...seven billion people on Earth we still continue to feel more and more lonely and isolated. Isolation is a theme which inspires a lot of writers. Margaret Atwood in “Death by Landscape” and Herman Melville in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” illustrate the topic of isolation. Lois and Bartleby, who are the two main characters respectively, have created their own isolation, and are negatively affected by it. We will see how they are both physically and socially isolated, the reasons and the consequences of these isolation. First, from the beginning of “Death by Landscape” we can see that Lois is isolating herself physically and socially when the narrator says: “Now that the boys are grown up and Rob is dead, Lois has moved to a condominium apartment in one of the new waterfront developments” (Atwood 25). She is closed off from the outside world, in her “safe” condominium. She does not want to go up north again, even anywhere near. She just wants to stay safe and avoid her fears. Also, Lois “was living not one life but two: her own, and another, shadowy life that hovered around her and would not let itself be realized” (Atwood 35). Moreover, she was socially isolated for a long time, “she can’t remember, now, having her two boys, …or what Rob looked like” (Atwood 35). Similarly, in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” the antagonist is isolating himself. We know nothing about him, but apparently he has no family and no friends. He works and lives at his office and after a few days of work he decided...
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...The Lottery and Bartleby, the Scrivener Gothic Literature is known for its presentation of hidden darkness of the human condition. The appearance of Gothic literature can often include parts that shock or place terror in the reader. However, its important to also understand that the human condition can be determined while reading different pieces of Gothic literature. In the short stories Bartleby, the Scrivener, written by Herman Melville and The Lottery, written by Shirley Jackson are both pieces of Gothic literature that can compare to each other because they discover different human conditions. When reading The Lottery we are introduced to a beautiful summer day, where the residents of a small town gather for an event known as the lottery. Mr. Summers is the man who controls the lottery and who is the man to bring the black box to the gathering area. While Mr.Summers stands and shuffles the papers inside it, the residents make sure they are carful to keep distance from the box. The residents are joined by Tessie Hutchinson the main character and who is Bill Hutchinson's wife, when the lottery begins the men are called by their family names to draw from the black box. Old Man Warner who is the oldest man in town criticizes that the lottery is necessary for a good harvest, and that people in the other towns are stupid for entertaining the idea. Once the drawing is finished, Mr.Summers directs that the men look at their paper to see who has been picked. It has been revealed...
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...The American Renaissance was a period of time where American writers began to really explore their creativity. Before the 1830’s, there weren’t many great writers in the states. The renaissance brought many great writing styles; romantics, transcendentalist, and then imaginative writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. These two writers, among others, involve a lot of symbolism and underlying meaning. Melville, however, writes in the form of metafiction, the use of one or more themes to draw attention to the work as an art form. Unfortunately, most of Melville’s published work was rejected at the time because readers did not understand. Today, however, they are understood as having much deeper meanings then the story they tell. His story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, works on two levels. On one hand it is a romantic story on non-conformity and on the other it is a story about mortality....
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...the first Romanticist from Europe to delve into the supernatural, but Edgar Allan Poe took that supernatural element and expounded on it time and time again. The Age of Reason had its influence on the Romantic era too. However, it existed as a catalyst for the Romantic age. Romantics revolted against the cold, unnatural science of the previous generation. Instead, they revered nature, feelings, and coming to understand one’s self. Nathaniel Hawthorne used “The Birth-mark” to display the drastic differences between the Enlightenment’s science and reason and the Romantic age’s nature and sensitivity. Furthermore, society’s interest in psychology and the rise of psychological sanitariums also influenced the writing of this time period. Melville and Poe both look into the psyche of their characters and attempt to give their readers a look into the disorders of the mind. Melville’s Bartleby is withdrawn and isolated, perhaps leading to depression, whereas Poe’s main character in “Ligeia” could simply be insane and hallucinating. The Romantic writers were influenced by many conditions, including reforms in...
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...Tyian Thomas English 110 3-27-15 1500 words The use of Theme and Literary Elements Literary devices are specific techniques and methods that authors use to convey an idea they are trying to tell the reader.When an author is writing,, they often try to give the reader certain ideas that would help them to understand the tale indirectly without giving away the idea or moral of the story. For example, the theme of isolation and loneliness. The theme of isolation is a very popular idea in many works of literature like Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, and even Acquainted with the night by Robert Frost. These four works of literature all carry the theme of loneliness and isolation, whether it is Bartleby refusing to interact with anyone and shutting himself away from the rest of the world, Emily who seemed to isolate herself from the rest of her village after her father’s death, the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper having to spend all her time in the a room she hates because of her disease, or the narrator of Acquainted with the Night strolling through the nightly city all by herself in solitude. All of these stories contain the very popular theme of loneliness and isolation,which are shown using various literary devices of each author’s choosing. Throughout the whole story of A Rose for Emily, the setting seemed to be very eerie and unnatural; the author gave the...
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...Eduardo Napoles Jr. Prof. Penna ENG102 23 November 2012 All Elements of a Short Story Stitch Together a Theme Short stories are fiction stories. Fiction is writing of imagined events and characters. Great short stories combine 5 key elements, which combine to create the story and to support a theme. These elements are plot, imagery, setting, point of view, and characters. For example I will use the short story by Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener.” In this short story the theme is about selfishness and that one cannot change another, because one can only change him or her self regardless of any outside efforts. The plot in this story slowly builds up and then comes crashing down. It begins with one of the characters Bartleby, arriving at a lawyer’s office, seeking employment. Bartleby is a very oddly quiet person; regardless, he starts work right away and is a great scrivener. The lawyer, who owns the office, finds Bartley’s character to be an interest to him. He says, “I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the folding-doors, but on my side of them so as to have this quiet man within easy call, in case any trifling thing was to be done”(10). I wonder, why does the lawyer decide to selfishly seclude him from his co-workers? The story eventually hits a conflict. He asks his copyist to do something, Bartleby responds, “I would prefer not to”(12). At one point he asks closely, “you will not?”(17) and Bartleby responds, “I prefer not”(17). The lawyer...
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...102-Bartleby Essay 28 March 2014 I enjoyed reading the short story Bartleby by Herman Melville. It was strange yet interesting. I liked how his characters contrasted each other and how he mixed humor and pity when creating his scrivener employees. Melville names one of his characters Turkey, an employee who is productive in the morning but drunk by the afternoon. Nippers, opposite of Turkey, had indigestion in the morning but worked calmly in the afternoon. That’s funny! Bartleby on the other hand, was a lost soul. I felt his loneliness and depression. Bartleby previously worked with death letters where he held in his hands items for the deceased. I can’t imagine how that would of felt, having death surround me continuously, day after day. I believe he was already disconnected from the world even before working under Melville’s employment. Being caged up in a small confined space and the dishonesty of the documents he is copying, brings Bartleby to a breaking point. When he answers “I would prefer not to,” he is really saying, he has given up and prefers not to live anymore. Bartleby by then is too far gone to help. The lawyer on the other hand, grows more and more compassion towards Bartleby. Bartleby seemed to have helped the lawyer have an awakening by seeing the mistakes he made earlier in life and he becomes a better person. Bartleby starves himself, dies, and then the story ends. Melville kept me reading and wanting more information....
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...Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” and Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” have a lot of similarities and differences between the two characters; Krebs, and Bartleby. Throughout the short stories each relate to each other in some way. Krebs just has returned from Europe while fighting in WWI and Bartleby a hired Wall Street scrivener, each struggle in fitting in with present day society but each struggle comes with a different background. According to Merriam – Webster’s definition for ‘post – traumatic stress disorder’ is, “medical: a mental condition that can affect a person who has had a very shocking or difficult experience (such as fighting in a war) and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, etc.”. In World War I times it was known as “shell shock”. All throughout Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” we get the idea that Krebs is diagnosed with that disorder but back then they had no idea what this was. In the quote “He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences. Besides he did not really need a girl. The army taught him that.” (Hemingway, 188). My perspective on this quote is that Krebs seems sexist. Basically, he is saying that he does not need a woman because they carry on too much baggage. A very disturbing scene comes up in the story as Krebs is awfully rude to his mother; “yes don’t you love your mother dear boy?” “No” Krebs said. His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes...
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...Cody Costa English 2110-WW1 Unit 12 4/29/2015 Journal 12 The reading in Unit 12 was a work call, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” which was written by the American author Herman Melville. This short story is about an older lawyer from New York who is also the narrator, who is telling a story about a strange man he used to know. The man’s name is Bartleby, and the lawyer hired him for work. Both the narrator and Bartleby are inscrutable throughout the entire story. It is hard to understand or interpret the thoughts and ideas of these two men. Also because they are both so inscrutable they sometime don’t even understand each other. After reading “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, many people wonder if the narrator, the old lawyer, understands Bartleby’s character. Bartleby’s character begins to fall of more and more until the very end of the story until his death. The narrator did understand him at first when he is first hired. After initially hired Bartleby is doing a great volume of work while also producing great quality work. Later on the narrator asked him to do something else and this is the moment when the understanding of Bartleby by the narrator stopped. When asked this, Bartleby responded with his famous response, “I would prefer not.” Throughout the rest of the story no matter how hard the narrator tried to get through to him he just could not. The narrator states that nothing makes him as angry as a person that is, “passive resistance.” When...
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...Collin Cole January 24, 2016 Professor Almanza English 1302 Sec. 382 “Bartleby The Scrivener” Answers 1. In the first few paragraphs of the story the narrator describes himself as an elderly man. He grew up with an easy life and has become accustom to that lifestyle. Being an “elderly man” means he has gone through school and has become a well-educated man, with a job as an “unambitious lawyer”, that makes a good amount of money. With that money comes a certain arrogance about him when he compares himself to Jacob Astor. His language creates a sort of complexity to him that only he wants to understand himself and with the terms like “Imprimis” he could possibly be of Latin or Spanish decent. 2. The narrator introduces Turkey, and Nippers as copyists and a third, Ginger Nut, as an office boy. First described is Turkey. Turkey is a man that begins his day in harmony and finishes his day off in chaos. “In the morning, one might say, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o clock… it blazed like a grate full of Christmas coals”, Melville shows the polar opposites of Turkeys work ethic in the morning with the “florid hue” to the evening “blazing coals”, also comparing him to the sunrise and sunset. Next we have Nippers. Nippers was a man that was also a wreck at certain parts of the day, but luckily for the narrator Nippers and Turkey swapped craziness throughout the day as if it were clockwork. “There fits relieved each other like guards” explains the...
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...to form our own conclusions as to the character type in literature. The author using the "telling" characteristic is most often indifferent towards the characters in a literary work, thus allowing the reader to form our own conclusions as to a characters likeness. The concepts of "showing" and "telling" are both used in the Herman Melville story "Bartleby the Scrivener". The first example of "showing" the Melville utilizes, can be found in the first three sentences, while the lawyer is describing himself. The line "I am an elderly man." is a prime example of "showing" due to the fact that it leave the reader without cause for guessing his age. Melville also utilizes both showing and telling while describing those characters prior to Bartleby. The line describing Turkey, "Turkey was a short, pursy Englishman, of about my own age", could leave the reader with questions regarding his age. This is an example of "telling", while the next line, "- that is, not far from sixty." answers any questions the reader may have by showing Turkey's age. Farther in the story, Melville utilizes the concept of "telling" takes over, when telling the story of Bartelby. Melville offers the reader to ask...
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...Herman Melville (1819-1891) Context and Background “Bartleby the Scrivener” was written in 1853, born in New York City, he was considered an “1870 writer”. Melville was one of the first American writers able to make a living off writing. People were interested in reading fiction, and “Moby Dick” was not common or appealing to the general population but holds merit today. He wrote “relatable” fiction, and people liked to read travel logs and exciting adventure stories (escapist literature). Moby Dick is not a relatable story due to the context of the scenarios, but it is considered an artistic novel because it is obscure and challenging. Melville wrote in two different modes; strange, difficult and unrealistic compared to relatable, realistic fiction. Bartleby the Scrivener contains elements of both; it is set in a New York office yet still continues weird elements. It was meant to be accessible and was considered “Great Literature” because it is symbolic, subtle and ironic. Bartleby the Scrivener * The boss is governed by the obligations of Wall Street, but also contains sympathetic traits towards Bartleby. Bartleby, who we do not know, is insane, stubborn, or stupid, and his behaviour is left up for interpretation. * Historical context: In the right hand corner of America, the Puritans went from England to settle in this area for religious reasons. New York was founded by the Dutch and they intended to set up a trading post. War was fought between these 2 groups,...
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...I believe this narrator pays attention to details of how the scriveners he hired got their nick names and attitudes with preciseness. These statements lead me to believe this, “It was fortunate for me, that owing to its peculiar cause –indigestion- the irritability and consequent nervousness of Nippers, were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon he was comparatively mild. So that Turkey’s paroxysms only coming on about twelve o’clock, I never had to do with their eccentricities at one time.” Since the narrator pays attention so much it helps us to understand that the story will develop slowly and why Bartleby makes him so curious. One of the main characters in the story is Bartleby. From details in the story like when his boss asks him to look over the things he copied and he refuses, you can tell he is not going to do anything he does not want to whether it is his job unless you force him. Bartleby makes one change by the end of the story and that is he will not talk to Mr. B. anymore. His character is negative because he does not do the things his boss needs him to like go to the post office, go over his work, or leave. This shocks his employer at first but ends up frustrating him. For example, “I was now in such a state of nervous resentment that I thought it prudent to check myself at present from further demonstrations.” I think the setting of a lawyer’s office gives off the feeling of normalness. This helps the story because you can quickly identify that...
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...developing, working, communicating) constitute the meaning of life. Life is worth living I think; but how one lives determines the depth of ones’s life meaning. For everybody meaning of life is different. “Others may have loftier parts to enact; but my mission in this world, Bartleby, is to furnish you with office-room for such period as you may see fit to remain” (H. Melville “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, quote 167), were Melville’s words considering life of Bartleby. For a long period of time life of strange Bartleby coincided with life of scrifeners’ office chief, which generally has changed the meaning of chief`s life. But what was the meaning of Bartleby`s life? After a long story about his everyday deeds I would conclude that there was no meaning of his life. Nothing seemed important for him, nothing was interesting for him. He seemed to have no values and no desires. His life was empty. He lived, but at the same time he had no purpose. He was an outsider to the world. I assume that no matter how hard another person would try to “awake” Bartleby, it would be all useless. “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a sad story which brings trauma and takes away desire to live. I am sorry for Bartleby. He was clever, and he was intelligent! So, how could it happen that alive person behaves like a dead person? Such, of course, is an unusual example,...
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...“Bartleby the Scrivener” and “A Sorrowful Woman” reflect each other in a lot of ways. They have very similar plots and both thematically show that ‘untreated mental illness can lead to death as is the fate of both characters at the end of their individual stories. “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville is a story that depicts the journey of a man withdrawn from society and refusing to adhere to societal norms. He does not crack despite numerous attempts to breach his seemingly tough armor. Although by a different author and of different circumstances, the woman in “A Sorrowful Woman” by Gail Godwin also rejects societal norms. She is fed up with the roles that society that society has imposed on her and is at breaking point, unable to adhere to societal specifications for the ideal mother and wife anymore. Analogous to the woman in the story by Gail Godwin, Bartleby is also unable to meet the criteria for societal acceptance. In the story, “Bartleby the Scrivener”, Bartleby is marginalized by societal norms in that he is first of all defined by his outward appearance. Even before having any contact with Bartleby, his employer describes him as “pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, and incredibly forlorn”. All these traits are inferred simply from his looks, and as the saying goes, ‘First impressions matter the most’, so if his employer had already pegged him as wan, depressed, and melancholy even before having any interaction with him, it is no surprise that their relationship...
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