You May Know This Person
You may have encountered an odd person in your personal or professional life. He or she might refuse to comply with adult requests or rules, or they may have difficulty maintaining friendships. He or she can be irritating, distractive, and annoying. Being around this type of person can be challenging and difficult. People may shy away from him or her, considering the person to be odd. Though it may be difficult to associate with people we believe to be odd, we should not exclude them from society, but instead, try to see that they get the help they need. Such is the situation with a character in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener.” There are two main characters in Melville’s short story. One of the main characters is the narrator, who happens to be an elderly man and a lawyer who owns a business that copies legal documents. The other main character, Bartleby, is a scrivener that the lawyer hired. Bartleby is passive, quiet, and never becomes angry. There is no denying, however, that Bartleby is odd. Any tasks that the lawyer asked Bartleby to perform, Bartleby responds by saying, “I prefer not to”. That includes going to the post office, scriving documents…it does not matter. Bartleby gives his standard answer.
The lawyer cannot abide Bartleby’s quiet insubordination, so he tries to rid himself of Bartleby. He attempts to fire him, pay him to leave, but none of that does any good. Eventually, the lawyer relocates, leaving Bartleby in the office by himself. When all of the furniture is removed as well as the green screen, this obviously points to isolation. This theme is further supported when the lawyer says, “…left him the motionless occupant of a naked room” (Charters, 585). Even when Bartleby is in the Caverns (the prison), he is isolated. The lawyer says, “…I found him there, standing all alone in the quietest of