e(l. Patil
Ramsey
(New
Haven:
Yale
Univ.
Press,1957), pp.
138-39,
and
Priestley's
Writings
n
Philosophy,
Scien7ce,
and Politics,
ed.
John
A.
Passmore
New
York:
Collier
Books,
1965), p.
76.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
14/16
280
Nineteenth-Century
Fiction
thosefewwho can understand he natureof ife and renounce t:
"In
this sceticism onsists he only possiblefreedom f the
will."
Bartleby's egative
preferencesre not acts ofwilling-they are
actsof not-willing.
As
in
a medievalmorality lay, henarrators torn etween
ood
and
evil impulses;his
compassion or Bartleby onflicts ith his
attachment o the world of illusion,Wall Street.He cannot
oust
Bartleby, or hat s a
cruelty hathe will not inflict n a
"helpless
creature," nd yethe cannot et him remain n his officend
ruin
his professionaleputation.He resolves o eave Bartlebywherehe
is and move his office
lsewhere, ut,curiously, e finds t
difficult
to
partfrom heman
whomhe is fleeing.
Having
shifted
he
responsibilityorBartleby's helter o some-
one
less tenderhearted,e finds hat Bartlebyhas indeed
been
evicted rom is
hermitage, ut haunts hebuildingday andnight.
Finally confronting
artlebyhe reduces the situation o itsbare
logical bones: "Now one
of twothingsmust ake place. Eitheryou
mustdo
something r somethingmust be done to you" (48). He
suggests number f possibleoccupations o all of which
Bartleby
is indifferent.affled, e
even offers o take Bartleby o his home
until he
can
arrive t
some
decision,
ut
Bartleby eplies,
No,
at
present would prefer otto make ny hange t all." This
answer,
which
defies
ll the
ogic
of aw
and
hardheaded
inance,
he courts
and
Wall Street, ausesthe
narrator
o flee
gain,fearing
he
anger
of
the andlord nd the new tenants. ut
Bartleby
n
his
ownfash-
ion is quite consistent; e is narrowing ownthecircle
of
his
ac-
tionsuntilhe reachesthecenter, he "stillpointof the turning
world,"
nd
ceases
to
exist.
Melville's parable
of
the
Schopenhauerian
aint
n
a
depraved
worldreaches ts
climax
n
the
Tombs,
the
prison
n
which
Bartle-
by
is
confined
fter
being
arrested or
vagrancy.
His
former m-
ployer,who has not deserted
him
after ll,
findshim
in
his
usual
position,
is
face turned oward
high
wall
in
complete
ndiffer-
ence,
"while all
around,
from he
narrow
lits f
the
ail
windows,
I
thought
saw
peering
ut
upon
him the
eyes
of
murderers
nd
thieves"51). It is in this ymbolicsolation hatBartlebytates is
last
negativepreference,
I
prefer
not to dine
today,"
nd
slips
away quietly
from
ife
nto
"annihilation,"
ree
f all will and
all
pain.
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
15/16
Bartleby the Scrivener
281
The epilogue tothe tale s that vaguereport"which he narra-
tor mentions n his opening paragraph.
Bartleby, t seems,was a
clerk
n
the Dead
LetterOffice,nd his employermusesover
the
possibility hat, ivenBartleby's haracter,
by nature nd misfor-
tune prone to a
pallid hopelessness,"
othingcould have been
worseforhim than
the opening and destructionf letterswhich
have not been delivered
ut "on errands f ife . . speed to death."
But
this epilogue,
supplied as an "explanation"
of Bartleby's
tragic ecline, ails
ike every ther ational xplanation ffered
y
thenarrator.t tellsus nothing f real importancebout Bartleby,
but
it
does indicate
hat deep and irreversible
hangehas taken
place
in
thenarrator.
ctually, he safeman,the successfulawyer,
is farmore omplex
hanthe enigmatic artleby.When one grasps
the significancef
the end towardwhich
Bartleby s moving,his
course ppears uthlesslyinear.Having
made theone free ecision
of
which
nyman s capable,thechoice
of theextinction
f
thewill
to ive,he allowsnothing o turnhim aside.
n contrast,henarra-
torwavers, ornbyan innerconflict. or himBartleby epresents
a
negation
f values
whichhe has never
questioned,
he values of
his social group, nd,
more mportant,he value of existence tself.
On
the one side,native hrewdness
nd a
prudent
elfishnessoun-
sel
that
here
mustbe
a
reasonable
xplanation
or
Bartleby's
mar-
tyrdom;
n the
other,
still small voice
criesout
from he
depths
that
uffering
nd existence re
one and
the
ame,
hat ll
men
hare
Bartleby's ain,
fnot
hiswisdom.
The symbol f thedead letters s
ambivalent recisely
ecause
t
serves s thefocus or his nner onflictn theclosingparagraphs.
What
can
be more
depressing,
he
narrator
wonders,
han
to
open
these etterswhichbringhope
and relief nd have
never
reached
their
estinations?his seems
easonable ntilthereader
skswhy,
to be
completely
ational bout
the
matter,
he
narrator oes not
seem
to be aware
thatdead
letters
may
ontainbad news s well as
good
and that clerk
n
the
Dead LetterOffice
might pend
much
of
his
time
disposing
f
unpaid
bills
t
is evident
hatMelville
has
deliberately mphasized
ne
aspect
of
his
analogy
nd
suppressed
the other norder omovethesymbol f thedead letter ut of the
realm
of
normal
veryday robability
nd
into the realmof
theol-
ogy-or atheology.
hese
letters,
ike the
ong-awaited lessing f
grace
whichreleases
man
from
he
slavery
f his
owii
will,
never
This content downloaded from 132.248.101.205 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Bartleby the Scrivener a Parabble of Pessimism
16/16
282
Nineteenth-CenturyFiction
arrive.'8And so, despite his turning up of a "reason" forBartleby's
defection from ife, the narrator concludes his storywith a double
sigh, "Ah, Bartleby Ah,
humanity " That deep intuitive
compas-
sion
which Bartleby has stirred
n
him testifies gainst all
reason
that
Bartleby's fate s man's fate.
In
1856 Melville visited Hawthorne in England and spent sev-
eral days with him at Southport. "Melville," Hawthorne noted in
his journal, "as he always
does, began to reason of Providence and
futurity, nd of everythingthat lies beyond human ken, and in-
formed
me that
he
had
'prettymuch made up his mind to be anni-
hilated'; but still he does not seem to rest n that anticipation; and,
I
think,will never rest until
he gets hold of a definitebelief." Haw-
thorne also noted that Melville had been afflictedwith neuralgic
complaints
in
the head and limbs
and that
"his writings,
or
a
long
while
past, have indicated
a
morbid
state
of mind."
He
seemed
to
Hawthorne "a little paler and a little sadder."
19
Perhaps Bartleby
the
Scrivener
was
the
journal
of
a
descent
into
that
valley
of the
shadow
which
Schopenhauer
had
charted
for the
nineteenth century,
metaphysical desert
in
which so
many per-
ished. "It is
strange
how he
persists,"
Hawthorne
mused,
"and
has
persisted
ever since
I
knew
him,
and
probably long
before-in
wandering
to-and-fro ver these deserts
as dismal
and
monotonous
as the sand
hills amid
which we were
sitting."
0
18
Richard Tuerk makes an interesting onjectureon the sourceof the dead-letter
metaphor in
"Melville's 'Bartleby'
and
Isaac
D'Israeli's
Curiosities
of Literature,"
SSF, 7 (1970),
647-49. However,
there is no
reason
why the
dead
letter should
not
have seemed
to
Melville,
as
it did later
to
Gerard
Manley
Hopkins,
an
appropriate
symbol
for the
failure of communication
between
man and God: "cries like
dead
letters
ent
/
To
dearest
himthat ives alas
away."
19
The English
Notebooks
of
Nathaniel
Hawthorne,
ed.
Randall Stewart
(New
York: MLA,
1941;
London: Oxford
Univ.
Press, 1941), p. 432.
20
Ibid.,
pp. 432-33